Bug#1119668: apt wants to install a lot of Recommends packages when doing full-upgrade
On 1 November 2025 17:13:54 CET, Tomas Janousek <tomi@nomi.cz> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>On Sat, Nov 01, 2025 at 11:44:42AM +0100, Daniel Kamil Kozar wrote:
>> Thanks Julian. Running with Debug::APT::Solver=3 does seem to highlight the
>> actual problem. The issue appears to be caused by Thunar recommending the
>> policykit-1-gnome or polkit-1-auth-agent virtual packages which apt to try
>> installing Cinnamon as the default ("try it") first choice :
>> […]
>
>I ran into the same problem. In my case, it was nm-connection-editor depending on policykit-1-gnome|polkit-1-auth-agent, with policykit-1-gnome being dropped from Debian testing a couple months ago. Trying to apt install polkit-1-auth-agent and picking a suitable alternative fixed the issue for me.
>
>A couple notes/ideas about what would have made this easier to resolve:
>
>1. Debug::APT::Solver=3 is completely undocumented (I tried man apt.conf, and later confirmed by grepping the entire apt sources).
Yes, I mean it's a debugging option. We don't expect you to go debug the apt solver it's barely comprehensible to experts (well the new one may be a lot easier :D).
Dumps with Dir::Log::Solver is the preferred option for reporting bugs, also because if we fix them we can add them to the solver regression test suite.
I think I can add automatic dumping of the solver request whenever you answer no at the prompt which would possibly help, then you can just attach the file.
>
>2. apt could have hinted that policykit-1-gnome will become autoremovable after the upgrade that installs cinnamon, then I might have had an idea what to look for.
It simply might not be auto removable because the protection of auto installed dependencies protects all or dependencies.
Possibly we should restrict the obsolete demotion to packages where the alternatives conflict with it.
>
>3. Perhaps a more user-friendly debug option might be added that only shows info about dependency chains for newly installed packages during full-upgrade? If I could do `apt full-upgrade -VV` or something and get an output like "nm-connection-editor → policykit-1-gnome|polkit-1-auth-agent → cinnamon" then I'd immediately know what's going on and what needs to be done to resolve this.
Could be nice yeah, good idea!
>
>4. Or perhaps if `apt full-upgrade` told me months ago that policykit-1-gnome dropped from the archives and needs replacing?
Hi,
it's mostly a bit shocking now because the new solver has that logic to replace obsolete packages but the old one doesn't.
>
>Also note that in today's debian:testing docker image, apt install nm-connection-editor makes different choices depending on solver. 3.0 tries to install cinnamon, legacy solver goes with xfce-polkit.
>
That's correct yes, the old solver ordered by index in cache, the new one alphabetically if all else is equal to increase reproducibility across systems.
--
sent from my phone, excuse the brevity, if any
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