[aklug] ubuntu likes to install bunches of irrelevant packages?

From: Lee <lee@afabco.org>
Date: Sun Mar 15 2009 - 11:04:00 AKDT

Playing a bit with ubuntu, and have a couple of questions:

Trying to install mdadm, but apt-get says it also wants to install a whole mess of
irrelevant 'dependencies'.

    # apt-get install mdadm
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    The following extra packages will be installed:
    citadel-common citadel-mta citadel-server db4.6-util libcitadel1 libical0 libsieve2-1
    Recommended packages:
    mail-transport-agent
    The following NEW packages will be installed:
    citadel-common citadel-mta citadel-server db4.6-util libcitadel1 libical0
libsieve2-1 mdadm
    0 upgraded, 8 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Need to get 1330kB of archives.
    After this operation, 5247kB of additional disk space will be used.
    Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n

Just to make sure that mdadm is the raid handler in ubuntu and not something else:

    tool to administer Linux MD arrays (software RAID)
    The mdadm utility can be used to create, manage, and monitor MD
    (multi-disk) arrays for software RAID or multipath I/O.

    This package automatically configures mdadm to assemble arrays during the
    system startup process. If not needed, this functionality can be disabled

.

First question: how do I fix this so I just get the raid package(s), not the useless stuff?

Second question: what in the world does groupware have to do with raid arrays?

So next I go to install smartmontools, and it also wants to install irrelevant packages:

    # apt-get install smartmontools
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    The following extra packages will be installed:
    bsd-mailx exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light mailx
    Suggested packages:
    eximon4 exim4-doc-html exim4-doc-info libmail-spf-query-perl swaks
    The following NEW packages will be installed:
    bsd-mailx exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light mailx smartmontools
    0 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Need to get 2267kB of archives.
    After this operation, 4977kB of additional disk space will be used.
    Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
    Abort.

This indicates a disturbing trend...

Same first question: How do I only install the package(s) I want?

Second question: Is this sort of thing typical with ubuntu?

Thanks!
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Received on Sun Mar 15 11:04:10 2009

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