apt-get dist-upgrade does not upgrade some packages, only manual dist-upgrade possible by adding affected package to command line

[Juozas Pocius]

Trying to use apt dist-upgrade mode to upgrade some packages results in such packages not upgraded. Some packages can be manually upgraded w/o problem (adding package name to dist-upgrade command line), others result in dependency error only solved by upgrading every other package that other package depends on which is annoying. Considering an expample below, it shows a wrong behavior and does not upgrade properly when it is expected to do that.

juozas@xubuntu:~$ export LC_ALL=C
juozas@xubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get --no-install-recommends dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  linux-headers-5.15.0-46 linux-headers-5.15.0-46-generic linux-image-5.15.0-46-generic linux-modules-5.15.0-46-generic linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-46-generic
  linux-tools-5.15.0-46 linux-tools-5.15.0-46-generic
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages have been kept back:
  fonts-opensymbol libreoffice libreoffice-base libreoffice-base-core libreoffice-base-drivers libreoffice-calc libreoffice-common libreoffice-core
  libreoffice-draw libreoffice-gtk libreoffice-gtk2 libreoffice-gtk3 libreoffice-help-common libreoffice-help-en-gb libreoffice-help-en-us libreoffice-impress
  libreoffice-l10n-en-gb libreoffice-l10n-en-za libreoffice-l10n-lt libreoffice-math libreoffice-report-builder-bin libreoffice-style-colibre libreoffice-writer
  libuno-cppu3 libuno-cppuhelpergcc3-3 libuno-purpenvhelpergcc3-3 libuno-sal3 libuno-salhelpergcc3-3 python3-uno uno-libs-private ure
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 31 not upgraded.
juozas@xubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get --no-install-recommends dist-upgrade fonts-opensymbol
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  linux-headers-5.15.0-46 linux-headers-5.15.0-46-generic linux-image-5.15.0-46-generic linux-modules-5.15.0-46-generic linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-46-generic
  linux-tools-5.15.0-46 linux-tools-5.15.0-46-generic
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages have been kept back:
  libreoffice libreoffice-base libreoffice-base-core libreoffice-base-drivers libreoffice-calc libreoffice-common libreoffice-core libreoffice-draw
  libreoffice-gtk libreoffice-gtk2 libreoffice-gtk3 libreoffice-help-common libreoffice-help-en-gb libreoffice-help-en-us libreoffice-impress
  libreoffice-l10n-en-gb libreoffice-l10n-en-za libreoffice-l10n-lt libreoffice-math libreoffice-report-builder-bin libreoffice-style-colibre libreoffice-writer
  libuno-cppu3 libuno-cppuhelpergcc3-3 libuno-purpenvhelpergcc3-3 libuno-sal3 libuno-salhelpergcc3-3 python3-uno uno-libs-private ure
The following packages will be upgraded:
  fonts-opensymbol
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 30 not upgraded.
Need to get 102 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 fonts-opensymbol all 2:102.12+LibO7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 [102 kB]
Fetched 102 kB in 0s (340 kB/s)
(Reading database ... 332342 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../fonts-opensymbol_2%3a102.12+LibO7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1_all.deb ...
Unpacking fonts-opensymbol (2:102.12+LibO7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) over (2:102.12+LibO7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) ...
Setting up fonts-opensymbol (2:102.12+LibO7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for fontconfig (2.13.1-4.2ubuntu5) ...
juozas@xubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get --no-install-recommends dist-upgrade libreoffice
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Error!
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libreoffice-base : Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
 libreoffice-base-core : Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed or
                                  libreoffice-core-nogui (= 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but it is not installable
 libreoffice-calc : Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
 libreoffice-core : Breaks: libreoffice-base (< 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
                    Breaks: libreoffice-calc (< 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
                    Breaks: libreoffice-draw (< 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
                    Breaks: libreoffice-gtk2 (< 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
                    Breaks: libreoffice-gtk3 (< 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
                    Breaks: libreoffice-impress (< 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
                    Breaks: libreoffice-writer (< 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
 libreoffice-draw : Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
 libreoffice-gtk3 : Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
 libreoffice-impress : Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
 libreoffice-math : Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
 libreoffice-writer : Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed
 python3-uno : Depends: libreoffice-core (= 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 is to be installed or
                        libreoffice-core-nogui (= 1:7.3.5-0ubuntu0.22.04.1) but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
juozas@xubuntu:~$

Only relevant apt pinning configuration change is an extra file in /etc/apt/preferences.d with contents as shown below

Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-xtradeb-apps
Pin-Priority: 400

Other apt configuration

# sources.list

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jammy partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jammy partner

Repo files

# xtradeb-ubuntu-apps-jammy.list
deb https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/xtradeb/apps/ubuntu/ jammy main
# deb-src https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/xtradeb/apps/ubuntu/ jammy main

# savoury1-ubuntu-chromium-jammy.list
deb https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/savoury1/chromium/ubuntu/ jammy main
# deb-src https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/savoury1/chromium/ubuntu/ jammy main

# savoury1-ubuntu-ffmpeg4-jammy.list
# deb https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/savoury1/ffmpeg4/ubuntu/ jammy main
# deb-src https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/savoury1/ffmpeg4/ubuntu/ jammy main

# winehq-jammy.sources
Types: deb
URIs: https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu
Suites: jammy
Components: main
Architectures: amd64 i386
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/winehq-archive.key

# virtualbox.list
deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/virtualbox.asc] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian jammy contrib

# mozillateam-ubuntu-ppa-jammy.list
deb https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu/ jammy main
# deb-src https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu/ jammy main

Output of apt-cache policy:
Package files:
 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     release a=now
 400 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/xtradeb/apps/ubuntu jammy/main i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=LP-PPA-xtradeb-apps,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=xtradeb applications,c=main,b=i386
     origin ppa.launchpadcontent.net
 400 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/xtradeb/apps/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=LP-PPA-xtradeb-apps,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=xtradeb applications,c=main,b=amd64
     origin ppa.launchpadcontent.net
 500 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu jammy/main all Packages
     release o=dl.winehq.org,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=winehq,c=main,b=all
     origin dl.winehq.org
 500 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu jammy/main i386 Packages
     release o=dl.winehq.org,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=winehq,c=main,b=i386
     origin dl.winehq.org
 500 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
     release o=dl.winehq.org,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=winehq,c=main,b=amd64
     origin dl.winehq.org
 500 https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian jammy/contrib amd64 Packages
     release o=Oracle Corporation,n=jammy,l=Oracle Corporation,c=contrib,b=amd64
     origin download.virtualbox.org
 500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/savoury1/chromium/ubuntu jammy/main i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=LP-PPA-savoury1-chromium,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Chromium - web browser (Xenial & newer),c=main,b=i386
     origin ppa.launchpadcontent.net
 500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/savoury1/chromium/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=LP-PPA-savoury1-chromium,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Chromium - web browser (Xenial & newer),c=main,b=amd64
     origin ppa.launchpadcontent.net
 500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu jammy/main i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=LP-PPA-mozillateam,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Firefox ESR and Thunderbird stable builds,c=main,b=i386
     origin ppa.launchpadcontent.net
 500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=LP-PPA-mozillateam,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Firefox ESR and Thunderbird stable builds,c=main,b=amd64
     origin ppa.launchpadcontent.net
 100 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports/universe i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-backports,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=universe,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 100 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports/universe amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-backports,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=universe,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 100 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports/main i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-backports,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=main,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 100 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports/main amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-backports,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=main,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/multiverse i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-updates,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=multiverse,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/multiverse amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-updates,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=multiverse,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/universe i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-updates,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=universe,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/universe amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-updates,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=universe,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/restricted i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-updates,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=restricted,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/restricted amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-updates,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=restricted,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-updates,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=main,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-updates,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=main,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/multiverse i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-security,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=multiverse,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/multiverse amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-security,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=multiverse,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/universe i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-security,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=universe,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/universe amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-security,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=universe,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/restricted i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-security,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=restricted,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/restricted amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-security,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=restricted,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/main i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-security,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=main,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/main amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy-security,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=main,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/multiverse i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=multiverse,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/multiverse amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=multiverse,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=universe,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=universe,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/restricted i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=restricted,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/restricted amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=restricted,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main i386 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=main,b=i386
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
     release v=22.04,o=Ubuntu,a=jammy,n=jammy,l=Ubuntu,c=main,b=amd64
     origin archive.ubuntu.com
Pinned packages:

Edit: Running apt-mark showhold returns no results

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.04
Package: apt 2.4.7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.15.0-48.54-generic 5.15.53
Uname: Linux 5.15.0-48-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu82.1
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Tue Sep 20 15:53:05 2022
SourcePackage: apt
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

The behavior is expected at the moment as part of the phased updates rework. These packages are not kept back due to broken dependencies, but due to not yet being available for your system as they are still phasing.

The behavior you are seeing when adding the libreoffice package explicitly is correct, the other packages are still kept back. If you passed the package name to the install command instead, it would be upgraded. This might or might not be what you expect, it's highly variable from one person to the next whether they expect install to respect phased updates or not.

The suboptimal user experience is being tracked in bug 1988819 already, so I am marking this bug as a duplicate.