update manager

[Norman Silverstone]

> I'm assuming you don't recognize those.  They may be artifacts of
> software you installed that is not part of the new distribution and for
> which the upgrades would create a conflict.  

> I believe part of the synaptic interface will show you what it is
> tracking as "Local / Obsolete" packages.  I'd look in there and see if
> removing some old package you manually installed gets rid of whatever
> dependency is trying to pull those packages in.

I had a look in Synaptic and they do not appear to belong to anything I
currently use. By each of the names there is a small square coloured
green (indicating installed) and each of the squares has a gold coloured
star in the top right hand corner. Please, what does this star signify?

Norman