nothing provides tl-expected

[robwoolley]

Describe the bug

The tl-expected recipe does not have files that get deployed to the runtime packages, but other packages have a generated ROS_EXEC_DEPENDS dependency on it.

These packages include control-toolbox, generate-parameter-library, parameter-traits, rsl, and joint-trajectory-control.

If one includes these packages in an image recipe, the do_rootfs task will fail due to the package manager complaining that it can't satisfy the package dependency on tl-expected.

Sample output:

ERROR: core-image-minimal-1.0-r0 do_rootfs: Unable to install packages. Command '/ala-lpggp31/rwoolley/sgl-spaceros-jazzy-2026.04.00/build/tmp-glibc/work/beaglev_fire-sgl-linux/core-image-minimal/1.0/recipe-sy
sroot-native/usr/bin/opkg --volatile-cache -f /ala-lpggp31/rwoolley/sgl-spaceros-jazzy-2026.04.00/build/tmp-glibc/work/beaglev_fire-sgl-linux/core-image-minimal/1.0/opkg.conf -t /ala-lpggp31/rwoolley/sgl-space
ros-jazzy-2026.04.00/build/tmp-glibc/work/beaglev_fire-sgl-linux/core-image-minimal/1.0/temp/ipktemp/ -o /ala-lpggp31/rwoolley/sgl-spaceros-jazzy-2026.04.00/build/tmp-glibc/work/beaglev_fire-sgl-linux/core-ima
ge-minimal/1.0/rootfs  --force_postinstall --prefer-arch-to-version   install packagegroup-core-boot packagegroup-spaceros-jazzy-world run-postinsts' returned 1:
 * Solver encountered 1 problem(s):
 * Problem 1/1:
 *   - package packagegroup-spaceros-jazzy-world-1.0-r0.all requires packagegroup-spaceros-jazzy-moveit2, but none of the providers can be installed
 *   - package packagegroup-spaceros-jazzy-moveit2-1.0-r0.all requires joint-trajectory-controller, but none of the providers can be installed
 *   - conflicting requests
 *   - nothing provides tl-expected needed by joint-trajectory-controller-4.40.0-r0.riscv64
 *
 * Solution 1:
 *   - do not ask to install a package providing packagegroup-spaceros-jazzy-world

 * opkg_finalize_intercepts: Failed to open dir /ala-lpggp31/rwoolley/sgl-spaceros-jazzy-2026.04.00/build/tmp-glibc/work/beaglev_fire-sgl-linux/core-image-minimal/1.0/temp/ipktemp//opkg-HtXxcu/opkg-intercept-o
bvfJE: No such file or directory.
 * rm_r: Failed to open dir /ala-lpggp31/rwoolley/sgl-spaceros-jazzy-2026.04.00/build/tmp-glibc/work/beaglev_fire-sgl-linux/core-image-minimal/1.0/temp/ipktemp//opkg-HtXxcu/opkg-intercept-obvfJE: No such file
or directory.

To Reproduce

Add the packages to IMAGE_INSTALL:append and build for bitbake -c build core-image-minimal

Expected behavior

It should not fail.

[robwoolley]

The fix used on meta-spaceros-jazzy 2026.04 on the scarthgap branch is to add this to the bbappends for each package:

ROS_EXEC_DEPENDS:remove = "tl-expected"

[robwoolley]

Adding ALLOW_EMPTY:${PN} = "1" as suggested by @chkohn may be a better solution. This has been used for similar situation (like with libeigen) where the package only supplies headers and no actual run-time files.

[jiaxshi]

Hi Rob,
Is tl-expected_1.3.1 expected to be used in jazzy distro?

[robwoolley]

Hi Rob, Is tl-expected_1.3.1 expected to be used in jazzy distro?

Yes, that version is what PickNik directs people to use for Jazzy (via the humble branch): https://github.com/PickNikRobotics/cpp_polyfills/

I could be persuaded to re-instate the vendor package for Humble and Jazzy, however given that it is being removed in Lyrical I thought it might be better to use the upstream version instead.