Bug#534348: Choose the right module for running kernel when pulling in "-modules" virtual packages

[David Kalnischkies <kalnischkies+debian@gmail.com>]

tags 534348 +moreinfo
thanks

Hello Jason A. Spiro,

thanks for report!
Next time please provide as many information as possible in your report.
At least you should include your configuration, your source.list(.d)s
and your preference file (if you have one).
( Maybe you want to try the program "reportbug" which will guide you
  and automatically add these information for you if you want. )

Without these information i am currently unable to reproduce this behavior:

$ apt-get install hdapsd -s -o APT::Install-Recommends=1
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Recommended packages:
  tp-smapi-modules
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  hdapsd
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 35 not upgraded.

So apt doesn't want to install the recommend "tp-smapi-modules" at all,
why apt does this will be clear after we force apt to install it:

$ apt-get install hdapsd tp-smapi-modules -s -o APT::Install-Recommends=1
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package tp-smapi-modules is a virtual package provided by:
  tp-smapi-modules-2.6.29-2-amd64 2.6.29+0.40-5
  tp-smapi-modules-2.6.29-2-686-bigmem 2.6.29+0.40-5
  tp-smapi-modules-2.6.29-2-686 2.6.29+0.40-5
  tp-smapi-modules-2.6.29-2-486 2.6.29+0.40-5
You should explicitly select one to install.
E: Package tp-smapi-modules has no installation candidate

apt can't guess which package is the best provider for a virtual package
so it is up to you to choose one - apt can only automatically choose one
if it is only one provider available. The question is why apt thinks
it is only one package available which provides tp-smapi-modules.

So could you please show us the output of the following commands?
apt-config dump
apt-cache policy tp-smapi-modules
apt-cache policy tp-smapi-modules-2.6.29-2-486 tp-smapi-modules-2.6.29-2-686


Best regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

David "DonKult" Kalnischkies