Adding packages to ubuntu-desktop packageset

[Robie Basak]

On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 05:54:35PM +0200, Alessandro Astone wrote:
> The gstreamer plugins are part of the ubuntu-restricted-addons metapackage
> which, while not being seeded, we still offer on the desktop installer for
> the user to get all the codecs, so it's still an important part of Ubuntu
> Desktop:
> - gst-plugins-bad1.0
> - gst-plugins-ugly1.0
> - gst-libav1.0
> - gstreamer-vaapi

So if someone uploads one of these packages during a freeze on the basis
that it is not seeded, they'll inadvertently invalidate ISO QA? If
they're being shipped, then shouldn't they *be* seeded? Or is it that
the installer offers them by download only?

>                            If being seeded is a hard requirement, I suppose
> the currently unseeded packages could go into the desktop-extra packageset
> instead?

The ubuntu-desktop packageset is supposed to be automatically generated.
That script is unmaintained and bitrotted, and nobody has volunteered to
fix it, so we're emulating what the script does by hand for now.

If you'd like to overhaul the script and packageset definitions, then I
have no objection to you driving that (subject to review), but in the
meantime I think we need to follow the original intention of the
packageset architecture that we have to avoid confusion, flip-flopping,
etc.

Unfortuantely these packagesets have poor definitions. desktop-extra is
"Every package that is NOT in ubuntu-desktop, desktop-core or core, but
needed for a vanilla GNOME". How do I establish if a package is "needed
for a vanilla GNOME"?

[sorry, I'm out of time to look at this further today now]

Robie