I am using Debian testing. Whenever, I try to add or remove a package, I
keep getting a message that the following packages will be installed:

The following NEW packages will be installed
  aptitude-doc-en geoip-database libclass-accessor-perl libfont-afm-perl
  libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-template-perl libio-string-perl
  libmailtools-perl libparse-debianchangelog-perl libsub-name-perl liburi-perl
  libxml-namespacesupport-perl

If I accept installation of these, I then get a message that these packages
are not needed, and I have the option to autoremove them again.

This problem is recursive.

The problem does not occur on Debian Etch (stable), so I suspect that
changes implemented in testing are causing this.

Mark.

Hi Mark!
mmh. sid and testing have the same and i am not exposed to this
problem in unstable… looks like more like a environment specific thing.
Do you use the same settings in testing vs. etch ?
(or do you mean lenny? etch is oldstable)

Could you post the complete command you tried?
It would be also helpful to run apt with a few debug options:
Add to your apt-get command the following:
-s -o Debug::pkgProblemResolver=1 -o Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker=1 -o
Debug::pkgDepCache::AutoInstall=1

As the output will be quite verbose you maybe want to redirect
the output to a file, so you can easily attach it - and as a bonus
you should run it as normal user (-s = simulation).

The full command could e.g. look like:
apt-get dist-upgrade -s -o Debug::pkgProblemResolver=1 -o
Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker=1 -o Debug::pkgDepCache::AutoInstall=1 &>
/tmp/du.log
commands "apt-config dump" and "apt-cache policy".


Thanks for your report so far and
Best regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen,


David Kalnischkies

Oops! Sorry. I meant Lenny.

I was actually running it through dselect.

I would first select:

1: (U)pdate list of available packages

followed by:

3: (I)nstall and upgrade wanted packages

This would keep adding those packages to the list.

Right. I will have a look at those.

APT "";
APT::Architecture "i386";
APT::Build-Essential "";
APT::Build-Essential:: "build-essential";
APT::Install-Recommends "1";
APT::Install-Suggests "0";
APT::Acquire "";
APT::Acquire::Translation "environment";
APT::Authentication "";
APT::Authentication::TrustCDROM "true";
APT::NeverAutoRemove "";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-image.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-restricted-modules.*";
APT::Default-Release "stable";
APT::Cache-Limit "33554432";
Dir "/";
Dir::State "var/lib/apt/";
Dir::State::lists "lists/";
Dir::State::cdroms "cdroms.list";
Dir::State::userstatus "status.user";
Dir::State::status "/var/lib/dpkg/status";
Dir::Cache "var/cache/apt/";
Dir::Cache::archives "archives/";
Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache "srcpkgcache.bin";
Dir::Cache::pkgcache "pkgcache.bin";
Dir::Etc "etc/apt/";
Dir::Etc::sourcelist "sources.list";
Dir::Etc::sourceparts "sources.list.d";
Dir::Etc::vendorlist "vendors.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorparts "vendors.list.d";
Dir::Etc::main "apt.conf";
Dir::Etc::parts "apt.conf.d";
Dir::Etc::preferences "preferences";
Dir::Bin "";
Dir::Bin::methods "/usr/lib/apt/methods";
Dir::Bin::dpkg "/usr/bin/dpkg";
Dir::Log "var/log/apt";
Dir::Log::Terminal "term.log";
DPkg "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";

apt-cache policy

Package files:
 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     release a=now
  50 ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org unstable/non-free Packages
     release o=Debian,a=unstable,l=Debian,c=non-free
     origin ftp.uk.debian.org
  50 ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org unstable/contrib Packages
     release o=Debian,a=unstable,l=Debian,c=contrib
     origin ftp.uk.debian.org
  50 ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org unstable/main Packages
     release o=Debian,a=unstable,l=Debian,c=main
     origin ftp.uk.debian.org
  60 http://security.debian.org squeeze/updates/main Packages
     release v=None,o=Debian,a=testing,l=Debian-Security,c=main
     origin security.debian.org
  60 ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org squeeze/non-free Packages
     release o=Debian,a=testing,l=Debian,c=non-free
     origin ftp.uk.debian.org
  60 ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org squeeze/contrib Packages
     release o=Debian,a=testing,l=Debian,c=contrib
     origin ftp.uk.debian.org
  60 ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org squeeze/main Packages
     release o=Debian,a=testing,l=Debian,c=main
     origin ftp.uk.debian.org
Pinned packages:


Regards,

Mark.

Hi Mark Hobley,

2010/2/28 Mark Hobley <markhobley@yahoo.co.uk>:
I mean, if you have selected the packages for installation
they are selected until you undo the selection…?
(or install the selection of course)

You can list the selected status with e.g. dpkg -l pkg1 pkg2…
As the header will try to tell you is the first character the
status you selected and the second the status the package
currently has on the system, e.g. (truncated for readability)
$ dpkg -l apt apt-doc
ii  apt
in  apt-doc
tells me that i have apt installed and i also want it to be installed
and that i want to have apt-doc installed while it is currentlyand apt
not installed.

I guess all (or at least a few) packages that dselect wants
to install all the time have the status "in". (A not selected and
not installed package has the status "un" = unkown & not installed)


The alternative would be a bug in apt i currently can't find
which installs packages because they are a dependency of
another package apt want to install but changed his mind
later on because of some problems - i currently doubt it as
dselect seems to do the same dependency checking apt
would do…

Btw: Which APT version we are talking about?
Or in which state is your system in general?
The preferences indicate that you don't follow a specific
release, but cherrypick updates - automatically apt will
never suggest a single package update as all preferences
are below 100…


Best regards,

David Kalnischkies