Apt-get -f install uninstalled OpenOffice.

[Chandrayan]

debian:/home/rooty# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libgcj7-jar gcj-4.1-base libwpd8c2a lp-solve libgail18 libgcj7-0 libneon25
libneon27 libportaudio0 libgcj-bc libicu36 libicu38 libxt-java
openoffice.org-java-common libgfortran3 libhyphen0 libwpg-0.1-1
x11-xserver-utils libstlport4.6c2 refblas3 libservlet2.4-java
libsuitesparse-3.1.0 lapack3 gcc-3.4-base libmdbtools gij-4.1 bsh
libhunspell-1.2-0 libgcj-common gij openoffice.org-common libjaxp1.3-java
dictionaries-common libssh2-1 ttf-opensymbol python-central libjline-java
libxerces2-java openoffice.org-style-andromeda xinit libwps-0.1-1
libxalan2-java thunar-data libblas3gf liblapack3gf libldap-2.4-2
libhsqldb-java libservlet2.3-java libufsparse libg2c0 libaudio2
xfdesktop4-data libnss3-0d libsndfile1 libgcj7-awt
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 443 not upgraded.
debian:/home/rooty# apt-get autoremove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libgcj7-jar gcj-4.1-base libwpd8c2a lp-solve libgail18 libgcj7-0 libneon25
libneon27 libportaudio0 libgcj-bc libicu36 libicu38 libxt-java
openoffice.org-java-common libgfortran3 libhyphen0 libwpg-0.1-1
x11-xserver-utils libstlport4.6c2 refblas3 libservlet2.4-java
libsuitesparse-3.1.0 lapack3 gcc-3.4-base libmdbtools gij-4.1 bsh
libhunspell-1.2-0 libgcj-common gij openoffice.org-common libjaxp1.3-java
dictionaries-common libssh2-1 ttf-opensymbol python-central libjline-java
libxerces2-java openoffice.org-style-andromeda xinit libwps-0.1-1
libxalan2-java thunar-data libblas3gf liblapack3gf libldap-2.4-2
libhsqldb-java libservlet2.3-java libufsparse libg2c0 libaudio2
xfdesktop4-data libnss3-0d libsndfile1 libgcj7-awt
The following packages will be REMOVED:
bsh dictionaries-common gcc-3.4-base gcj-4.1-base gij gij-4.1 lapack3
libaudio2 libblas3gf libg2c0 libgail18 libgcj-bc libgcj-common libgcj7-0
libgcj7-awt libgcj7-jar libgfortran3 libhsqldb-java libhunspell-1.2-0
libhyphen0 libicu36 libicu38 libjaxp1.3-java libjline-java liblapack3gf
libldap-2.4-2 libmdbtools libneon25 libneon27 libnss3-0d libportaudio0
libservlet2.3-java libservlet2.4-java libsndfile1 libssh2-1 libstlport4.6c2
libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libufsparse libwpd8c2a libwpg-0.1-1 libwps-0.1-1
libxalan2-java libxerces2-java libxt-java lp-solve openoffice.org-common
openoffice.org-java-common openoffice.org-style-andromeda python-central
refblas3 thunar-data ttf-opensymbol x11-xserver-utils xfdesktop4-data xinit
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 55 to remove and 422 not upgraded.
After this operation, 169MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 41014 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing openoffice.org-java-common ...
Removing bsh ...
Removing libufsparse ...
Removing lapack3 ...
Removing libg2c0 ...
Removing gcc-3.4-base ...
Removing libservlet2.4-java ...
Removing gij ...
Removing libgcj-bc ...
Removing libgcj7-awt ...
Removing gij-4.1 ...
Removing libgcj7-jar ...
Removing libgcj7-0 ...
Removing gcj-4.1-base ...
Removing libaudio2 ...
Removing lp-solve ...
Removing libsuitesparse-3.1.0 ...
Removing liblapack3gf ...
Removing libblas3gf ...
Removing libgail18 ...
Removing libgcj-common ...
Removing libgfortran3 ...
Removing libhsqldb-java ...
Removing libhunspell-1.2-0 ...
Removing libhyphen0 ...
Removing libicu36 ...
Removing libicu38 ...
Removing libxalan2-java ...
Removing libxerces2-java ...
Removing libjaxp1.3-java ...
Removing libjline-java ...
Removing libldap-2.4-2 ...
Removing libmdbtools ...
Removing libneon25 ...
Removing libneon27 ...
Removing libnss3-0d ...
Removing libportaudio0 ...
Removing libservlet2.3-java ...
Removing libsndfile1 ...
Removing libssh2-1 ...
Removing libstlport4.6c2 ...
Removing libwps-0.1-1 ...
Removing libwpd8c2a ...
Removing libwpg-0.1-1 ...
Removing libxt-java ...
Removing python-central ...
Removing refblas3 ...
Removing thunar-data ...
Removing ttf-opensymbol ...
Updating fontconfig cache...
Removing x11-xserver-utils ...
Removing xfdesktop4-data ...
Removing xinit ...
Removing openoffice.org-common ...
Removing openoffice.org-style-andromeda ...
Removing dictionaries-common ...
debian:/home/rooty#

I ran the above command to find that OpenOffice got uninstalled and many xfce and file manager features disappeared.

While I agree that I should have read more carefully what was to be uninstalled, I do not understand exactly why OpenOffice was required to be uninstalled in the first place. I mean if we're updating something, why do OpenOffice, File Search etc. have to be uninstalled ? Is this a reported bug in apt-get ?

[reed9]

apt-get -f install attempts to fix packages with broken dependencies. I haven't used Debian systems much for a bit, but it doesn't look to me like it did much of anything, beyond the notification that you had packages installed as dependencies, which no longer are depended upon by any currently installed package.

apt-get autoremove did exactly what it's designed to do, which is remove those packages that are not required by any explicitly installed package.

I believe this situation most often comes up when a meta-package pulls in a bunch of dependencies, and is then removed.

[Chandrayan]

apt-get -f install attempts to fix packages with broken dependencies. I haven't used Debian systems much for a bit, but it doesn't look to me like it did much of anything, beyond the notification that you had packages installed as dependencies, which no longer are depended upon by any currently installed package.

apt-get autoremove did exactly what it's designed to do, which is remove those packages that are not required by any explicitly installed package.

I believe this situation most often comes up when a meta-package pulls in a bunch of dependencies, and is then removed.

Well I think there would always exist packages which are not depended upon by any other package and thus marked redundant by -f install. These are liable to be autoremoved. Running this iteratively would delete the OS, or atleast reduce it to the bare minimum, right ?

I see no reason for OpenOffice and Find Files to have been quarantined !

[Chandrayan]

I researched for this problem, and a similar issue was reported here.. The user tried to install Open-Office, but Mozilla got listed as a dependency - even though neither mozilla nor Oo were installed earlier. There are (needless) cross dependencies also that he mentions.

Hence, some similar bug may have led to Open-office being listed under autoremove.
I was under the impression that autoremove removes those packages -- whose replacements or substitutes are providing for the dependencies -- and not just about anything simply because nothing else depends on them. Even if they are entire applications.

So I still think that just because Open Office did not have a dependency on it, doesn't mean it should have been marked for removal / deletion.


That said, there are 3 things :-

1) I ran an -f install before the autoremove, which actually marked Oo as a candidate for deletion. So, the problem could be in -f install and NOT autoremove per se.

2) I would request other members to just run -f install and see if it throws any important packages up for removal (please don't actually execute autoremove after that).

3) Please read the fine print before executing autoremove. I've learnt this the hard way. Now, I'll have to re-install Open Office and some Xfce features.