Comment 8 for bug 64814

On a small system (1GB CF card as root disk), I wanted to remove all the unneeded video drivers. So, I do:

 apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-via xserver-xorg-video....

In response, apt correctly removes the meta-package xserver-xorg.

Apt then decides (again correctly) that the xserver-xorg-video-ati driver (the one I actually need) was "automatically installed", and offers to remove it. [I decline]

So far, apt has been slightly too helpful, but it has done the right thing.

I now want to tell apt "You know that video driver you installed automatically for me? Well, I really explicitly want it". Thus:

  apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati

It's already present, so apt doesn't need to download/install it. But it *should* have changed the status of the ati-driver from "automatically installed" to "explicitly requested". However, it doesn't do so.

In order to stop apt from offering to auto-remove this driver, I had to manually remove it, and then manually re-install it. I think this is a bug. [Fortunately, Linux doesn't seem to mind if you delete a driver while it's currently in use, as long as you put it back again!]