RE: removing dummy package

["Bonno Bloksma" <b.bloksma@tio.nl>]

Hi,

>[....]
>> After upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze I have some dhcp3 dummy packages.
>>
>> --------------<quote>---------------------------------
>> linbobo:~# aptitude show dhcp3-client
>> Package: dhcp3-client
>> State: installed
>> Automatically installed: no
>[...]
>>   This is a dummy package to aid in transitioning from the v3 DHCP packages
>> to the new-style DHCP packages.
>>
>>   This dummy package may be safely removed after upgrading to squeeze
>> --------------<quote>---------------------------------
>>
>> So I wanted to remove the dummy package but....
>>
>> --------------<quote>---------------------------------
>> linbobo:~# aptitude remove dhcp3-client
>> The following packages will be REMOVED:
>>    dhcp3-client isc-dhcp-client{u}
>> 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
>> Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 680 kB will be freed.
>> Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] n
>> Abort.
>> --------------<quote>---------------------------------
>>
>> When I want to remove the dummy dhcp3 package, the real isc package also
>> gets removed.
>> This is probably one of those simply to answer questions and probably has a
>> easy answer, but I am unable to find it. :-(
>>

> I wouldn't remove the dummy package ('cause I'm lazy) - but if you want 
> to, the following will work.

The reason I want to remove some dummy packages is because I ran into a problem upgrading to Squeeze because of some old dummy package (dhcp) from the Etch install. Removing that dummy package also gave me some problems I probably would not have had if I removed it right after the upgrade in stead of after the next upgrade.

> Note: if you can't login as root (#), just use sudo.
> 
> if:-
> # ls /var/cache/apt/archives | grep isc-dhcp-client
> yields nothing
> then:-
> # apt-get -d install isc-dhcp-client;apt-get --purge remove 
> dhcp3-client;apt-get install isc-dhcp-client
> else:-
> # apt-get --purge remove dhcp3-client;apt-get install isc-dhcp-client

So basicly, let aptitude remove both packages and reinstall the isc package. That's what I ended up with when I remove the old dhcp (not even dhcp3) package on a system that had been upgraded from Etch to Lenny to Squeeze.
I will try Sven's suggestion First, maybe that works without the double work.

Bonno Bloksma