[Bug 831768] [PATCH] aptitude: resolver always removes foreign-arch packages

[Daniel Hartwig]

Attached patch updates the problem resolver to better handle
multi-arch situations so that it no longer gets stuck trying to remove
all foreign-arch packages.

Affected users and interested persons should perform testing and
review on this.  The changes are relatively small but there is room
for regressions in complex dependency situations.

The patch has been developed and tested with aptitude 0.6.8.

If this works or does not work for you please comment, particularly if
you experience regressions.


** Attachment added: "multiarch-conflicts.patch"
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/831768/+attachment/3247354/+files/multiarch-conflicts.patch

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/831768

Title:
  aptitude cannot handle conflicts with multiarch enabled

Status in aptitude:
  Confirmed
Status in “aptitude” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in “aptitude” source package in Oneiric:
  Triaged
Status in “aptitude” source package in Precise:
  Triaged
Status in Baltix GNU/Linux:
  Incomplete
Status in “aptitude” package in Debian:
  New

Bug description:
  TEST CASE:
  1. Enable multiarch (should be automatic on new oneiric systems)
  2. Install an i386 package on amd64 (like flashplugin-installer:i386)
  3. Mark something with a lot of dependencies for installation
  4. On the confirmation screen, try to remove on of the dependencies (aptitude will now fail to perform upgrades when there's a package conflict w/out removing the i386 libs)

  This renders aptitude painful on a multiarch enabled system (default
  in oneiric).

  WORKAROUND:
  1. If you can survive without 32 bit libraries, just comment out the single line in /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/multiarch; or
  2. Use another package manager (e.g. apt-get, synaptic, or Software Center)
  3. Disable the problem resolver by adding this line in /etc/apt/apt.conf:

  Aptitude::ProblemResolver::StepLimit "0";

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
  Package: aptitude 0.6.4-1ubuntu2
  Architecture: amd64

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