Re: pkg/59891 (Lost XFCE and many primary packages with pkg upgrade when packages were "refreshed")

["John L. Males via gnats" <gnats-admin%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR pkg/59891; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: "John L. Males" <netbsd.open.source%softhome.ca@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost
Cc: 
Subject: Re: pkg/59891 (Lost XFCE and many primary packages with pkg upgrade
 when packages were "refreshed")
Date: Wed, 27 May 2026 16:56:14 +0000

 Hello,
 
 Please be advised as result of this bug I reported I no longer use,
 will use, or suggest  NetBSD be used.
 
 I did submit supporting information as requested for this bug
 shortly after requested that never was added to this bug report
 likely due to NetBSD bug system bug(s).
 
 Added to this never reported as consequence of this bug as severe
 bugs in NetBSD base I had been working on that this bug caused the
 months of tests and supporting data to be lost.  This was not a
 file system issue, but state loss of detailed NetBSD base related
 information that was lost from the extensive testing.  I would
 class such NetBSD base bugs I found not on purpose, but as result
 of normal use of NetBSD base that my extensive software
 engineering background that include Operating Systems made it
 extremely easy for me to identify the cause.  The fact it was a
 severe NetBSD base issue required me to ensure the issues were well
 documented and ensure issues could be duplicated with ease.  It was
 easy to duplicate the foundation issues, but takes weeks to
 test/document the consequence of the foundation issues of NetBSD
 base.  This bug lost months of data and testing effort to use to
 report the NetBSD base issues.
 
 There were severe install bugs of NetBSD that took me days to find
 how to prevent.  What I had to do to work around the NetBSD install
 bugs was very extreme and without doing so introduces completely
 random bugs that can result in data loss at some random point in
 future, be it few days to few months or more than year later.  These
 same very serious NetBSD install bugs also would cause many other
 serious NetBSD bugs that would be impossible to identify and
 duplicate outside of the affected specific NetBSD install.
 
 A clean NetBSD base install has serious basic bugs of own when the
 random related NetBSD bugs are avoided using extreme measures to
 prevent.
 
 There are a number of other basic and severe NetBSD bugs not related
 to NetBSD base that often are severity 1 bugs.  
 
 The bug reported by this issue is the final and clearly very basic
 reason I stopped using NetBSD.  Again due to response for
 information for this issue that places responsibility and risk to
 user to determine if bug is fixed is not acceptable in my
 opinion.  A very sad and concerning lack of confidence with
 respect to this bug.
 
 Overall very sad as despite the other bugs I had identified and
 working to document that takes alot of time to do so there are
 many elements done so well with NetBSD I was willing to take the
 time to document to report.  This bug caused a complete loss of
 confidence as never is my years of using many different OS
 ignoring Windows in my professional career.  I have used Unix as
 my personal OS since 1998, hence I am very familiar with many Unix
 variants.
 
 Given I stopped using NetBSD as result of this bug because I
 cannot trust the NetBSD package manager (never had package manage
 wipe out install packages to base in my 50+ years of using many many
 Operating Systems at same time including IBM Mainframe different
 Operating Systems (VM, MVS, OS/VS1, OS/MFT, Power/VSE, VSE, AIX, et
 al) and custom Operating Systems this issue should be closed.  I
 will never know nor willing to be lab test subject to determine if
 this issue is fixed nor willing to use NetBSD again to find this
 issue occurs or occurs worse than reported at some random point in
 future be it weeks or months on basis of "In the meantime, we have
 bumped packages to 2026Q1." that suggests the cause of this bug has
 not been identified, ergo not fixed. 
 
 
 John L. Males
 Toronto, Ontario
 Canada
 
 2026-05-27 15:55+0000 UTC eMail Start
 2026-05-27 16:56+0000 UTC
 2026-05-27 12:56-0400 EDT
 
 *****Not GPG/PG Signed*****
 
 
 
 On Date: Tue, 26 May 2026 18:18:32 +0000 (UTC)
 From: bsiegert%NetBSD.org@localhost
 To:
 pkg-manager%netbsd.org@localhost,pkgsrc-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost,gnats-admin%netbsd.org@localhost,bsiegert%NetBSD.org@localhost,netbsd.open.source%softhome.ca@localhost
 Cc: Subject: Re: pkg/59891 (Lost XFCE and many primary packages
 with pkg upgrade when packages were "refreshed")
 
 
 
 > Synopsis: Lost XFCE and many primary packages with pkg upgrade
 > when packages were "refreshed"
 > 
 > State-Changed-From-To: open->feedback
 > State-Changed-By: bsiegert%NetBSD.org@localhost
 > State-Changed-When: Tue, 26 May 2026 18:18:31 +0000
 > State-Changed-Why:
 > In the meantime, we have bumped packages to 2026Q1.
 > Is this still an issue?
 > 
 > 
 >