Stop packages from installing on my system

[kyonides]

Since I'm no hp fan I always uninstall everything I've found that's related to hp like hplip and hpijs and libhpmud0 but every single time I do a dist-upgrade it tries to install the newest version of those packages. How can I prevent Lucid from installing them once again?

[Rog131]

Re: Stop packages from installing on my system

Pinning

Earlier > Topic: how to add exception to dist-upgrade (Solved)

Maybe if you pin the packages to the non existing version ?


Example:

Lucid has: 2vcard (0.5-3 Ubuntu:10.04/lucid)

Writing a pin file:

kdesudo kate /etc/apt/preferences

Package: 2vcard
Pin: version 0.0
Pin-Priority: 1001

i.e pinning the 2vcard to the version 0.0

Updating the package database:

sudo apt-get update

Trying to install (simulation):

sudo apt-get -s install 2vcard

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package 2vcard is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package 2vcard has no installation candidate

Recommended packages installed by default

> 9.04 Releasenotes

Recommended packages installed by default

In accordance with the Debian Policy Manual (which says "The 'Recommends' field should list packages that would be found together with this one in all but unusual installations"), the package management system now installs packages listed in the Recommends: field of other installed packages as well as Depends: by default. If you want to avoid this for specific packages, use apt-get --no-install-recommends; if you want to make this permanent, set APT::Install-Recommends "false"; in /etc/apt/apt.conf. Be aware that this may result in missing features in some programs.

You could make a /etc/apt/apt.conf file and try upgrade. If the hplip and hpijs and libhpmud0 are installed by the "recommendation" then this should solve the unwanted installation problem.


Use the grep

You could grep the apt-show-version output and remove the unwanted packages. An example > A way to do the upgrade and left the KDE 4.3 Beta1 packages to wait.


Use the graphical frontend

Use a graphical package manager ( > FAQ: Package Managers) and handpick the wanted packages to upgrade/install.

[Yuri sss]

Re: Stop packages from installing on my system

In Synaptic, you can simply select the package in question and then select "Package > Lock version".

To prevent installation of recommended packages as dependencies, go to "Settings > Preferences" and uncheck "Consider recommended packages as dependencies".

If you want to see what package some package is pulled in by, select the package, change to the "Dependencies" tab and select "Dependants" from the list.

[kyonides]

Re: Stop packages from installing on my system

I guess it should be /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/some file since /etc/apt/apt.conf doesn't exist in Lucid...