synaptic ignores preferences files in /etc/apt/preferences.d/

[z0d]

Under Ubuntu 10.10, I created a file "/etc/apt/preferences.d/ubuntu-x-swat-ppa-nvidia" (attached) containing pinning preferences for apt. apt-get honours my preferences, offering me updates to the nvidia packages only (I don't have or want ATI or Intel driver updates). synaptic (and aptitude), however, only honours my preferences file if I move it to "/etc/apt/preferences". I expect synaptic (and aptitude) to honour my pinning preferences, whether they are stored in the "/etc/apt/preferences" file or their own file in "/etc/apt/preferences.d/".

Create pinning preferences file:
$ sudo vi /etc/apt/preferences.d/ubuntu-x-swat-ppa-nvidia

See what apt-get offers after upgrading nvidia packages to PPA versions via apt-get. Version info from /var/log/apt/history.log:
nvidia-current:amd64 (260.19.06-0ubuntu1, 280.13-0ubuntu1~maverick~xup1), nvidia-current-modaliases:amd64 (260.19.06-0ubuntu1, 280.13-0ubuntu1~maverick~xup1), nvidia-settings:amd64 (260.19.06-0ubuntu1, 280.13-0ubuntu1~maverick~xup1

Check apt-get doesn't offer any more upgrades:
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Run synaptic, offered upgrades to these other packages from PPA:
fglrx-modaliases intel-gpu-tools libdrm-intel1 libdrm-nouveau1 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm2 xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-radeon]

Move preferences file:
$ sudo mv /etc/apt/preferences.d/ubuntu-x-swat-ppa-nvidia /etc/apt/preferences

Run synaptic, no longer offered upgrades to these other packages from PPA.

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 10.10
Release: 10.10

$ apt-cache policy apt aptitude synaptic
apt:
  Installed: 0.8.3ubuntu7.1
  Candidate: 0.8.3ubuntu7.1
  Version table:
 *** 0.8.3ubuntu7.1 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.8.3ubuntu7 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/main amd64 Packages
aptitude:
  Installed: 0.6.3-2ubuntu4
  Candidate: 0.6.3-2ubuntu4
  Version table:
 *** 0.6.3-2ubuntu4 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
synaptic:
  Installed: 0.63.1ubuntu14
  Candidate: 0.63.1ubuntu14
  Version table:
 *** 0.63.1ubuntu14 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[David Clayton (dcstar)]

Is this the same bug?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/synaptic/+bug/42178?comments=all

[z0d (ubuntu-edu)]

Forgot to note it also affects aptitude.

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug #42178, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.
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