kernel image updates and dependencies

[Phillip Susi]

Onno Benschop wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> A recent update to the kernel in my Gutsy laptop, from 2.6.22-14.21 to
> 2.6.22-15.54, prompted by Update Manager has caused VMware to stop working.
> 
> This is likely because the vmware modules have not yet been updated from
> 2.6.22-14 to 2.6.22-15. I've lodged a bug about this:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-meta/+bug/242505
> 
> My question is this:
> 
>     * How is it possible that this update was installed at all? Isn't
>       this exact issue the reason we have dependencies at all?

Because the kernel does not depend on vmware.  If you installed vmware 
from a package ( not in the repositories ) then that package must not be 
configured to properly depend on a specific kernel version.