comp12345 makes an accurate diagnosis. I have found that most packages held back during a "upgrade" command are not present during a "dist-upgrade" command, for the very reason mentioned in his post. jon_k is also correct in saying that dist-upgrade can definitely cause some nasty issues if you don't take good precautions.
There are some important things to note before doing a dist-upgrade:
- Verify the apt components present in your sources.list. This is key. There is some good information
here on what components to leave out under most upgrade scenarios.
- Make use of the "Hold" option in your apt.conf file. Use this when there are some specific packages (like kernel upgrades) that you don't want to install, but you do need the component from which it is located.
After preparing the sources.list and apt.conf file, try the dist-upgrade command and if nothing else just see what it recommends. It won't actually download and install anything until you give it permission. Does it take care of your held back packages? Keep in mind that you often have to run dist-upgrade more than once to finally remove all held packages.
Read the
Hints section throughly.