Unable to upgrade to Fedora 40 Silverblue - codecs issue

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1

I have 2 questions…

This is how I installed Fedora 38. Upgrading to 39 went smooth:

# Add RPM Fusion to allow for other apps to install, like AMD, INTEL or NVIDIA drivers
rpm-ostree install --apply-live https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

# Override the default codecs with the non-free codecs for full video playback support in all applications + ffmpeg support
rpm-ostree override remove libavcodec-free libavfilter-free libavutil-free libavformat-free libswscale-free libswresample-free libpostproc-free --install ffmpeg --install libavcodec-freeworld

# Install essential applications via RPM-OSTREE, apps/tools/extensions 
rpm-ostree install hunspell-$LANG wireguard-tools dconf-editor gnome-tweaks gnome-screenshot gnome-connections gnome-shell-extension-dash-to-panel.noarch gnome-shell-extension-appindicator.noarch gnome-shell-extension-drive-menu.noarch nemo nemo-extensions nemo-compare nemo-emblems nemo-fileroller nemo-image-converter nemo-search-helpers xed nextcloud-client

Now I want to upgrade to Fedora 40, via Software, but I get this error:

package libavdevice-free-6.1.1-14.fc40.x86_64 from @System requires libavcodec-free(x86-64) = 6.1.1-14.fc40, but none of the providers can be installed

This is the status:

package libavdevice-free-6.1.1-14.fc40.x86_64 from @System requires libavcodec-free(x86-64) = 6.1.1-14.fc40, but none of the providers can be installed

Googling I see some negativity about Silverblue/RPM-Ostree codec issues.
Also saw this [Silverblue] RPM Fusion codec instructions not working but don’t know if its exactly the same and this RPMFusion update conflicts on Silverblue - #14 by grumpey .

Now I am afraid I (and my mother, father, mother in law) will all run into unsolvable issues with the OS that I sold to them as very-secure-and-user-friendly-especially-easy-to-update. Since I don’t even know how to solve this.

So 2 questions:

  1. How to solve?
  2. How to prevent this from happening with every upgrade?
2

You likely also need to replace libavdevice-free with the one from RPM Fusion.

If you don’t want to have to do that manually on updates, I recommend looking at Universal Blue images.

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3

libavcodec-freeworld is an addition to the free codecs. You dont need to install it when installing ffmpeg.

And yes, you need to remove that package too

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4

Have you tested Silverblue yourself and a large version update to know for sure it was all that before providing it to others?

I don’t see the point of Silverblue for my usage, and seen more than enough horror stories (including this) of it and Atomic throwing oddities that regular Workstation doesn’t. I’d only be installing operating systems for others I’m familiar with and trust.

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5

I have been using it with much delight since version 37. Coming from (Windows and then) Ubuntu and then Manjaro, Silverblue is amazing. The others have waay more issues.
For example, Manjaro you can’t even add a plug & play printer without going to a forum and learning a crucial package is not included by default.

I will rebase to UBlue vanilla and forget about Silverblue. Too bad this is necessary. But it seems to be the way to go. All the gamers go for UBlue as well since “it just works” and you don’t need to dig through fora to get something basic to work.

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