Basically the same kind of failure as the last several times I did updates.
This time f16->f17. Used preupgrade.
It seems to have all gone wrong when cpio failed, because a python package had
been installed using pip into the (default) system dirs. The conflict IIRC
happens because pip installs a dir where cpio expects a file (or vice-versa).
I've since learned to use pip install --user instead - but there was still a
leftover package.
I was happy (temporarily) to see that I could still reboot the machine. Remove
the offending package.
Then IIRC I restarted the upgrade. It seemed to complete OK. I was pleased to
see it appear to continue from where it left off.
On reboot, I found a huge mess. Duplicate packages (f16/f17) all over.
So,
1) Could I have actually recovered from this mess without a complete re-install?
2) Can't we make the install fail more gracefully?
3) Would it be possible to continue an failed install, and have it actually
work?
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