[mantic] many useful apps are marked for auto removal

[corrado venturini]

Today update want remove a lot of apps.
This happens on two systems installed from ISO dated 2023-06-07 and 2023-05-21
corrado@corrado-n03-mm-0607:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
[sudo] password for corrado:
Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu mantic InRelease
Hit:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu mantic-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu mantic-backports InRelease
Hit:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu mantic-security InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
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:
  aisleriot baobab branding-ubuntu cheese cheese-common file-roller
  gir1.2-rb-3.0 gnome-mahjongg gnome-mines gnome-sudoku gnome-video-effects
  gstreamer1.0-clutter-3.0 guile-3.0-libs libavahi-ui-gtk3-0 libcairomm-1.16-1
  libcdr-0.1-1 libchamplain-0.12-0 libchamplain-gtk-0.12-0 libcheese-gtk25
  libcheese8 libclutter-gst-3.0-0 libdmapsharing-4.0-3 libevent-2.1-7
  libfreehand-0.1-1 libfreerdp-client2-2 libglibmm-2.68-1
  libgnome-games-support-1-3 libgnome-games-support-common libgpod-common
  libgpod4 libgtkmm-4.0-0 libgupnp-igd-1.0-4 libixml10 liblc3-0 libminiupnpc17
  libmspub-0.1-1 libmujs2 libnatpmp1 libpagemaker-0.0-0 libpangomm-2.48-1
  libqqwing2v5 libreoffice-calc libreoffice-draw libreoffice-gnome
  libreoffice-gtk3 libreoffice-impress librhythmbox-core10 libsdl-image1.2
  libsdl1.2debian libsgutils2-1.46-2 libsigc++-3.0-0 libupnp13 libvisio-0.1-1
  lp-solve media-player-info python3-mako python3-renderpm
  python3-reportlab-accel remmina remmina-common remmina-plugin-rdp
  remmina-plugin-secret remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox rhythmbox-data
  rhythmbox-plugin-alternative-toolbar rhythmbox-plugins shotwell
  shotwell-common simple-scan transmission-common transmission-gtk
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
corrado@corrado-n03-mm-0607:

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 23.10
Package: ubuntu-desktop 1.505
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.3.0-7.7-generic 6.3.5
Uname: Linux 6.3.0-7-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.26.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Jul 9 08:53:45 2023
InstallationDate: Installed on 2023-06-07 (31 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 23.10 "Mantic Minotaur" - Daily amd64 (20230607)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 TERM=xterm-256color
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
SourcePackage: ubuntu-meta
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[corrado venturini (corradoventu)]

attaching inxi output:
corrado@corrado-n03-mm-0607:~$ inxi -Fx
System:
  Host: corrado-n03-mm-0607 Kernel: 6.3.0-7-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    compiler: N/A Desktop: GNOME v: 44.3 Distro: Ubuntu 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME H610M-E D4 v: Rev 1.xx
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1402
    date: 04/01/2022
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: 12th Gen Intel Core i3-12100 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Alder Lake rev: 5 cache: L1: 320 KiB L2: 5 MiB L3: 12 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2987 high: 3300 min/max: 800/5500 cores: 1: 3300 2: 3300
    3: 3300 4: 3300 5: 3300 6: 3300 7: 800 8: 3300 bogomips: 52838
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S GT1 [UHD Graphics 730] vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-12.2 bus-ID: 00:02.0
  Device-2: Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    type: USB bus-ID: 1-1:2
  Display: wayland server: X.Org v: 1.23.1.1 with: Xwayland v: 23.1.1
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
    dri: iris gpu: i915 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.1.3-1ubuntu1 renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics
    730 (ADL-S GT1) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
  Device-2: Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    type: USB bus-ID: 1-1:2
  API: ALSA v: k6.3.0-7-generic status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.73 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: ASUSTeK PRIME B450M-A driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000
    bus-ID: 02:00.0
  IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: 58:11:22:90:10:e2
  Device-2: Ralink RT2501/RT2573 Wireless Adapter driver: rt73usb type: USB
    bus-ID: 1-9:6
  IF: wlx000ee8f7f7e6 state: up mac: 00:0e:e8:f7:f7:e6
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd
    v: 0.6 bus-ID: 00:0e.0
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.28 TiB used: 17.59 GiB (0.8%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Kingston model: SKC2000M8250G size: 232.89 GiB
    temp: 33.9 C
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Toshiba model: KBG40ZNV256G KIOXIA
    size: 238.47 GiB temp: 46.9 C
  ID-3: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1 size: 465.76 GiB
  ID-4: /dev/sdb vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1 size: 465.76 GiB
  ID-5: /dev/sdc vendor: Toshiba model: DT01ACA100 size: 931.51 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 39.08 GiB used: 17.59 GiB (45.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme1n1p3
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 252 MiB used: 6 MiB (2.4%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/sdb2
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 30.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 290 Uptime: 1h 43m Memory: available: 15.36 GiB
  used: 2.82 GiB (18.3%) Init: systemd target: graphical (5) Compilers: N/A
  Packages: 2062 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.15 inxi: 3.3.27
corrado@corrado-n03-mm-0607:~$

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Generally the way to do this in Debian at least would be something like

1. move the removed dependencies/recommends to a ubuntu-desktop-legacy metapackage/seed
2. recommend that so it is installed
3. one cycle later, drop the recommends (or move it to suggests to keep it installed on upgrades*)

(*) In Ubuntu, ubuntu-release-upgrader removes Suggests

Adding the recommends for a month to transition devel users using apt, and then removing it again and make u-r-u install it could make sense.

On the other hand we also kind of strive to have upgraded users have the same experience (which is why we removed suggested-only packages in the first place), so weigh the benefits.

One thing to note is APT's metapackage handling:

1. apt remove metapackage keeps dependencies automatically installed
2. apt install foo where foo conflicts with metapackage causes metapackage to be removed and the manual bit to transition to the dependencies.

[corrado venturini (corradoventu)]

Installing from last ISO: Ubuntu 23.10 "Mantic Minotaur" - Daily amd64 (20230717.2)
all the above applications are missing.

[corrado venturini (corradoventu)]

Problem disappeared with recent ISO's. changing status ti Invalid.