Bug#449040: update-manager: Smart Upgrade removes packages with dependency problems without confirmation

[Alain Kalker]

Package: update-manager
Version: 0.68.debian-2
Severity: grave

In contrast to synaptic, update-manager's "Smart Upgrade" function
doesn't ask for confirmation of changes when an upgrade would cause
packages which would end up with dependency problems are to be removed.

Cases in point: the update of network-manager to version 0.6.5-1 caused
network-manager-gnome to be removed because the new binary package was
not yet in unstable. More recently, an update to apt caused all
packages which depended on libapt-pkg-libc6.6-6-4.6 to be removed. This
was an extremely grave situation, because it removed aptitude and most
of the other package management tools, including synaptic and
update-manager. Fortunately, apt-get was not removed, so the situation
could be remedied.

IMHO update-manager "Smart Upgrade" should always allow the user to
confirm proposed changes. The actual installations and removals that
are going to be done are not always clear from reading the changelog
entries, and also the user has to choose between "Smart Upgrade" and a
normal upgrade before even being able to view the changelogs. After
reading them, users may have forgotten whether they chose "Smart
Upgrade" or normal upgrade in the first place. (This happened to me
several times.)

Kind regards,

Alain

--- System information. ---
Architecture: i386
Kernel:       Linux 2.6.22

Debian Release: lenny/sid
  500 voip-snapshots-debian-sid snapshots.ekiga.net 
  500 unstable        download.xs4all.nl 
  500 unstable        debian-mirrors.sdinet.de 
  500 unstable        deb.opera.com 
  500 testing         download.xs4all.nl 
  500 testing         debian-mirrors.sdinet.de 
  500 pkg-voip-debian-sid pkg-voip.buildserver.net 
    1 experimental    download.xs4all.nl 

--- Package information. ---
Depends                         (Version) | Installed
=========================================-+-==============
python2.4                                 | 2.4.4-6
python                           (>= 2.4) | 2.4.4-6
python-support                   (>= 0.2) | 0.7.5
gconf2                      (>= 2.10.1-2) | 2.20.0-1
libgnome2-perl                            | 1.040-1
python-gnome2               (>= 2.12.4-1) | 2.20.0-1
python-glade2                (>= 2.8.2-4) | 2.12.0-1
python-vte                                | 1:0.16.9-1
python-dbus                               | 0.82.3-1
synaptic                                  | 0.60+b2
update-manager-core                       | 0.68.debian-2
software-properties-gtk                   | 0.60.debian-1