Hi Daniel, if you install package X and in doings so, apt says that it will remove package Y, remember that this is the basis for the super-cow powers that apt has: package dependency issueses. Either these 2 packages can not be installed at the same time or these 2 packages privide the same virtual dependency. There may be some way to do this. It may be in the debian 'alternatives' or 'diversions' system. Ask someone higher up the food chain about this. -Kev
The thing I was trying to do was quite simply this: I wanted to run a second ftp server on another port range. Next to the already installed proftpd I wanted to run a vsftpd. However, the cow thought that, 'well, that's a new ftp server! He won't need the old one! Let's throw it out, including the conf files!'. That's the first time apt-get didn't behave 'smartly'. I can totally see how this can be clever sometimes, however I think it would be smarter to ask in this case, because I can see many similar situations where you'd want two different flavours of one service installed.
Daniel