[Bug 574287] Re: tasksel: forcefully removes packages when tasks overlap

[Oliver Gerlich]

WTF. I was uninstalling the ubuntu-mate-desktop task with tasksel (while
ubuntu-desktop was still checked in the list), and it removed basically
everything. Afterwards all tasks in the tasksel list were unchecked.
This is definitely not the expected behavior: when I uncheck a specific
task, I don't expect other tasks to be removed as well.

I suggest to disable the package-removal functionality in tasksel.
Alternatively, show a big warning when tasksel is about to remove
anything. There are lots of warning posts about this behavior of tasksel
all over the net, but if the warning does not appear in the application
itself, I'm unlikely to see it before it's too late.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/574287

Title:
  tasksel: forcefully removes packages when tasks overlap

Status in apt package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in tasksel package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in tasksel package in Debian:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  TEST CASE

  1. Boot Lucid LiveCD

  2. run "sudo tasksel" and select "virtual machine host"

  3. run "sudo tasksel" and deselect "virtual machine host"

  4. watch how tasksel uninstalls your system

  OBSERVATIONS

  What seems to happen is that apt vengefully removes ALL of the items
  associated with one task, including several base dependencies of other
  tasks (e.g. ubuntu-desktop)

  One illustrative example is the openssh-server task:
  This one includes the packages openssh-server, tcpd and libwrap0.
  From a normal ubuntu-desktop (e.g. ~liveCD) both tcpd and libwrap0 are already installed, and the task-install pulls in only openssh-server.
  However when the task is removed, all these three packages (openssh-server, tcpd and libwrap0) are forcefully removed.
  Since libwrap0 is a core dependency of gnome, a large part of gnome will be removed alongside the removal of the task.

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