Bug#267289: apt-get dist-upgrade does not upgrade all packages

[Uwe Storbeck <uwe@ibr.ch>]

Hi Matt

> > On upgrading from woody to sarge apt-get dist-upgrade did not upgrade all
> > packages. It seems to fail if it needs to remove old packages which are
> > not needed anymore:
> 
> Does it work properly if you remove your /etc/apt/preferences and have only
> sarge in sources.list?

As I wrote I had already completed the upgrade with apt-get install.
But I have reinstalled the old mc packages from woody (as the example
with the fewest dependencies) and have tried to break it down to the
minimum: no apt.conf, no preferences file and only one apt source,
without success:

# apt-get update
Hit http://http.us.debian.org sarge/main Packages
Hit http://http.us.debian.org sarge/main Release
Reading Package Lists... Done              

# apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Calculating Upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  mc
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.

# apt-get install mc  
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  mc-common
The following packages will be upgraded:
  mc
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/1992kB of archives.
After unpacking 483kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.

# apt-show-versions -a -p mc
mc      4.5.55-1.2woody3        install ok installed
mc      1:4.6.0-4.6.1-pre1-3    testing
mc/testing upgradeable from 4.5.55-1.2woody3 to 1:4.6.0-4.6.1-pre1-3

# apt-show-versions -a -p mc-common
mc-common       4.5.55-1.2woody3        install ok installed
No testing version
mc-common 4.5.55-1.2woody3 installed: No available version in archive

# apt-config dump
APT "";
APT::Architecture "i386";
APT::Build-Essential "";
APT::Build-Essential:: "build-essential";
Dir "/";
Dir::State "var/lib/apt/";
Dir::State::lists "lists/";
Dir::State::cdroms "cdroms.list";
Dir::State::userstatus "status.user";
Dir::State::status "/var/lib/dpkg/status";
Dir::Cache "var/cache/apt/";
Dir::Cache::archives "archives/";
Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache "srcpkgcache.bin";
Dir::Cache::pkgcache "pkgcache.bin";
Dir::Etc "etc/apt/";
Dir::Etc::sourcelist "sources.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorlist "vendors.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorparts "vendors.list.d";
Dir::Etc::main "apt.conf";
Dir::Etc::parts "apt.conf.d";
Dir::Etc::preferences "preferences";
Dir::Bin "";
Dir::Bin::methods "/usr/lib/apt/methods";
Dir::Bin::dpkg "/usr/bin/dpkg";
DPkg "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/bin/apt-listchanges --apt || test $? -ne 10";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";
DPkg::Tools "";
DPkg::Tools::Options "";
DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/bin/apt-listchanges "";
DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/bin/apt-listchanges::Version "2";
DPkg::Post-Invoke "";
DPkg::Post-Invoke:: "if [ -x /usr/bin/debsums ]; then /usr/bin/debsums --generate=nocheck -sp /var/cache/apt/archives; fi";

# cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian sarge main


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.25
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=de_DE

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  libc6                    2.3.2.ds1-13    GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libgcc1                  1:3.4.1-4sarge1 GCC support library
ii  libstdc++5               1:3.3.4-6sarge1 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3

-- no debconf information