Upgrade from 22 to 24 failing with packages conflicts

[vfdev-5]

I'm following this guide: https://system76.com/support/articles/upgrade-pop and the section "Terminal Upgrade".

I run the following commands:

sudo apt update
  ...
  All packages are up to date.
sudo apt full-upgrade
  ...
  0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

pop-upgrade recovery upgrade from-release

checking if pop-upgrade requires an update
Recovery event: fetching recovery files
Fetched 2596/2624 MiB
Recovery event: verifying checksums of fetched files
Recovery event: syncing recovery files with recovery partition
Recovery event: recovery partition upgrade completed
Recovery upgrade status: recovery partition refueled and ready to go


pop-upgrade release upgrade

checking if pop-upgrade requires an update
Current Release: 22.04
Upgrading to: 24.04
New version available: 24
Recovery event: fetching recovery files
Fetched 3009/3009 MiB
Recovery event: verifying checksums of fetched files
Recovery event: syncing recovery files with recovery partition
Recovery event: recovery partition upgrade completed
Recovery upgrade status: recovery partition refueled and ready to go
Event: updating package lists
Event: upgrading packages for the current release
Event: fetching updated packages for the current release
Event: removing deprecated and/or conflicting packages
Release upgrade status: release upgrade aborted: conflicting and/or deprecated packages could not be removed

The last command pop-upgrade release upgrade gives the following error, revealed with the command:

journalctl -u pop-upgrade | tail -n 200

Logs

ay 28 10:16:41 userpc pop-upgrade[38112]: pop-upgrade set on hold.
May 28 10:16:41 userpc pop-upgrade[38112]: pop-system-updater set on hold.
May 28 10:16:42 userpc pop-upgrade[38120]: Hit:1 http://apt.pop-os.org/proprietary jammy InRelease
May 28 10:16:42 userpc pop-upgrade[38120]: Hit:2 http://apt.pop-os.org/release jammy InRelease
May 28 10:16:42 userpc pop-upgrade[38120]: Hit:3 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy InRelease
May 28 10:16:43 userpc pop-upgrade[38120]: Hit:4 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease
May 28 10:16:43 userpc pop-upgrade[38120]: Hit:5 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease
May 28 10:16:43 userpc pop-upgrade[38120]: Hit:6 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease
May 28 10:16:44 userpc pop-upgrade[38120]: Reading package lists...
May 28 10:16:44 userpc pop-upgrade[38324]: Reading package lists...
May 28 10:16:44 userpc pop-upgrade[38324]: Building dependency tree...
May 28 10:16:44 userpc pop-upgrade[38324]: Reading state information...
May 28 10:16:44 userpc pop-upgrade[38324]: 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
May 28 10:16:44 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] repair/packaging.rs:80: ensuring prerequisites are installed
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] repair/packaging.rs:98: installing required prerequisites: []
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[38335]: Reading package lists...
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[38335]: Building dependency tree...
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[38335]: Reading state information...
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[38335]: 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[38338]: dpkg-query: no packages found matching openrazer-driver-dkms
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/mod.rs:452: creating backup of source lists
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:66: removing old backup at /etc/apt/sources.list.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:66: removing old backup at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:66: removing old backup at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antigravity.list.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:66: removing old backup at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/system.sources.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:66: removing old backup at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:66: removing old backup at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pop-os-apps.sources.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:66: removing old backup at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pop-os-release.sources.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:66: removing old backup at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu2404.list.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:77: creating backup of /etc/apt/sources.list to /etc/apt/sources.list.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:77: creating backup of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/system.sources to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/system.sources.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:77: creating backup of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:77: creating backup of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pop-os-apps.sources to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pop-os-apps.sources.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:77: creating backup of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:77: creating backup of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antigravity.list to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antigravity.list.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:77: creating backup of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu2404.list to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu2404.list.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:77: creating backup of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pop-os-release.sources to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pop-os-release.sources.save
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/mod.rs:618: disabling third party sources
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:113: disabling sources in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:113: disabling sources in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:113: disabling sources in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antigravity.list
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:113: disabling sources in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu2404.list
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/repos.rs:287: creating source repository files for impish+
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [DEBUG] daemon/mod.rs:867: Sending DBus Event: ReleaseUpgradeEvent(
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]:     UpdatingPackageLists,
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: )
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] daemon/mod.rs:874: release upgrade: updating package lists
May 28 10:16:45 userpc pop-upgrade[38339]: Hit:1 http://apt.pop-os.org/proprietary jammy InRelease
May 28 10:16:46 userpc pop-upgrade[38339]: Hit:2 http://apt.pop-os.org/release jammy InRelease
May 28 10:16:46 userpc pop-upgrade[38339]: Hit:3 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy InRelease
May 28 10:16:46 userpc pop-upgrade[38339]: Hit:4 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease
May 28 10:16:46 userpc pop-upgrade[38339]: Hit:5 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease
May 28 10:16:47 userpc pop-upgrade[38339]: Hit:6 http://apt.pop-os.org/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease
May 28 10:16:48 userpc pop-upgrade[38339]: Reading package lists...
May 28 10:16:48 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [DEBUG] daemon/mod.rs:867: Sending DBus Event: ReleaseUpgradeEvent(
May 28 10:16:48 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]:     UpgradingPackages,
May 28 10:16:48 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: )
May 28 10:16:48 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] daemon/mod.rs:874: release upgrade: upgrading packages for the current release
May 28 10:16:48 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/mod.rs:384: autoremoving packages
May 28 10:16:48 userpc pop-upgrade[38549]: Reading package lists...
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[38549]: Building dependency tree...
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[38549]: Reading state information...
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [DEBUG] daemon/mod.rs:867: Sending DBus Event: ReleaseUpgradeEvent(
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]:     FetchingPackages,
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: )
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] daemon/mod.rs:874: release upgrade: fetching updated packages for the current release
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[38549]: 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/mod.rs:373: upgrading packages
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/mod.rs:413: autoremoving packages
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[38555]: Reading package lists...
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[38555]: Building dependency tree...
May 28 10:16:49 userpc pop-upgrade[38555]: Reading state information...
May 28 10:16:50 userpc pop-upgrade[38555]: 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
May 28 10:16:50 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/mod.rs:524: searching for packages that require downgrading
May 28 10:16:51 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] release/mod.rs:592: downgrading packages with: DEBIAN_FRONTEND="noninteractive" LANG="C" "apt-get" "--allow-downgrades" "-y" "install"
May 28 10:16:51 userpc pop-upgrade[38567]: Reading package lists...
May 28 10:16:51 userpc pop-upgrade[38567]: Building dependency tree...
May 28 10:16:51 userpc pop-upgrade[38567]: Reading state information...
May 28 10:16:51 userpc pop-upgrade[38567]: 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
May 28 10:16:51 userpc pop-upgrade[38570]: dpkg-query: no packages found matching libwacom-common-surface
May 28 10:16:51 userpc pop-upgrade[38570]: dpkg-query: no packages found matching libwacom9-surface
May 28 10:16:51 userpc pop-upgrade[38571]: dpkg-query: no packages found matching irqbalance
May 28 10:16:51 userpc pop-upgrade[38571]: dpkg-query: no packages found matching ureadahead
May 28 10:16:51 userpc pop-upgrade[38571]: dpkg-query: no packages found matching backport-iwlwifi-dkms
May 28 10:16:51 userpc pop-upgrade[38571]: dpkg-query: no packages found matching nodejs
May 28 10:16:52 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]: Reading package lists...
May 28 10:16:52 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]: Building dependency tree...
May 28 10:16:52 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [DEBUG] daemon/mod.rs:867: Sending DBus Event: ReleaseUpgradeEvent(
May 28 10:16:52 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]:     RemovingConflicts,
May 28 10:16:52 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: )
May 28 10:16:52 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] daemon/mod.rs:874: release upgrade: removing deprecated and/or conflicting packages
May 28 10:16:52 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]: Reading state information...
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]: Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]: requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]: distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]: or been moved out of Incoming.
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]: The following information may help to resolve the situation:
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]: The following packages have unmet dependencies:
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:  apt : Depends: libgnutls30 (>= 3.7.0)
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:  init : PreDepends: systemd-sysv
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:  pop-container-runtime : Depends: libgnutls30
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                          Depends: libhogweed6 but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                          Depends: libnettle8
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:  pop-default-settings : Depends: gnupg but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                         Depends: plymouth-theme-pop-basic but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                         Depends: python3-repolib (> 1.3.9) but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:  pop-desktop : PreDepends: pop-de-gnome but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Depends: flatpak but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Depends: glib-networking but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Depends: ghostscript-x but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Depends: gvfs-backends
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Depends: ibus-table but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Depends: libcanberra-gtk-module but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Depends: xdg-user-dirs-gtk but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: touchegg but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: pop-shop but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: pop-transition but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: popsicle-gtk but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: ibus-table-emoji but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: libreoffice-calc but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: libreoffice-impress but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: libreoffice-writer but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: file-roller but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: com.github.donadigo.eddy but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: libreoffice-ogltrans
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: network-manager-config-connectivity-pop but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                Recommends: sessioninstaller but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:  pop-server : Depends: bluez-cups but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:               Depends: cups-bsd
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:               Depends: cups but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:               Depends: fwupd but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:               Depends: fwupdate
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:               Depends: libblockdev-crypto2 but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:               Depends: systemd-sysv
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:               Depends: systemd-resolvconf but it is not going to be installed or
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:                        resolvconf
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:               Depends: dbus-user-session
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:               Depends: network-manager but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:               Recommends: brltty but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:               Recommends: dbus-broker
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:  pop-system-updater : Depends: libcurl4 but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]:  pop-upgrade : Depends: pop-plymouth-theme but it is not going to be installed
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38581]: E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] daemon/mod.rs:362: upgrade result: Err(ConflictRemoval(conflict removal
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: Caused by:
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]:     status is unknown: exit status: 100))
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[38584]: Canceled hold on pop-upgrade.
May 28 10:16:53 userpc pop-upgrade[34136]: [INFO ] daemon/mod.rs:366: setting upgrade state

It is unclear to me what can I do in this situation. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[p-dim-popov]

Disclosure — AI-assisted. The diagnosis below and this write-up were
produced by an AI coding agent (Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic, via Claude Code)
working on my machine at my direction. I hit this on a real 22.04 → 24.04
upgrade; every command was run on my own system and the recovery is verified
end-to-end (I'm posting this from the resulting 24.04/COSMIC install). I have
not independently audited the packaging analysis beyond reproducing the
commands shown. Verify before trusting. Happy to run further diagnostics.

I hit exactly this and traced it to two independent bugs that compound.

Bug 1 — pop-upgrade cannot plan the GNOME → COSMIC metapackage swap

This is the pkgProblemResolver error in the original report:

pop-desktop : PreDepends: pop-de-gnome but it is not going to be installed
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.

pop-desktop 2.0.0 (jammy) pre-depends on pop-de-gnome, which has no noble
version. pop-desktop 3.0.0 (noble) pre-depends on pop-de-cosmic. The resolver
must remove one and install the other; pop-upgrade's constrained resolver can't
find that path. It fails, systemd restarts the daemon, it fails again — I watched
it crash-loop five times.

Plain apt has no difficulty. With sources already on noble:

$ apt-get -s full-upgrade
1593 upgraded, 509 newly installed, 11 downgraded, 132 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Zero unresolved. The transition is sound; only pop-upgrade's planner fails.

Separate concern: the UI reports success over failure

While the daemon was crash-looping, pop-upgrade release upgrade printed:

Release upgrade status: systems are go for launch: reboot now

and Settings showed a green "Restart & Install" button. /system-update was
never created, so nothing was staged. Clicking it produced:

failed to finalize release upgrade: calling ReleaseUpgradeFinalize method failed:
release upgrade cannot be finalized, because a release upgrade was not performed

That failed safely — but a user acting on "systems are go for launch" has no way
to know the upgrade never planned. Checking for /system-update was the only
reliable signal I found. Worth surfacing the daemon's failure in the GUI.

Bug 2 — file conflicts in pipewire packaging (what actually kills the upgrade)

Once apt is driving, it dies here:

dpkg: error processing archive .../libspa-0.2-modules_1.5.85-...~24.04~601113b_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/spa-0.2/avb/libspa-avb.so',
 which is also in package libspa-0.2-avb:amd64 1.0.2~1707732619~22.04~b8b871b
dpkg-deb: error: paste subprocess was killed by signal (Broken pipe)

The Broken pipe line is a red herring — the archive is fine. master_noble of
pop-os/pipewire drops libspa-0.2-avb, pipewire-avb and pipewire-aes67,
moving their files into libspa-0.2-modules and pipewire-bin, but neither
declares Replaces:/Breaks: for them. (The libpipewire-0.3-0 → t64 rename in
the same debian/control is handled correctly.)

Filed separately: pop-os/pipewire#86

Verified recovery

Took me from 2022 broken packages to 0, on the machine I'm typing this from.

From a TTY (Ctrl+Alt+F3, log in) — the transition swaps libc6, libssl3
and libglib2.0-0 under running processes, so the desktop must be stopped:

# 1. Let pop-upgrade do the prep: rewrite sources, strip PPAs, fetch packages.
#    It WILL fail on pop-de-gnome. DO NOT REBOOT.
sudo pop-upgrade release upgrade

# 2. Stop the desktop and the crash-looping daemon (it fights apt for the dpkg lock)
sudo systemctl stop gdm3
sudo systemctl mask pop-upgrade.service

# 3. Remove the orphaned AVB/AES67 packages causing the file conflicts.
#    Check first: no noble candidate, nothing depends on them.
apt-cache policy libspa-0.2-avb pipewire-avb pipewire-aes67
apt-cache rdepends --installed libspa-0.2-avb
sudo dpkg --remove --force-depends pipewire-avb pipewire-aes67 libspa-0.2-avb

# 4. Let apt finish the release upgrade
sudo apt --fix-broken install
sudo apt full-upgrade

# 5. Boot artifacts. NOTE: Pop uses systemd-boot, NOT grub. Never update-grub.
sudo apt autoremove
sudo update-initramfs -u -k all
sudo kernelstub
sudo systemctl unmask pop-upgrade.service
sudo reboot

If you already ran apt full-upgrade and it aborted mid-transaction

apt deadlocks: --fix-broken says Unable to correct dependencies, and
full-upgrade says to run --fix-broken. The .debs are all cached, so drive
dpkg directly:

sudo dpkg --force-confold --auto-deconfigure --abort-after=99999 -i /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb
sudo dpkg --configure -a --abort-after=99999
sudo apt --fix-broken install
sudo apt full-upgrade

Both flags are load-bearing:

• --auto-deconfigure — without it dpkg refuses on Breaks: relationships. (It
  says so and names the flag; it took me three tries to read it.)
• --abort-after=99999 — dpkg stops after 50 errors by default
  (Processing was halted because there were too many errors), leaving everything
  unpacked and nothing configured. My broken count went 41 → 2022 because of this
  and looked catastrophic. It wasn't.

Pre-Depends errors during a bulk dpkg -i are normal and convergent — a
pre-dependency must be configured before its dependent can be unpacked, so
repeated passes make progress. Diagnose safely with dpkg --no-act -i ... first.

Result: Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS, COSMIC, 0 broken packages, NVIDIA 580.159.03 and DKMS
modules intact, no reinstall.

Two things that made this worse than it needed to be

pop-upgrade's prep phase is destructive before any confirmation. While the GUI
said "Downloading Pop!_OS 24.04", it had already removed 72 packages (Docker,
Brave, my VM stack, and the running kernel's /boot image), downgraded Chrome,
deleted my third-party repo files, and rewritten sources to noble. It does back
them up as .save files, and that's how I reverted cleanly the first time — but
"Downloading" is a misleading label for "removing your software."

No recovery partition on a dual-boot install. pop-upgrade recovery upgrade from-release is step 3 of the official upgrade guide,
but my machine has none (the NTFS partition labelled "Recovery" is Windows'). The
GUI upgrade path never mentions this. Anyone in that situation should make a USB
before starting — release refresh is not available to them.

System

• Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS → 24.04 LTS, NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti (580.159.03, DKMS), kernel 7.0.11
• systemd-boot / kernelstub, dual-boot with Windows, no Pop recovery partition
• 6 third-party repos before the upgrade (Docker, Brave, Chrome, Element,
  dbeaver PPA, hurl PPA) — all stripped by pop-upgrade's prep, as documented