changing to fcron removes ubuntu-desktop and autoremove wants to remove a lot of packages

[Roderik van der Veer]

I'm using ubuntu to develop and host j2ee applications and i use a bunch of scripts to facilitate the hosting, deployment and backup part of this operation. But these scripts rely on fcron.

In hoary, breezy and dapper it removes the ubuntu-desktop meta package when removing anacron when installing fcron. This also happens in edgy, but now every apt-get operation wants me to auto-remove every package that was installed to supply ubuntu-desktop. About the entire desktop environment etc.

Maybe it's a good idea to use a cron metapackage so we can choose our own cron implementation without losing the entire desktop.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks for your bugreport.

I fixed this so that apt will not mark any direct dependencies of packages in the "metapackages" section.

Unfortunately this will need fixup for already set markings. I plan to do this in the release upgrade tool.

Thanks,
 Michael

[Bernhard Kausler (bernhardkausler-googlemail)]

Dear Michael,

unfortunately I just experienced exactly the same problem on a freshly installed Ubuntu 9.04. Seems to be a regression here. Could you please have a look into this problem, because I need fcron for our backup scripts.

Best

Bernhard

[Bernhard Kausler (bernhardkausler-googlemail)]

Almost a month is gone since my last comment. So, anybody knows, what's the status of this bug?

[Paul Beardsell (paul-beardsell)]

Fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10 - same problem. Still unfixed.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Hello Paul, hello Bernhard.

I'm pretty sure this is a different issue. When i install fcron I get removal ubuntu-desktop, but the original bugreport talks about "auto-removal" of all direct dependencies of ubuntu-desktop. I'm pretty certain this is not the case. Please open a sepeate bug for this, best against fcron and maybe ubuntu-meta. It will require a common provides for a cron like mechanism.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

I change the apt task back to fix-released, the original bug that was concerned with autoremoval is fixed.

[Bernhard Kausler (bernhardkausler-googlemail)]

Dear Michael,

you are right. I installed fcron a time ago and just accepted the removal of the "ubuntu-desktop" meta package. I observed no side effects so far. But I cannot jugde the consequences. Leaves me with a bad gut feeling about my system's integrity.

Anyway, as you said, this problem is solved, since no "real" packages are removed.

Best

Bernhard

[Jan Rüegg (rggjan)]

I absolutely agree to Bernhard. Wouldn't it be bet to let fcron "provide" anacron, for example, so that you could install fcron while still keeping ubuntu-desktop?

This would also be much cleaner on upgrades to new Ubuntu releases, where I now have each time to:
- remove fcron
- install ubuntu-desktop
- upgrade
- remove ubuntu-desktop
- reinstall fcron

...