When marking a package to isntall, it does not also mark the dependencies for installation. I've got pinning for wheezy so that I could upgrade my kernel since I needed the hardware drivers. Additional information is below. This has just started happening recently, I have no idea why this is happening, but apt, and aptitude both still mark dependencies for installation properly. APT sources ====================================== # deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.3 _Squeeze_ - Official amd64 CD Binary-1 20111008-14:36]/ squeeze main # deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.3 _Squeeze_ - Official amd64 CD Binary-1 20111008-14:36]/ squeeze main deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free # squeeze-updates, previously known as 'volatile' deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main deb http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main # MariaDB repository list - created 2011-10-15 02:17 UTC # http://downloads.askmonty.org/mariadb/repositories/ deb http://mirror.xenserv.net/MariaDB/repo/5.3/debian squeeze main deb-src http://mirror.xenserv.net/MariaDB/repo/5.3/debian squeeze main ======== my apt pinning preferences ======= Package: * Pin: release n=squeeze Pin-Priority: 900 Package: * Pin: release n=wheezy Pin-Priority: 800