You are here

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

Submitted by Druss on Sun, 2007-11-04 12:08

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

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

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

If you are afraid
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
to know the missing package and install it using
sudo apt-get install .

Then just run
sudo apt-get upgrade
again.