SOLVED: 4.0 issue: When installing -virtual or -server packages, -generic is also installed

[fpjs]

Hi all.

I am trying to install the new -server and -virtual packages on my machines (all running Ubuntu 8.04.2)

This worked fine on 3.5u2-u4, but now the installation seems also to depend on the generic kernel.

How can I get around this? I only want the -virtual package installed on some servers.

Here's a grab from the console:

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root@server:~# aptitude install vmware-tools-nox vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-virtual Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Reading extended state information Initializing package states... Done Building tag database... Done The following NEW packages will be automatically installed: linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic linux-image-2.6.24-23-virtual vmware-open-vm-tools-common vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-2.6.24-16-generic vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-2.6.24-23-virtual vmware-open-vm-tools-nox vmware-tools-common The following NEW packages will be installed: linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic linux-image-2.6.24-23-virtual vmware-open-vm-tools-common vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-2.6.24-16-generic vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-2.6.24-23-virtual vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-virtual vmware-open-vm-tools-nox vmware-tools-common vmware-tools-nox 0 packages upgraded, 9 newly installed, 0 to remove and 28 not upgraded. Need to get 31.6MB of archives. After unpacking 100MB will be used. Do you want to continue? Y/n/? n Abort. root@server:~#

[fpjs]

Huh, this is very strange behavior from apt. Apparently the order of the packages matters to the package manager.

When you switch the packages on the command line, and use this command:

aptitude install vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-server vmware-tools-nox

instead of this one:

aptitude install vmware-tools-nox vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-server

you get the desired result, no generic kernel and no generic vmware packages:

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root@server:~# aptitude install vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-server vmware-tools-nox Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Reading extended state information Initializing package states... Done Writing extended state information... Done Building tag database... Done The following NEW packages will be automatically installed: linux-image-2.6.24-23-server vmware-open-vm-tools-common vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-2.6.24-23-server vmware-open-vm-tools-nox vmware-tools-common The following NEW packages will be installed: linux-image-2.6.24-23-server vmware-open-vm-tools-common vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-2.6.24-23-server vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-server vmware-open-vm-tools-nox vmware-tools-common vmware-tools-nox 0 packages upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 28 not upgraded. Need to get 23.0MB of archives. After unpacking 73.9MB will be used. Do you want to continue? Y/n/? n Abort. root@server:~#

Hope this helps some of you out there using the OSP's.