[Bug 1166230] Re: Updater lists many transitional dummy packages

[Michael Terry]

Well, they are updated because their version number goes up with along
with the related binary package.  We theoretically should update it, in
case the first version of such an oldlibs package didn't depend on
exactly the right things or something.  Seems unlikely, but we should do
it.

We can't necessarily remove it because other packages are likely still
depending on it.  Until they are all cleaned up, we can't remove.  At
which point, it enters the "save to autoremove" list that apt-get
generates.  We might want to do something with those in update-manager,
but that seems like a different bug.

We could say we will not show such updates, but silently update anyway.
But we'd have to make sure the source was the Ubuntu archive, else
malicious users could silently update packages.  That would still solve
most of the problem.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1166230

Title:
  Updater lists many transitional dummy packages

Status in “update-manager” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  The update-manager GUI lists a number of "Transitional dummy packages"
  available for update. There doesn't seem to be any additional
  information available about these packages through the UI. As a user I
  have no idea what I am supposed to do with them.

  I suggest grouping the "transitional dummy package" under the "Ubuntu
  base" section in update-manager, so that they are not displayed to the
  end user by default.

  To reproduce:
  1) Run Software Updater from the dash
  2) Look at the list of updates in the "Details of updates" list

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
  Package: update-manager 1:0.185
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-16.26-generic 3.8.5
  Uname: Linux 3.8.0-16-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
  ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu5
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Mon Apr  8 10:17:22 2013
  GsettingsChanges:
   
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2010-09-17 (934 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Beta amd64 (20100901.1)
  MarkForUpload: True
  PackageArchitecture: all
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=xterm
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: update-manager
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-01-25 (72 days ago)

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