apt-get want to remove all my packages

Question

My apt-get thinks everything including my xserver gdm and other vital softwares are unnecessary. The following is the output. When I once ran upgrade it did remove evrything and I had to reinstall my OS.

root@BlackDragon:/home/auditor# sudo apt-get install apache2 php5
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  aisleriot ant ant-optional argyll at-spi2-core baobab browser-plugin-gnash
  ca-certificates-java caribou caribou-antler cheese dconf-tools default-jre
  default-jre-headless empathy empathy-common espeak-data file-roller finger
  fonts-cantarell fonts-lyx fonts-opensymbol fonts-sil-gentium
  fonts-sil-gentium-basic fonts-stix gcalctool gdebi gdm3 gedit gedit-common
  gedit-plugins gir1.2-atspi-2.0 gir1.2-gdata-0.0 gir1.2-gnomekeyring-1.0
  gir1.2-goa-1.0 gir1.2-gtop-2.0 gir1.2-gucharmap-2.90
  gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-3.0 gir1.2-rb-3.0 gir1.2-tracker-0.14
  gir1.2-webkit-3.0 gir1.2-wnck-3.0 glchess glines gnash gnash-common gnect
  gnibbles gnobots2 gnome-backgrounds gnome-color-manager gnome-dictionary
  gnome-disk-utility gnome-documents gnome-font-viewer gnome-games
  gnome-games-data gnome-games-extra-data gnome-icon-theme-extras gnome-mag
  gnome-nettool gnome-orca gnome-packagekit gnome-packagekit-data
  gnome-screenshot gnome-shell-extensions gnome-sudoku gnome-system-log
  gnome-tweak-tool gnome-video-effects gnomine gnotravex gnotski gnuchess
  gnuchess-book grilo-plugins-0.1 gtali gucharmap guile-2.0-libs
  hamster-applet hyphen-en-us iagno icedtea-6-jre-cacao icedtea-6-jre-jamvm
  icedtea-netx icedtea-netx-common inkscape iputils-tracepath java-common
  libapache-pom-java libatk-adaptor libatk-adaptor-data libatk-bridge2.0-0
  libatk-wrapper-java libatk-wrapper-java-jni libatspi1.0-0 libatspi2.0-0
  libavahi-gobject0 libavahi-ui-gtk3-0 libblas3gf libbonoboui2-0
  libbonoboui2-common libboost-program-options1.49.0 libboost-thread1.49.0
  libbrlapi0.5 libcaribou-gtk-module libcaribou-gtk3-module libcmis-0.2-0
  libcolamd2.7.1 libcolorblind0 libcommons-beanutils-java
  libcommons-collections3-java libcommons-compress-java
  libcommons-digester-java libcommons-logging-java libcommons-parent-java
  libdb-java libdb-je-java libdb5.1-java libdb5.1-java-jni libdee-1.0-4
  libdiscid0 libdmapsharing-3.0-2 libdotconf1.0 libespeak1 libexttextcat-data
  libexttextcat0 libfs6 libgail-common libgdict-1.0-6 libgdict-common
  libgdu-gtk0 libgeocode-glib0 libgexiv2-1 libglade2-0 libgnome-mag2
  libgnomecanvas2-0 libgnomecanvas2-common libgnomeui-0 libgnomeui-common
  libgpod-common libgpod4 libgraphite2-2.0.0 libgrilo-0.1-0 libgtk-vnc-2.0-0
  libgupnp-av-1.0-2 libgupnp-dlna-1.0-2 libgvnc-1.0-0 libhsqldb-java
  libhyphen0 libicc2 libicu4j-java libimdi0 libjaxp1.3-java libjline-java
  libjtidy-java liblinear-tools liblinear1 liblouis-data liblouis2
  liblucene2-java libmagick++5 libminiupnpc5 libmozjs24d libmtp-common
  libmtp-runtime libmtp9 libmythes-1.2-0 libnatpmp1 libplot2c2 libpstoedit0c2a
  libraw5 libregexp-java libreoffice libreoffice-base libreoffice-base-core
  libreoffice-calc libreoffice-common libreoffice-core libreoffice-draw
  libreoffice-emailmerge libreoffice-evolution libreoffice-filter-binfilter
  libreoffice-filter-mobiledev libreoffice-gnome libreoffice-gtk
  libreoffice-help-en-us libreoffice-impress libreoffice-java-common
  libreoffice-math libreoffice-report-builder-bin libreoffice-style-galaxy
  libreoffice-style-tango libreoffice-writer librhythmbox-core6
  libservlet2.5-java libsofia-sip-ua-glib3 libsofia-sip-ua0 libsonic0
  libspeechd2 libstlport4.6ldbl libsvm-tools libtelepathy-farstream2
  libunique-3.0-0 libvisio-0.0-0 libwnck-common libwnck22 libwpd-0.9-9
  libwpg-0.2-2 libwps-0.2-2 libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
  libxml-commons-external-java libxml-commons-resolver1.1-java libxss1
  libxz-java lightsoff lp-solve mahjongg media-player-info minissdpd
  mobile-broadband-provider-info mythes-en-us nautilus-sendto-empathy
  network-manager-gnome nmap openjdk-6-jre openjdk-6-jre-headless
  openjdk-6-jre-lib p7zip-full perlmagick pstoedit python-brlapi python-gconf
  python-gnome2 python-louis python-mako python-markupsafe python-pyatspi
  python-pyatspi2 python-pyorbit python-speechd python-uno python-wnck
  python-zeitgeist quadrapassel rdesktop rhythmbox rhythmbox-data
  rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder rhythmbox-plugins rygel rygel-playbin
  rygel-preferences rygel-tracker seahorse shotwell shotwell-common
  simple-scan sound-juicer sound-theme-freedesktop speech-dispatcher
  swell-foop task-desktop telepathy-gabble telepathy-idle telepathy-logger
  telepathy-rakia telepathy-salut transmission-common transmission-gtk
  ttf-liberation ttf-sil-gentium-basic tzdata-java uno-libs3 unoconv ure
  vinagre vino x11-apps x11-session-utils x11-xfs-utils xbrlapi
  xdg-user-dirs-gtk xfonts-mathml xinit xorg xulrunner-24.0 zeitgeist-core
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.

It is a fresh install.

Answer 1

You can continue with no problem.

Those are installation packages that are stored in your cache.

There is no problem.

Just continue with your installation and then run sudo apt-get autoremove to free some disk space...

Also, I don't if it is necessary, you can run sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop --reinstall

Answer 2

i'm getting the same thing whenever i install something with apt. to keep those packages you need to tell apt that you still want them by attempting to install them again, eg:

$ sudo apt-get install aisleriot ant ant-optional etc

do not do apt-get autoremove as apt suggests, otherwise you will have no gui and will have to reinstall everything from the commandline!

Answer 3

One of the reason might be you've just remove some important package, which has dependencies on many other packages. It happened with me too, in my case, I knew package that I just removed, re-installing it worked for me.

So you've removed a package on which lot of packages were dependent.

It's like when you install a package-A, which has dependency on package-B, both are installed and when you try to remove package-A, package-B is removed automatically .

---

In your case, by looking at dependencies, it might be a package that was installed when you installed the system.

1. Use history command to see your terminal history and look after recently important package.

2. less /var/log/apt/history.log will help you look in your apt-get history list the package you're removed, re-install them.

Let me know, if you need any more help in it.

Answer 4

Another reason may be that the Ubuntu mirror has stopped being updated. In my case, I changed the mirror after already updating to packages newer than the mirror's versions. Hence why apt-get was so confused.

If this is the cause, changing to the main server (or another updated mirror) should fix it.