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

[Elias M Ward]

I just ran into this bug. Started uninstalling everything when I was
removing lamp-server. Thankfully I caught it at about 15% and killed the
session when I started noticing things disappearing. This is a critical
disastrous bug. How has it not been touched in so long?

If it's not going to get fixed, at least remove tasksel out of
production or at least remove the remove function from it. This is
ridiculous.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to apt in Ubuntu.
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.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/574287/+subscriptions