FOG 1.6.0-beta.2641 - Instalation on Debian 13

[Valer]

Hello everyone,

I am currently testing the FOG Project working-1.6 branch on a fresh installation of Debian 13 (Trixie) and encountered a fatal error during the installation script. I wanted to share the bug and a proposed fix.

The Issue

During the package installation phase, the installer fails with the following error:

Installing package: sysv-rc-conf............................Failed! (Will try later)
 ...
 sysv-rc-conf:amd64=0.99-10 is selected for install
 sysv-rc-conf:amd64 Depends on sysvinit-core

Because Debian 13 uses systemd, trying to install sysv-rc-conf forces the package manager to attempt installing sysvinit-core, which conflicts directly with systemd-sysv. The OS prevents this to avoid breaking the system, causing the FOG installation to halt.

The Cause

In /lib/ubuntu/config.sh, the variable sysvrcconf is hardcoded for all Debian versions:

bash
if [[ $linuxReleaseName_lower == +(*bian*) ]]; then
    sysvrcconf="sysv-rc-conf"

Proposed Fix

Since sysv-rc-conf is completely obsolete on modern Debian systems, we should exclude it for Debian 13 (and newer). I modified /lib/ubuntu/config.sh on my machine as follows, which allowed the installation to finish successfully:

if [[ $linuxReleaseName_lower == +(*bian*) ]]; then
    # Exclude sysv-rc-conf for Debian 13 and newer
    if [[ "$OSVersion" -ge 13 ]] 2>/dev/null; then
        sysvrcconf=""
    else
        sysvrcconf="sysv-rc-conf"
    fi
elif [[ $linuxReleaseName_lower == +(*ubuntu*|*mint*) ]]; then

I hope this helps anyone else trying to deploy FOG on the upcoming Debian releases, and perhaps this check could be merged into the repository for future compatibility.

Thanks for all the great work on FOG!

[Tom Elliott]

@Valer Thanks for the report and the writeup, that’s a good catch. You’re right about the cause. Debian 13 dropped the sysv-rc-conf package since it’s fully on systemd now, so the installer chokes trying to apt-get it. We never actually use that tool on a systemd system anyway, it only ever got called on the old non-systemd paths, so it was just dead weight on Trixie.

I pushed a fix to working-1.6. It leaves the package off the list on Debian 13 and up, and it also strips it out of a cached .fogsettings so an in-place upgrade doesn’t drag it back in. Older Debian keeps installing it like before so nothing changes there.

If you want to get moving before you pull the update, you can either grab the latest working-1.6 and rerun the installer, or just open /opt/fog/.fogsettings and delete sysv-rc-conf from the packages line, then run the installer again. Either one gets you past it.

Let me know if you hit anything else on Trixie.