How do I get apt-get autoremove to NOT insist on removing my entire desktop? Plus possible help with digital camera that worked with Lenny, but not in Squeeze.

[Steven Sciame <sasciame@yahoo.com>]

This originates from me trying to figure out why my digital camera doesn't work well with Squeeze (It was absolutely perfect in Lenny)  I submitted a couple of bug reports back in february http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=612699   and    http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=612701   

I haven't heard anything so I tried to continue finding a work around for this problem (getting my digital camera to work well with squeeze  ie, connect and import photos consistently)  

When plugging in the camera I got two identical windows popping up telling me that there was a camera attached plus a third that says, "Unable to mount KODAK EasyShare CX7430 Zoom Digital Camera"  and "Error initializing camera: -60: Could not lock the device"  

I tried just using Shotwell but it was icredibly slow compared to gthumb in regards to importing and even accessing the photos on a device, almost to the point where I thought it locked up.  I would walk away for awhile and come back and it would be done with whatever it was doing.  This makes it impractical to use.

Gtuumb is inconsistent in Squeeze though because sometimes it does not display all the contents of the camera.  (only those on internal memory card, not the photos on the SD card)  I usually have to plug it in and unplug it several times to get it to properly read contents of camera.  Once you do that, gthumb is good though.

I figured I would remove gthumb and shotwell and install one or the other to see if one would work.  I got the same performance as described above. Apt-get seemed to not be bothered by me dong this last night, but this morning it is an issue.

autoremove is insisting on removing my whole desktop and... :
debtop:/home/steven# apt-get purge shotwell
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil python-crypto python-tagpy mesa-utils
  libepc-ui-1.0-2 python-pyasn1 tomboy python-twisted-core python-opengl
  libmtp8 rpm2cpio gcalctool gnome-nettool libepc-1.0-2 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
  libgnomepanel2.24-cil python-notify libglade2.0-cil baobab python-mako
  python-zope.interface tcptraceroute gucharmap python-clientform libdiscid0
  gnome-games cheese evolution-exchange libgconf2.0-cil python-twisted-web
  libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 python-aptdaemon-gtk gnome-codec-install
  python-aptdaemon gnome-cards-data totem-plugins rhythmbox gnome-screenshot
  python-gdata gedit liblircclient0 xdg-user-dirs-gtk libgexiv2-0
  python-gtksourceview2 gtk2-engines-pixbuf system-config-printer
  apache2.2-bin cheese-common python-gtkglext1 libart2.0-cil
  epiphany-extensions librpmio1 libapr1 gnome-themes librpm1 seahorse
  rpm-common system-config-printer-udev remmina-plugin-rdp totem-common
  libaprutil1-ldap vinagre python-mechanize libgnome2.24-cil seahorse-plugins
  remmina-plugin-vnc xdg-user-dirs python-utidylib gnome-user-share libgalago3
  gedit-plugins totem-coherence python-configobj gconf-defaults-service
  guile-1.8-libs python-serial python-beautifulsoup gedit-common
  gnome-themes-extras libgmime2.4-cil software-center python-pam
  python-openssl libelf1 libcryptui0 libgdu-gtk0 libtidy-0.99-0
  libmono-addins0.2-cil remmina-plugin-data python-markupsafe libgee2
  python-webkit rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder gtk2-engines
  libgtksourceview2.0-common eog libgtksourceview2.0-0 gnome-disk-utility
  gnome-backgrounds gnome-search-tool python-twisted-conch
  libfreerdp-plugins-standard python-louie python-feedparser vino aptdaemon
  python-nevow gnome-games-data media-player-info python-pysqlite2
  libapache2-mod-dnssd python-epsilon rhythmbox-plugins libgdata7
  libepc-common python-axiom python-bugbuddy python-coherence cups-pk-helper
  python-gdbm python-cups gnome-core libcheese-gtk18 dmz-cursor-theme
  python-evolution python-pkg-resources gconf-editor gnome-system-tools
  hamster-applet gnuchess libfreerdp0 totem python-cupshelpers libssh-4
  libgnome-vfs2.0-cil libavahi-ui0 libaprutil1 p7zip-full libgtkglext1 libnet1
  python-twisted-bin gstreamer0.10-tools freeglut3 totem-mozilla
  python-httplib2 gnome-system-log file-roller python-rdflib
  libboost-python1.42.0 remmina libgdata-common sound-juicer libmusicbrainz3-6
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  shotwell*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 4,727 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

I reinstalled gthumb and also gphoto2 (I was surprised this wasn't installed since on the shotwell website it supposedly needs this to work at all)  messed up dependency perhaps??

Sorry for the long message, but I figured with the enough information, someone would know what to do.

I guess my main concern now is:

1) How do I get autoremove to back off!?  I tried apt-get update and went to synaptic, reloaded and all of the above shows up in "autoremovable"

and a really appreciated bonus would be:

2) any suggestions on getting my camera to work with squeeze?  It worked perfectly with Lenny.


Sincerely,

Steven