apt-get dist-upgrade wants to remove too much??

[Ken <kgw@lunar.ca>]

I am using a hard disk install of Debian from Knoppix 3.2.  It is 
working nicely.  I do apt-get update and apt-get upgrade every once in a 
while.  I am using unstable/testing sources.

I have appended the console output apt-get -u dist-upgrade produces 
below.  If let run, it will remove a whole lot of packages that I want 
to keep.

I have looked at the APT HOWTO at
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/index.en.html
to try to find the answer to my question.

It suggests the command
apt-get -o Debug::pkgProblemResolver=yes dist-upgrade
which I ran.   The output it produces is too long to post but most of 
the kde packages it wants to remove would be removed for reasons like:

Investigating kicker
Package kicker has broken dep on kdelibs4
  Considering kdelibs4 165 as a solution to kicker 0
  Removing kicker rather than change kdelibs4


Does this indicate that I have some kind of problem with my install that 
I should try and fix?  Or is it just a matter of waiting until the 
version of one package that others depend on, catches up?

I had thought that the dist-upgrade process was something you do once in 
a while to keep things up to date for new versions and so on.  But on 
another Debian install that I did a couple of months ago I ran it and it 
did just what it said it would and removed a bunch of stuff I didn't 
want removed.  At least it didn't say "I told you so" even though it did 
warn me . ..  ..

Thanks for any help.

Ken

=========appended console output example========


root@full:/home/ken# apt-get -u dist-upgrade
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Calculating Upgrade... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  ark auctex console-tools-libs emacs21 gettext-el k3b kaboodle 
kaddressbook
  kalarm kamera kandy kappfinder karbon karm kasteroids kate kate-plugins
  kbattleship kbounce kcalc kcharselect kchart kcmlinuz kcoloredit kcontrol
  kcron kdat kdeaddons-kfile-plugins kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdebase-bin
  kdebase-kio-plugins kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelibs-bin kdelibs4
  kdelibs4-dev kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins 
kdepasswd
  kdepim kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-libs kdesktop kdessh kdevelop
  kdevelop-data kdf kdm kdvi kedit kfax kfind kfloppy kformula kgeo kget
  kghostview kgpgcertmanager khelpcenter khexedit kicker kiconedit 
kivio kjots
  klaptopdaemon klipper kmahjongg kmail kmailcvt kmenuedit kmix kmrml 
knotes
  koffice-data koffice-libs kompare konq-plugins konqueror 
konqueror-nsplugins
  konsole kooka korganizer koshell kpackage kpager kpaint kpersonalizer kpf
  kpilot kppp kpresenter krdc kreversi krfb kruler kscd ksmserver ksnapshot
  ksokoban ksplash kspread kstars ksync ksysguard ksysv kteatime ktimer 
ktip
  kugar kuickshow kuser kview kviewshell kwin kword kxconfig libkdegames1
  libkdenetwork2 libkonq4 libkscan1 lisa secpolicy xchat
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  acroread-debian-files cpp-3.3 debconf-i18n ettercap-common g++-3.3 
gcc-3.3
  gtk-engines-qtpixmap gtk2-engines-qtpixmap intltool-debian libconsole
  libdvdread3 libexif9 liblocale-gettext-perl libmagick++5.5.7 libncursesw5
  libplot2 libpstoedit0 librecode0 libssl0.9.6 libstdc++5-3.3-dev
  libtext-charwidth-perl libtext-iconv-perl libtext-wrapi18n-perl 
libxcursor1
  libxrender-dev mindi-kernel module-init-tools python2.3
The following packages have been kept back
  cloop-utils libgtkmm2.0-1c102 mknbi php4 php4-mysql pppconfig
The following packages will be upgraded
  acroread autotrace console-tools cpp debconf dialog emacs21-common 
ettercap
  fortune-mod g++ gcc gtk-engines-geramik gtk2-engines-geramik initrd-tools
  kdelibs-data ksysguardd libautotrace3 libdvdnav1 mindi po-debconf 
reportbug
  telnet-ssl telnetd-ssl xchat-common
24 packages upgraded, 28 newly installed, 122 to remove and 6  not upgraded.
Need to get 46.2MB of archives. After unpacking 144MB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.
root@full:/home/ken#