salt: [BUG] [v3005.1] salt-ssh crashes when dependency importlib_metadata is at version >=5.0.0

Seeing this on Salt 3003.5 + Ubuntu 20.04 too:

root@ip-10-0-2-153:/home/ubuntu# salt-call --versions
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/salt-call", line 11, in <module>
    load_entry_point('salt==3003.5', 'console_scripts', 'salt-call')()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/salt/scripts.py", line 449, in salt_call
    client.run()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/salt/cli/call.py", line 22, in run
    self.parse_args()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/salt/utils/parsers.py", line 177, in parse_args
    self.print_versions_report()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/salt/utils/parsers.py", line 246, in print_versions_report
    print("\n".join(version.versions_report()), file=file, flush=True)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/salt/version.py", line 801, in versions_report
    ver_info = versions_information(
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/salt/version.py", line 791, in versions_information
    extensions_info = extensions_information()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/salt/version.py", line 767, in extensions_information
    for entry_point in salt.utils.entrypoints.iter_entry_points("salt.loader"):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/salt/utils/entrypoints.py", line 62, in iter_entry_points
    for entry_point_group, entry_points_list in entry_points.items():
AttributeError: 'EntryPoints' object has no attribute 'items'

Downgrading importlib_metadata:

root@ip-10-0-2-153:/home/ubuntu# pip3 install 'importlib_metadata==4.13.0'
Collecting importlib_metadata==4.13.0
  Downloading importlib_metadata-4.13.0-py3-none-any.whl (23 kB)
Requirement already satisfied: zipp>=0.5 in /usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages (from importlib_metadata==4.13.0) (3.9.0)
Installing collected packages: importlib_metadata
  Attempting uninstall: importlib_metadata
    Found existing installation: importlib-metadata 5.0.0
    Uninstalling importlib-metadata-5.0.0:
      Successfully uninstalled importlib-metadata-5.0.0
ERROR: pip's dependency resolver does not currently take into account all the packages that are installed. This behaviour is the source of the following dependency conflicts.
launchpadlib 1.10.13 requires testresources, which is not installed.
Successfully installed importlib_metadata-4.13.0
WARNING: Running pip as the 'root' user can result in broken permissions and conflicting behaviour with the system package manager. It is recommended to use a virtual environment instead: https://pip.pypa.io/warnings/venv

WARNING: Running pip as the ‘root’ user can result in broken permissions and conflicting behaviour with the system package

(I know, I know)

After downgrade:

root@ip-10-0-2-153:/home/ubuntu# salt-call --versions
Salt Version:
          Salt: 3003.5
 
Dependency Versions:
          cffi: 1.15.1
      cherrypy: Not Installed
      dateutil: 2.7.3
     docker-py: 4.1.0
         gitdb: Not Installed
     gitpython: Not Installed
        Jinja2: 2.10.1
       libgit2: Not Installed
      M2Crypto: Not Installed
          Mako: Not Installed
       msgpack: 0.6.2
  msgpack-pure: Not Installed
  mysql-python: Not Installed
     pycparser: 2.21
      pycrypto: Not Installed
  pycryptodome: 3.6.1
        pygit2: Not Installed
        Python: 3.8.10 (default, Mar 15 2022, 12:22:08)
  python-gnupg: 0.4.5
        PyYAML: 5.3.1
         PyZMQ: 18.1.1
         smmap: Not Installed
       timelib: Not Installed
       Tornado: 4.5.3
           ZMQ: 4.3.2
 
System Versions:
          dist: ubuntu 20.04 focal
        locale: utf-8
       machine: x86_64
       release: 5.11.0-1028-aws
        system: Linux
       version: Ubuntu 20.04 focal

I would welcome 3005.2

Since salt is broken and a fix is already merged, can you release a new hotfix/minor version?

@hartwork Sorry, I’ll backport the patches like suse did when I find the time 😃 Forgot this issue.