** Description changed:

  [Impact]
  
+ * Inability to use aptitude on multi-arch systems.  Any action which
+ results in a packaging conflict, or otherwise broken package, invokes
+ the problem resolver which will proceed to remove *all* foreign-arch
+ packages.
+ 
+ The packages are removed always, even if they are unrelated to the
+ problem being resolved.  In the usual case, the problem resolver is
+ unable to find any solution which does not involve removing all foreign-
+ arch packages.
+ 
+ * Complete lack of upstream support for aptitude, regardless of whether
+ any specific issue appears to be related to multi-arch.
+ 
+ Upstream does not provide any support for aptitude where it is installed on a 
multi-arch system unless all of these conditions are met:
+ - it is at least version 0.6.6; and
+ - attached multiarch-conflicts.patch is applied.
+ 
+ At this point Ubuntu is 100% provider of support for aptitude on
+ Oneiric, Precise, and Quantal.
+ 
  [Fix]
+ 
+ As attached.  Update the problem resolver to be more informed about 
multi-arch packages and specifically the implicit package relations associated
+ with them.
  
  [Test Case]
  1. Enable multiarch (should be automatic on new oneiric systems)
  2. Install an i386 package on amd64 (like flashplugin-installer:i386)
  3. Mark something with a lot of dependencies for installation
  4. On the confirmation screen, try to remove on of the dependencies (aptitude 
will now fail to perform upgrades when there's a package conflict w/out 
removing the i386 libs)
  
  This renders aptitude painful on a multiarch enabled system (default in
  oneiric).
  
  [Workaround]
  1. If you can survive without 32 bit libraries, just comment out the single 
line in /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/multiarch; or
  2. Use another package manager (e.g. apt-get, synaptic, or Software Center)
  3. Disable the problem resolver by adding this line in /etc/apt/apt.conf:
  
  Aptitude::ProblemResolver::StepLimit "0";
  
  [Regression Potential]
  
+ * Patch is of moderate size but requires someone with strong APT
+ knowledge to verify.
+ 
+ * Some package relations, particularly conflicts and breaks, may be
+ wrongly ignored and packages not identified as broken by aptitude.  This
+ can leave a system in a broken state and/or result in dpkg errors.
+ 
+ * Any complex dependency situation is potentially handled incorrectly.
+ 
+ * Already in Wheezy and Sid, suitable for Quantal.
+ 
+ ** Do not even consider applying this patch to SRU without it being
+ first thoroughly inspected by a seasoned APT person.  If you have never
+ looked deep in to the workings of, say, class pkgProblemResolver
+ (libapt-pkg) or the aptitude problem resolver, then you are probably
+ underqualified to inspect the patch. **
+ 
  [Original Report]
  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
  Package: aptitude 0.6.4-1ubuntu2
  Architecture: amd64

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/831768

Title:
  aptitude cannot handle conflicts with multiarch enabled

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