installing freeglut3-dev would remove lots of GUI related packages

[Kajetan]

When I try to install freeglut3-dev via command line apt says that a lot of packages would be removed when I continued.

To be more accurate:

$ sudo apt-get install freeglut3-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  x11-apps x11-session-utils x11-xfs-utils xinit libfs6
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libgl1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libglapi-mesa libglapi-mesa:i386 libglu1-mesa-dev
  libx11-xcb-dev libxcb-glx0-dev libxdamage-dev libxext-dev libxfixes-dev libxxf86vm-dev
  x11proto-damage-dev x11proto-dri2-dev x11proto-fixes-dev x11proto-gl-dev x11proto-xext-dev
  x11proto-xf86vidmode-dev xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-evdev
Suggested packages:
  xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libegl1-mesa-drivers-lts-saucy libegl1-mesa-lts-saucy libgbm1-lts-saucy libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-saucy
  libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-saucy:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-saucy libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-saucy:i386 libglamor-ltss0
  libglapi-mesa-lts-saucy libglapi-mesa-lts-saucy:i386 libopenvg1-mesa-lts-saucy libxatracker1-lts-saucy
  ubuntu-desktop x11-xserver-utils-lts-saucy xorg xserver-common-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-core-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-glamoregl-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-input-evdev-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-input-mouse-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-input-wacom-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-ati-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-cirrus-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-video-fbdev-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-intel-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-mach64-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-video-mga-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-modesetting-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-video-neomagic-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-nouveau-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-video-openchrome-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-r128-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-video-radeon-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-s3-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-savage-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-sis-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-video-sisusb-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-tdfx-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-video-trident-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-video-vesa-lts-saucy
  xserver-xorg-video-vmware-lts-saucy
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  freeglut3-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libglapi-mesa libglapi-mesa:i386
  libglu1-mesa-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb-glx0-dev libxdamage-dev libxext-dev libxfixes-dev libxxf86vm-dev
  x11proto-damage-dev x11proto-dri2-dev x11proto-fixes-dev x11proto-gl-dev x11proto-xext-dev
  x11proto-xf86vidmode-dev xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-evdev
0 upgraded, 22 newly installed, 47 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3,158 kB of archives.
After this operation, 42.4 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

I am sure that I need a lot of packages that would be removed (e.g. xorg and ubuntu-desktop).

My release:
$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
Release: 12.04

My system specifitactions:
Architecture: x86-64
GPU: Nvidia (GTX 670m)
Graphics driver version: 331.20

$ apt-cache policy freeglut3-dev
freeglut3-dev:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 2.6.0-1ubuntu3
  Version table:
     2.6.0-1ubuntu3 0
        500 http://at.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main amd64 Packages
     2.6.0-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://at.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages

[Kajetan (kajetan-krischan)]

I found a workaround:
I downgraded my Nvidia-driver from version 331.20 to version 304.116 using jockey-gtk. Then I had to remove "mesa-common-dev" and then I could install freeglut3-dev. Now I'm going to try to install the latest Nvidia-driver again to find out if it breaks something...

[Kajetan (kajetan-krischan)]

It didn't break anything.
nvidia-xserver-settings even stopped segfaulting :D

However, installing freeglut3-dev this way is a bit inconvenient...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[dino99 (9d9)]

Having met that issue , i've found its was due to mesa packages from ppa (xorg-edgers in my case).

so:
- activate that ppa if not yet done
- from a terminal: sudo ppa-purge ppa:thatppa (ppa-purge have to be installed first indeed)

this will downgrade all the mesa packages.

then freeglut3-dev can be installed without trouble.