Before I tried to upgrade to the new Ibex in ubuntu, a window popped up and said that 314 packages would be installed. It lists many of the packages that I had removed previously and don't want, like, compiz-fusion, kde, etc. I don't understand this. If I had removed many of these unwanted packages before, why will it install them? I don't want them installed.

How can I tell the Update Manager to keep certain unwanted packages from being downloaded and installed? Can it allow me the ability to download and install only the ones I want?

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Can't speak for specifics with Ubuntu, but some of those packages either are in the 'default' distribution, or are there to satisfy some dependency.

I agree, though, that a 'smart' upgrader would know that you don't have compiz installed, and not try to 'upgrade' it, but you can always remove them later.

Ubuntu devs added compiz to the default install..it keeps getting more and more like vista everyday.

tB0ne, i agree. I just don't understand why the developers aren;t smart enough to know this and correct his possible occurance for some users who decide to uninstall certain unwanted packages.

and j.todd, i agree with you too... it seems that the more the ubuntu developers make ubuntu less windows-like, the more it ends up being more windows-like. I can see ubuntu relegated to windows status in the near future because of this... good riddance.

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Yup, it is even getting slower too. Not as slow as Vista, but more bloated none the less:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...nch_2008&num=1
I have felt that Ubuntu was getting more bloated and resource intensive for some time now.

DavidX,
So how did the upgrade go anyway? Personally, I always do a clean install when upgrading Ubuntu. It is the best way to avoid problems imo. From what I have read in the Ubuntu forums, the dist-upgrade process seems to be getting better though.

How do you transfer your settings then? By backup/restore $HOME dir (and homes of other users if needed)? Or anything else?

If you are doing a complete reinstall you can tell it not to format the home directory and then all of your your settings woill be reserved.

As far as the packages are concerned you do have the option of not installing them by just checking the box beside the package you do want installed, but beware that if a package requires one of these it will not work.

Ubuntu is aimed at people not thinking about dependencies. Everything should just work or can work in one or two clicks. That's just the filosify of Ubuntu.

If you want more control just switch to Debian.

An answer to the original question,
that is, how to upgrade to Intrepid without the extra packages, is:
1. Change occurences of hardy to intrepid in /etc/apt/sources.list
2. do apt-get update; apt-get upgrade.
This is the "manual" way of upgrading the packages, and many people who test a "future" release of ubuntu before its ready can use the "future" version repositories to upgrade specific packages this way. Note that you may have to deal with some dependencies yourself.
An alternative to these apt-get lines is of course using synaptic and reloading repositories, then marking all upgrades.

Vermind, you said that I can upgrade to intrepid without the extra packages by changing occurances of hardy in /etc/apt/sources.list. I got 2 questions:

1) Will this procedure keep packages from being installed that I had uninstalled previously, like, compiz-fusion which I had uninstalled and don't want installed ever? I want it to install packages in the upgrade, but NOT the packages that I had uninstalled before.

2) How would I be able to do this procedure? Below is my /etc/apt/sources.list:

#
# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080422.2)]/ hardy main restricted
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy restricted main #Added by software-properties

# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Release i386 (20080422.2)]/ hardy main restricted
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy restricted main multiverse universe #Added by software-properties

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates restricted main multiverse universe #Added by software-properties

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security
## team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
# deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository. This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is
## offered by Canonical and the respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu
## users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner
# deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian sid main

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security restricted main multiverse universe #Added by software-properties
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security multiverse
deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free

## Wine, Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04):
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt hardy main
deb-src http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt hardy main


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Hello davidx,
In short, yes.
You will do a regular upgrade; the difference is, that the upgraded versions to consider are from Intrepid, not Hardy. I can't guarantee that sth unwanted will not be installed, as ubuntu-desktop or other virtual packages might have changed their dependencies in the next version. But for example for me kde was not installed, even with the regular update-manager upgrade to Intrepid.

To make sure that nothing untoward is being installed, you can do the upgrade step in synaptic, as I said in the previous post, and examine the full list of marked packages. You can also save the markings in synaptic from file - save markings to file.

To enable the Intrepid repositories, you basically do a search-replace of hardy with intrepid for /etc/apt/sources.list, like so:

You have:
Change that to:
So, the minimal required changes to sources.list are changing the repository name to intrepid in all the repositories. the url and the channels stay the same.

For comparison, here is what my update-manager seems to do (Looked at sources.list after "getting new packages" step had started in update manager while upgrading to intrepid)

Note: backports are enabled because i had enabled them before. You may not want to enable proposed or backports, since they may not be stable.

Vermind, your tip doesn't work. I changed all the 'hardy' to 'intrepid' in the sources.lst and then I tried the upgrade. When I was in the middle of the upgrade process, it said that such apps like, openoffice, rythmbox, bluetooth, compiz-fusion, etc. will be installed - the very same packages that I had uninstalled a long time ago and don't want back! In a nutshell, ubuntu SUCKS!

I really miss XP sooooo damn bad!

.

Perhaps you should try Debian then. Debian runs much lighter and faster that Ubuntu. Debian will not install compiz, or anything else, unless you want it to. A good place to start is the Debian Lenny beta 2 CD:
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
You will want the i386 version here:
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/le...2/i386/iso-cd/
You only need the 1st CD iso to install Debian. It is a text based install. If you have ever installed Ubuntu from the "alternate install" Cd, it is pretty much the same as that. Then some time after Lenny goes to stable, you can upgrade to "testing" if you want. Just change your sources.list from "lenny" to "testing" and do a dist-upgrade.
Debian will require you to more skilled at the command line than Ubuntu; but it will give you more control, and be faster too.
Here is a good beginner tutorial:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=13362

To get all the multimedia codecs for Debian, add the debian-multimedia repo to your sources.list:
http://debian-multimedia.org/
Learn how to use apt-get, aptitude, and apt-cache from the terminal. Read their man pages, or these links:
For apt-get:
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/
Aptitude is now the recommended package manager in Debian. To use it from the terminal, read this:
http://algebraicthunk.net/~dburrows/.../rn01re01.html

the package ubuntu-desktop or ubuntu-mobile depends on compiz and openoffice, so if you have that installed, upgrade will install compiz.

If You are upgrading using synaptic and not update manager, you have full control over applications to install. You choose "Mark all upgrades" and say yes, then go to the Marked Changes tab, and untick the programs you don't want to be installed.

What did you mean, in the middle of the upgrade process? with synaptic you click reload, then mark all changes, and at any point you can choose what to do; there is no "middle" (If I understood you correctly, this "middle" was a point where you can't go back).

Hi, vermind. What I mean by "middle" is, after editing my sources.lst, I hit the upgrade option in update manager and before I gave the update manager to upgrade, a window popped up telling me that 241 packages would be installed (among other info like, 400 or so packages will be upgrade, 23 packages will be removed).

But anyway, I will be uninstalling ubuntu - THANK GOD!!! - and will replace it with either XP again, or Vista. The only thing that's holding me back from installing the alternative o/s's is finding the drivers for my wireless connection, sound, etc.

At this time, it's fair to say that I had to walk on eggshells for ubuntu, which is not an experience I wish on my own worst enemy. For some idiotic reason, win '95 and XP are faster than ubuntu in terms of bootup, pdf and doc scrolling, and window management. It's a sad thing that ubuntu has met this fate in the face of such promise. Unfortunately, ubuntu sucks.... windows has won the war.

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