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Issue PHP TuxCare System Updates: ALT-PHP packages held back due to PHP-FPM dependency conflicts

TorbHo

Regular Pleskian
Server operating system version
Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS
Plesk version and microupdate number
18.0.81 Update #4
Hello everyone,

We are experiencing an issue with system package updates in Plesk on an Ubuntu 24.04 server.

Due to the PHP security vulnerability disclosed yesterday we would like to install the available security updates provided by TuxCare as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the dependency conflicts described below are currently preventing us from doing so.

Since this is a security-related matter, we would appreciate guidance on how to safely apply these updates without disrupting our hosted websites.

Under Tools & Settings → System Updates → All Packages, Plesk shows several available updates. However, when I select the packages and try to install them, Plesk reports:

All the selected packages are up-to-date.

Environment​

Investigation​

Running apt upgrade shows that numerous ALT-PHP packages are being held back.

A simulated distribution upgrade:

apt-get -s dist-upgrade
produces the following result:

148 upgraded, 2 newly installed,
6 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
The critical part is that APT wants to remove all installed ALT-PHP-FPM packages:

alt-php71-fpm
alt-php72-fpm
alt-php73-fpm
alt-php74-fpm
alt-php80-fpm
alt-php81-fpm

Identified dependency conflict​

For example, PHP 8.1 currently has the following package versions:

PackageInstalledAvailable
alt-php818.1.34-138.1.34-39
alt-php81-common8.1.34-138.1.34-39
alt-php81-fpm8.1.34-138.1.34-13
The installed alt-php81-fpm package has a strict dependency:

Depends: alt-php81-common (= 8.1.34-13)
However, the latest available alt-php81-common package is version 8.1.34-39.

There is no matching alt-php81-fpm version available in the configured repository.

As a result, APT cannot upgrade alt-php81-common while keeping the existing PHP-FPM package installed.

The same issue appears to affect PHP 7.1 through PHP 8.0.

Possible package naming change?​

I also noticed that PHP 5.6 uses a differently named FPM package:

alt-php56-php-fpm
Whereas PHP 7.1–8.1 use packages such as:

alt-php81-fpm
Could TuxCare have changed the naming convention or replaced the older FPM packages with packages named alt-phpXX-php-fpm?

Questions​

  1. Is this a known issue with the TuxCare ALT-PHP repository on Ubuntu 24.04?
  2. Have the ALT-PHP-FPM packages been renamed or replaced?
  3. Is there a supported migration procedure that preserves existing PHP-FPM configurations and Plesk integration?
  4. How can I safely install the available ALT-PHP security updates without removing the PHP-FPM handlers?
  5. Could this dependency conflict explain why Plesk System Updates reports that all selected packages are already up to date?
I have deliberately not executed dist-upgrade, since it would remove six installed PHP-FPM packages.

Any guidance from the Plesk team or other administrators using TuxCare ALT-PHP would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
 
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