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apt-get-upgrade : "The following packages have been kept back"

If you ever find yourself running into a monotonous

"The following packages have been kept back"

error message when you run sudo apt-get upgrade, then the "fix" is to either run apt-get dist-upgrade which is quicker, but sounds more ... dangerous or to run apt-get install [package list] where package list is a list of all packages that have been kept back.

How this is not considered a bug, I have no idea. Apparently, the package in question depends on a new package which has not yet been installed and the dist-upgrade apparently looks and suggests, while plain upgrade does not.

I wonder how adept and synaptic handle this situation behind the scenes.

Comments

This does not help me, I still have this problem even if updating with dist-upgrade :(

If you can find out which packages depend on the problematic package, you could try installing them directly. Otherwise, you'll want to use adept/synaptic and such.

Another option is to use sudo aptitude dist-upgrade

aptitude sorts out dependencies slightly better than apt-get so it may force it through

Thanks, it's so nice that I found your article! I finally updated the buggy bind9 to the new version.

The sudo apt-get install [the packages kept-back] worked great for me. Thanks!