Why are packages being held back

[Derek Broughton]

Douglas Phillipson wrote:

> Terence Simpson wrote:
>> Douglas Phillipson wrote:
>>> When doing apt-get upgrade I get the message:
>>>
>>> The following packages have been kept back:
>>>   hal istanbul
>>> 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
>>>
>>> Why is this happening?  Are these possibly broken packages or something?
>>>   
>> Whenever the upgrade of a package requires the installation/removal of
>> another package it's "held back" when you run apt-get upgrade. The way
>> to get it to work is to run apt-get dist-upgrade
> 
> Thanks, yours was the best answer...  It worked.

No kidding.  I'm not at all sure what the point of the anti-Windows diatribe
was.

It may not always be the best idea to simply use "dist-upgrade" just because
something's held back.  Especially if the list of held packages is large.
Use:

# aptitude install hal

To see why "hal" is held back.  It will tell you what else needs to be
installed/removed, and ask if that's what you want.
-- 
derek