Unable to login to GNOME Shell xorg session while Wayland session works properly

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Wed, 5 Jun 2019 11:00:20 +0100, Colin Law wrote:
>I am not entirely sure what the ^ does.  Something to do with it being
>a meta-package.
>You are right, it is fiendishly difficult to google for.

Hi,

it has nothing to do with meta-packages at all. Meta-packages are a
replacement for tasks.

"Tasksel is a Debian/Ubuntu tool that installs multiple related
packages as a co-ordinated "task" onto your system.

This function is similar to that of meta-packages, and, in fact, most
of the tasks available from tasksel are also available as meta-packages
from the Ubuntu package managers (such as Synaptic Package Manager or
KPackageKit)." - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Tasksel

You could run

  sudo tasksel install foo

instead of apt or apt-get.

My understanding is, that if tasksel is installed, and you run 

  sudo apt install foo

or

  sudo apt-get install foo

the task is chosen instead of the meta-package, even without using the
caret.

The task might handle dependencies in a different way, see
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2019-May/296884.html.

Regards,
Ralf