removing wslview from Ubuntu-only computers?

[Keith]

On 4/3/23 10:39 AM, M. Fioretti wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 03, 2023 16:58:27 PM +0200, Oliver Grawert wrote:
> 
>> people that do not remove the firefox deb from their installation will
>> simply not hit such issues and people that *do* remove it are somewhat
>> expected to have inspected what they are removing and that they have
>> the in-depth technical knowledge about it ...
> 
> HUH???
> 
> I did NOT remove anything to find myself in the absurd situation I
> discovered when I started this thread.

It's easy enough to verify.

$ apt list firefox
firefox/jammy 1:1snap1-0ubuntu2 amd64 [installed]

If you get another result, then something you did removed the original. 
It was either removed manually, or you installed another firefox package 
that replaced it, one that didn't have "www-browser" in a Provides: 
field. Apt installing wslu didn't just happen arbitrarily.

Likely scenario:
Default installed Firefox deb -> Provides: www-browser

Removed or replaced default Firefox deb -> No installed package with 
Provides: www-browser

Install a package with a dependency on www-browser -> Apt installs wslu 
because it provides www-browser (Provides: www-browser) to satisfy that 
dependency.

Wslu was selected by apt because of an algorithm it uses to choose the 
"best" normal package to satisfy a dependency on a virtual package. 
Currently there are 23 other packages in jammy that provides 
www-browser, but unfortunately wslu met the criteria that apt used to 
decide what www-browser supplying package to install. What you're 
running into is a deficiency in apt which has been there from the 
beginning. Short of a debconf prompt to ask the user which www-browser 
providing package to install, apt might just choose one that is 
unsuitable which is exactly what happened here.

But in general this has little to do Firefox being supplied as a snap 
package. Removing or replacing the default installed Firefox deb just 
highlighted the problem.  You can potentially run into the same issue 
with replacing any distro-supplied package that provides a virtual 
package dependency with a 3rd party one that doesn't. In which case, apt 
going to do its best to find a package that satisfies the virtual 
package dependency and install it. Sometimes it chooses a package that 
sucks.

You're hedge against apt's sucky choice is to install a package you 
choose that provides www-browser if you're going to remove the firefox 
deb package.

$ apt-cache search www-browser --names-only

-- 
Keith