iptables and ebtables missing 'alternatives' dependency in Photon 5 GA repo

[knabben]

Summary

Packages iptables and ebtables in the Photon 5 package repository have introduced a dependency on the alternatives package that is not satisfied when using a minimal installation.

Affected packages

• iptables-1.8.13-2.ph5.x86_64
• ebtables-2.0.11-4.ph5.x86_64

Error observed

When running tdnf install or tdnf distro-sync on a minimal Photon 5 installation (e.g. via the photon-minimal ISO), the following error occurs:

1. package iptables-1.8.13-2.ph5.x86_64 requires alternatives, but none of the providers can be installed
Found 1 problem(s) while resolving
Error(1301) : Solv general runtime error

and/or:

1. package ebtables-2.0.11-4.ph5.x86_64 requires alternatives, but none of the providers can be installed
Found 1 problem(s) while resolving
Error(1301) : Solv general runtime error

Steps to reproduce

1. Boot from the photon-minimal-5.0-dde71ec57.x86_64.iso (GA ISO)
2. Install a minimal set of packages (without alternatives)
3. Run tdnf install iptables ebtables -y or tdnf distro-sync -y --refresh

Expected behavior

iptables and ebtables should either bundle alternatives as an explicit dependency in their RPM spec, or the photon-minimal ISO should include alternatives by default.

Workaround

Explicitly install alternatives before installing iptables/ebtables:

tdnf install alternatives -y

Context

Discovered while building CAPI node images using kubernetes-sigs/image-builder against the Photon 5 GA repo.

[dcasota]

@bhllamoreaux A bump release could be helpful for commit 9eb6874, and it may also be beneficial for the photon-upgrade packages.

  ┌────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │ Branch │                        File                         │                                                                   Change                                                                   │
  ├────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │ 5.0    │ SPECS/alternatives/alternatives.spec                │ Add Provides: chkconfig = 1.32-3%{?dist} + Obsoletes: chkconfig <= 1.31, drop Conflicts: chkconfig                                         │
  │        │                                                     │                                                                                                                                            │
  │        │                                                     │       Version:    1.32                                                                                                                     │ 
  │        │                                                     │       -Release:    2%{?dist}                                                                                                               │ 
  │        │                                                     │       +Release:    3%{?dist}                                                                                                               │ 
  │        │                                                     │        …                                                                                                                                   │ 
  │        │                                                     │       -Conflicts:  chkconfig                                                                                                               │ 
  │        │                                                     │       +Provides:   chkconfig = 1.32-3%{?dist}                                                                                              │ 
  │        │                                                     │       +Obsoletes:  chkconfig <= 1.31                                                                                                       │ 
  │        │                                                     │                                                                                                                                            │ 
  ├────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │ 5.0    │ SPECS/photon-upgrade/ph5-to-ph6-deprecated-pkgs.txt │ Add chkconfig (and consider replaced_pkgs_map[chkconfig]="alternatives" if the ph5→ph6 script has the same map structure — worth           │
  │        │                                                     │ verifying)                                                                                                                                 │
  ├────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │ 4.0    │ SPECS/photon-upgrade/ph4-to-ph5-upgrade.sh          │ Add [chkconfig]="alternatives" to replaced_pkgs_map                                                                                        │
  ├────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │ 4.0    │ SPECS/photon-upgrade/ph4-to-ph5-deprecated-pkgs.txt │ (Optional) defense-in-depth — only valid alongside the replaced_pkgs_map entry                                                             │
  └────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

@knabben great find! This looks easily fixable. For image-builder users, have you considered changing vmware-photon.yml ? The following file vmware-photon.yml runs on all photon targets and is placed before the 'Install cloud-init and tools' task so the swap completes before any tdnf install commands. Encouraging people to use Photon OS with image-builder could benefit from adding "alternatives" to the packages array under images/capi/packer/:

• ova/linux/photon/http/5/ks.json.tmpl ← already in PR #1989
• raw/linux/photon/http/5/*.tmpl (when present)
• qemu/linux/photon/http/5/*.tmpl (when present)
• any future 5-secure/, ARM64 variants

Hope this helps.

[tapakund]

@bhllamoreaux can you take a look?

[sshedi]

Please try setting enabled=1 in /etc/yum.repos.d/photon.repo and retry the same operation.
Or tdnf install iptables ebtables -y --enablerepo=photon