Hi Guys,

I have noticed a strange behavior of my Debian Lenny 5 box.
When I install softwares with either "apt-get install" or "aptitude install" it always ask me to remove some components of my system that I am using or are very important for the system.

This is an example

I tried to install sshfs with "apt-get install sshfs"
Why is it asking to remove all those packages ? I know I have not been using Debian for a long time but it wasn't doing that before

caiman:/etc/apt# apt-get -t lenny-backports install sshfs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
bluez-gnome libmtp7 libgksu1.2-0 python-notify aspell libgda3-common
python-gnome2-extras libgksuui1.0-1 evolution-exchange rhythmbox
system-config-printer libgpod3 gnome-themes-extras python-eggtrayicon
gnome-spell python-4suite-xml libgda3-3 transmission-common libgdl-1-0
serpentine libopenobex1 transmission-gtk libgdl-1-common gnome-vfs-obexftp
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
fuse-utils libfuse2
The following NEW packages will be installed
fuse-utils libfuse2 sshfs
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 181kB of archives.
After this operation, 455kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

Now this is what I get when using "aptitude install sshfs". One should notice that with aptitude, I seem not to have a choice at all about removing thoses packages !!

Could anyone tell me what is happening and most of all, what can I do to not have this anymore? if there is anything to be done of course!! May I say that when I use Synaptic, I do not have that problem

caiman:/etc/apt# aptitude install sshfs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Writing extended state information... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
fuse-utils{a} libfuse2{a} sshfs
The following packages will be REMOVED:
aspell{u} bluez-gnome{u} evolution-exchange{u} gnome-spell{u}
gnome-themes-extras{u} gnome-vfs-obexftp{u} libgda3-3{u}
libgda3-common{u} libgdl-1-0{u} libgdl-1-common{u} libgksu1.2-0{u}
libgksuui1.0-1{u} libgpod3{u} libmtp7{u} libopenobex1{u}
python-4suite-xml{u} python-eggtrayicon{u} python-gnome2-extras{u}
python-notify{u} rhythmbox{u} serpentine{u} system-config-printer{u}
transmission-common{u} transmission-gtk{u}
0 packages upgraded, 3 newly installed, 24 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 181kB of archives. After unpacking 61.5MB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]

Well, if you look at the packages, apt-get is not going to remove anyAptitude may be wanting to remove them because it had marked those packages as dependencies that were automatically installed for something that has been removed from the system (i.e. this is totally unrelated to sshfs). Did you recently remove something or do a dist-upgrade?

Also, do you mix and match how you install stuff by using apt-get sometimes, aptitude sometimes, and synaptic sometimes? I've heard this is a problem and you should really stick with one tool for all your installation stuff.

I do mix and match actually.
I didn't recently removed something nor did I do a dist-upgrade.
It is a fresh install.
That is really weird because I do not recall at all that aptitude used to work like that. It is actually dangerous because I used aptitude last day to install a software and I ended up removing gnome (no less). I did not read at all the whole screen I redid my installation from scratch but then it started again.
apt-get is more subtle as it asks you for permission to remove those files.
I guess the question I have is on what basis is aptitude working to want to delete those specific files ? If, for example, I use aptitude to install another software, aptitude will decide to remove different type system softwares. On what basis it is doing that ?

Riganta

Here's a link that explains it a little bit. It's a actually a comment to an article. Looks like you can remedy the situation in aptitude by using the console gui and marking those packages as "keep". From now on, you should pick one tool and stick with it though. If used from the get go, I prefer aptitude over apt-get because it doesn't leave as much cruft on the system when you uninstall stuff.

Thank you pljvaldez. That is all I needed to understand how aptitude was working.

It's not weird at all.Aptitude and APT are doing what they are supposed to do.The problem is that they want to download and install newest versions of software and that's because you're using backports repo/s and packages in that repo are from testing and sid.Also,
When you used command it's like you've said to apt-get to not do anything but install that package and it's dependencies,that's why there was but when you used there was because aptitude wanted to remove all conflicts because of dependencies issues.To solve your problem you need to know how APT and aptitude work and why is not a good idea to mix packages from stable,testing and unstable if you're not sure what you're doing.

Got you there...
I do understand that the mixing between stable, testing, and unstable is not something I want to do. Sometimes though, you have no choice because you need the most recent version of softwares. In my case for example, I defenitely need the latest of the java and flash.
Would that make my system unstable ?
Since I am using pining in my /etc/apt/preferences file, could I say that I am keeping my system stable that way ? Or at least limiting disruption from its original state ?

Here is an output of my /etc/apt/preferences

Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 800

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 700

Package: sun-jav6-bin
Pin: release a=lenny-backports
Pin-Priority: 999

I have actually edited my /etc/apt/preferences file. I did a little read of "apt_preference" and if I understood well, that should allow me to remain with a stable version.

Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian
Pin-Priority: -10

Package: sun-jav6-bin
Pin: release a=lenny-backports
Pin-Priority: 999

Maybe you should install packages which are not from the stable repos manually and disable/remove backports.
I suggest that you read this and this.