(Beware, noob here !) Last time i run sudo apt full-upgrade its ends with an error :
reform-qcacld2-6.19.13-mnt-reform-arm64 : Depends: linux-image-6.19.13-mnt-reform-arm64 but it is not going to be installed
Error: Internal Error, AutoRemover broke stuff
i saw the same issue in a previous thread. I understood reform-qcacld2 should be removed (as stated by reform-check too).
So, my questions :
how can i find this file location ?
is it to be removed through ‘rm’ command or is there a specific one ?
reform-qcacld2 is a package, meaning you should remove it with your package manager and not manually, as the package manager keeps a database of what is installed or not and will end quite “confused” if something is in its database but not on the filesystem. This package is needed for the iMX8M and iMX8MP System On Module (SOM, the little processor/memory card under the heatsink that powers your reform computer) in order to use their WiFi chip.
If you are not using an iMX8M/iMX8MP board, or don’t plan to use one in the future, as reform-check told you, it is safe to remove this package with this command:
the package is gone (did it twice to be sure, the second being just a try), but apt full-upgrade fails with the same error. If I understand well this thread Problem apt upgrade Reform - #5 by josch it could be a problem with old kernel.
do i need to remove linux-image-6.19.13-mnt-reform-arm64 ?
If so, doing apt remove linux-image-6.19.13-mnt-reform-arm64 ?
if not, what can I do ? A purge-old-kernels ?
A reform-check output :
I: Contents of /proc/device-tree/model: MNT Reform 2 with RCORE-DSI RK3588 Module
I: uname -a output: Linux mnt1 7.0.12-mnt-reform-arm64 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 7.0.12-2+reform20260602T222813Z (2026-06-0 aarch64 GNU/Linux
I: Version of linux-image-mnt-reform-arm64: 7.0.12-2+reform20260602T222813Z
I: Version of reform-tools: 1.87-1+reform20260529T225830Z+1
I: Version of system image: System Image v5: 2026-04-18
I: Version of LPC firmware: MREF2LPC 30_R1 20250701
I: Version of upstream U-Boot: 2024.10
I: Version of MNT U-Boot: 2026-01-28
I: probably booting via /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf (/boot/boot.scr also exists)
I: Mount source of /: /dev/mmcblk0p2 (eMMC)
I: Mount source of /boot: /dev/mmcblk0p1 (eMMC)
I: Recommends of reform-desktop-minimal is not installed: reform-qcacld2
I: the following files differ from how they are shipped by reform-tools (ignore /var/lib/alsa/asound.state):
??5??? /var/lib/alsa/asound.state
I: Install the package shellcheck for checking /boot/boot.scr for problems
W: /boot/flash.bin doesn’t exist
W: You can download the latest version by running as root:
reform-flash-bootloader
I: eMMC contains the latest bootloader version 2026-01-28
network-manager-gnome has been a transitional package since Trixie (current Debian stable). The package is to be removed in the next Debian stable release, so all packages that depended on it (like reform-desktop-full) must drop the dependency and (if necessary) replace it by nm-connection-editor or network-manager-applet or both, as needed.
Probably because it’s the only packet whose name is understandable to me.
Anyway, thank you for your answers @josch and @lidstah. You are very helpfull.
I suppose the next step is to run sudo apt autoremove, confirming the changes this time ?
Yes. The packages that the autoremoval suggested to remove are either:
lib* packages which are shared libraries of old versions for which new versions are available and nothing depends on the old version anymore
network-manager-gnome which is an empty transitional package and is getting removed from Debian
linux-* packages which belong to an outdated kernel release which is getting cleaned up in favour of newer versions
If upgrades are scary for you (that’s absolutely understandable) then maybe Debian unstable isn’t for you. Sometimes things in Debian unstable break (hence the name) and maybe you want to use Debian stable (current release is called Trixie) instead?
Upgrade are not particularly scary for me but i’m pretty new to linux.
I thought unstable was the ‘regular’ source and that swapping to stable could be tricky. Aside of that i’m completly agnostic of wich debian flavor i could use.
Unstable is a development version, right ? I think i prefer stability over novelty. On the other hand i could learn more this way and people have to experience bugs In order to get them fixed (seasoned users are probably better inputs for this than newcomers like me).
Ok, i’ll take your suggestion into account.
You cannot (or rather you really should not) go from unstable to the current stable because that would mean you have to downgrade package versions and that’s not supported. But it would be easy to go from unstable to what will be stable with the next Debian release which will likely happen somewhere in the middle of 2027.
Yes, when I package a new version of some software I upload it to unstable.
Yes. On the one hand using unstable is risky because you will be the one who runs into bugs and then you have to report the bug. Depending on how bad the bug is, it can go all the way to “your whole system is wiped” even though this is very, very rare. But if nobody uses unstable, then nobody will find the bugs and then the next stable release will have those bugs that nobody found in them as you already said.
So this is a balancing act between how stable you want your computing experience to be versus how much you want to help make the next stable release a great experience for those who are only using stable.
Juste to be sure : unstable is ‘ahead’ of stable and that’s the reason why one must downgrade or wait for the new version of stable ? That’s not the same with a few newer pieces and rough edges…
I’ll wait for the new stable i think, but it’s always an option, i guess, to install a stable version from scratch (after a backup) ?
That’s correct. When I package a new version of a piece of software, I upload that version to “unstable”. From there, users of unstable will install the software and report bugs if they find them. If no critical bugs are found within a set time window (around 5 days) then the new version of my software will transition to another suite called “testing”. If a critical bug is found in a package in “testing” and it is not fixed, then the package will get removed from testing. The packages which are in “testing” will become the stable release around every two years and will then enjoy a 10+ years of stable maintenance.
Yes, you can install Debian Trixie with the Linux kernel and reform-tools backported to Trixie on your Reform today. I maintain such a repository on reform.debian.net.
), so I perfectly understand the feeling 
