What is a package that's been kept back?

ernesto_cgf · 08-07-2006, 09:30 AM

While trying to upgrade, and after making "sudo apt-get update", I get this message

Code:

ernesto@antares:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-image-386
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.

What does this mean? Why it says "1 not upgraded"? Why doesn't it upgrade that one package? Is it because it is the kernel?

OTOH, I tried to do a "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" and it says

Code:

ernesto@antares:~$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  linux-image-2.6.15-26-386
The following packages will be upgraded:
  linux-image-386
1 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 21.7MB of archives.
After unpacking 62.2MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

Will this automatically upgrade my kernel? Does it have something to do with the previous message? Why will this use an additional 60+ mb of disk space? Will it replace my current kernel with the new one or the new kernel will be added? Will it be added to grub?

Sorry for all this questioning, but I would like to know what will happen to my system if I accept to continue.

binary_y2k2 · 08-07-2006, 10:18 AM

Well, it was kept back because it required a new package to be installed "linux-image-2.6.15-26-386" have a look at "man apt-get"
It won't replace the kernel you have it will install the next version, this is so you can have more than 1 kernel available to boot, like if one fails to boot you have another choice.
it will use 60+MB because of the kernel modules (accounts for about 50MB)
If you want to free up space after you can remove the old kernel image using

Code:

apt-get remove linux-image-2.6.15.25-386

if your current kernel is 2.6.15.25
do

Code:

uname -r

to find out.
You don't need to update grub as it will be done for you. All you have to do is install it.