Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Pascal Hambourg]

On 12/03/2026 at 10:48, Pascal Hambourg wrote:


In addition, it appears that language tasks are selected only during the 
initial installation. So if a desktop environment is selected by running 
tasksel after the initial installation, then associated desktop language 
tasks are not selected.
"Base" language tasks use the "lang" test which marks them for install 
only on new installation. Sounds fair. Desktop language tasks enhance 
base language tasks and desktop tasks but enhancing tasks are marked for 
install only if all enhanced tasked are marked for install and not if 
they are already installed. I believe this is wrong and could be fixed 
easily:


diff --git a/tasksel.pl b/tasksel.pl
index 80f2a75b..8abc7264 100755
--- a/tasksel.pl
+++ b/tasksel.pl
@@ -836,7 +836,7 @@ sub interactive {
}

foreach my $dep (@deps) {
-   if (! $dep->{_install}) {
+   if (! $dep->{_install} && ! 
task_installed($dep) {

$task->{_install} = 0;
}
}

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Pascal Hambourg]

On 12/03/2026 at 15:15, Jeremy Bicha wrote:


Please file a bug or merge request against
cinnamon-desktop-environment to ask them to either remove the
www-browser alternative or replace it with gnome-www-browser.


I should have mentioned I already filed bug #1130127.

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Jeremy Bicha]

On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 10:11 AM Pascal Hambourg  wrote:
> On 12/03/2026 at 14:46, Jeremy Bicha wrote:
> > The recommendation is handled by cinnamon-desktop-environment
> But according to
>
> # apt-get -no-act install cinnamon-desktop-environment
>
> it doesn't install firefox. I guess this is because it also recommends
> cups which depends on cups-filters which recommends lynx (why ?) which
> provides www-browser which is an alternative to firefox.

Please file a bug or merge request against
cinnamon-desktop-environment to ask them to either remove the
www-browser alternative or replace it with gnome-www-browser. The
browser is a recommended dependency not a hard dependency, in part
because we want people to have the freedom to use a Flatpak or Snap
version instead, so it's ok to not list every single alternative or
use a virtual package like gnome-www-browser.

Thank you,
Jeremy Bícha

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Pascal Hambourg]

On 12/03/2026 at 14:46, Jeremy Bicha wrote:

On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 5:49 AM Pascal Hambourg  wrote:

- task-cinnamon-desktop does not install firefox any more after commit
eb7854986 (not uploaded yet)


The recommendation is handled by cinnamon-desktop-environment

But according to

# apt-get -no-act install cinnamon-desktop-environment

it doesn't install firefox. I guess this is because it also recommends 
cups which depends on cups-filters which recommends lynx (why ?) which 
provides www-browser which is an alternative to firefox.

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Jeremy Bicha]

On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 5:49 AM Pascal Hambourg  wrote:
> - task-cinnamon-desktop does not install firefox any more after commit
> eb7854986 (not uploaded yet)

The recommendation is handled by cinnamon-desktop-environment, but
your other points look correct.

> Is all this intended ?

I have begun some reorganization and updating of language tasks to try
to fix some of the inconsistencies.

https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/tasksel/-/merge_requests/?author_username=jbicha

Thank you,
Jeremy Bícha

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Pascal Hambourg]

On 01/03/2026 at 23:39, Cyril Brulebois wrote:


I'm not saying the current situation is ideal (see Jeremy's reply
regarding the “subtle difference” for example), but it would seem
reasonable to me to start by having some kind of before/after analysis.


Reminder: "subtle difference" = language desktop tasks are selected only 
if the "desktop" task (displayed as "Debian desktop environment") is 
selected and not if only specific desktop environment tasks (GNOME, 
KDE...) are selected.


In addition, it appears that language tasks are selected only during the 
initial installation. So if a desktop environment is selected by running 
tasksel after the initial installation, then associated desktop language 
tasks are not selected.


Also there is a possible issue related to web browser and libreoffice in 
desktop tasks.


A typical task-$LANG-desktop package recommends firefox-esr-l10n-$LANG, 
libreoffice-l10n-$LANG, libreoffice-help-$LANG which depend on 
firefox-esr and libreoffice-core. This makes sense only if all desktop 
environment tasks are expected to install firefox and libreoffice. Are 
they ?


AFAICS in unstable, most do but there are exceptions:
- task-gnome-flashback-desktop does not install libreoffice
- task-cinnamon-desktop does not install firefox any more after commit 
eb7854986 (not uploaded yet)

- task-phosh-desktop installs neither but epiphany-browser
- task-lomiri-desktop and task-lomiri-tablet install morph-browser but 
also firefox-esr due to dependencies

Is all this intended ?

Other issue: task-lomiri-tablet depends on task-desktop but is not in 
its Recommends alternative list. As a result, another desktop 
environment (task-xfce-desktop) is also installed to satisfy this 
dependency.

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Pascal Hambourg]

On 01/03/2026 at 23:39, Cyril Brulebois wrote:


*If* we were to do that, there should definitely be some kind of
analysis comparing the situation as it is now, and what it would be if
A (task-desktop) were to be totally taken out of the equation.


Current state (IIUC):

selected tasks: desktop, $DE-desktop -> installed packages:
 task-desktop,
 task-$LANG-desktop,
 task-$DE-desktop,
 task-$LANG-$DE-desktop

selected tasks: desktop -> installed packages:
 task-desktop,
 task-$LANG-desktop,
 task-$DE-desktop (package Recommends, $DE = gnome by default)
 # task-$LANG-$DE-desktop not installed

selected tasks: $DE-desktop -> installed packages:
 task-desktop (package Depends),
 task-$DE-desktop,
 # task-$LANG-desktop not installed
 # task-$LANG-$DE-desktop not installed

If task desktop did not exist, it would be basically the same as 
selecting a $DE-desktop task and deselecting the desktop task:


selected tasks: $DE-desktop -> installed packages:
 task-desktop (package Depends),
 task-$DE-desktop,
 # task-$LANG-desktop not installed
 # task-$LANG-$DE-desktop not installed

I do not see any simple way to fix this with current package and task 
dependencies. One way may be to change the Parent task dependency so 
that a parent task is automatically selected by a child task.

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Pascal Hambourg]

On 01/03/2026 at 00:36, Jeremy Bícha wrote:

I noticed a subtle difference today. I installed Debian in Hebrew
today with the Testing net installer. I chose Hebrew because it is one
of the several languages that currently has a -desktop and a
-gnome-desktop. (Many languages currently do not have both of these.)
If I installed GNOME and Debian desktop, task-hebrew,
task-hebrew-desktop, and task-hebrew-gnome-desktop were installed. If
I deselected Debian desktop and only installed GNOME (and standard
system utilities), task-hebrew was installed but neither of the hebrew
desktop tasks were installed.


What makes things complicated is that there are two layers of dependencies:
- tasksel task dependencies (Parent, Enhances...)
- apt/dpkg task package dependencies (Depends, Recommends...)

E.g. with gnome and hebrew tasks (only relevant dependencies are shown):

Task: desktop
Key: task-desktop

Task: gnome-desktop
Parent: desktop
Key: task-gnome-desktop

Task: hebrew-desktop
Enhances: desktop, hebrew
Key: task-hebrew-desktop

Task: hebrew-gnome-desktop
Enhances: gnome-desktop, hebrew-desktop
Key: task-hebrew-gnome-desktop

Package: task-desktop
Recommends: task-gnome-desktop | task-xfce-desktop (...)

Package: task-gnome-desktop
Depends: task-desktop

Task dependencies are described in tasksel README:

Key:
"The Key field lists packages that are essential to the task. If those 
packages are not available, then the task will not be available either."


Enhances:
"If a task has a Enhances field, then it should only be installed if all 
the tasks listed as in that field are installed. (...) Such tasks are

hidden from the menu."

Parent:
"Tasks can be children of a parent task, indicated by using the Parent 
field. (...) This only controls the display; child tasks are displayed 
nested underneath the parent. (...) Selecting the parent task does not 
select any or all of the child tasks, nor does selecting a child task 
ensure that the parent task is installed."


So task gnome-desktop does not pull task desktop, tasks hebrew-desktop 
and hebrew-gnome-desktop are not pulled and no package dependency pulls 
packages task-hebrew-desktop and task-hebrew-gnome-desktop.



This behavior feels like a bug to me.

It would feel logical to me that Parent: pulls the parent task too.

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Holger Wansing]

Hi,

Am 1. März 2026 23:39:34 MEZ schrieb Cyril Brulebois :
>
>The initial report was: “A and B were selected, I deselected A, and
>still B got installed”.
>
>You're proposing to remove A altogether, while calling that “removing
>hierarchical structure”. The latter looks to be about something visual,
>while the former is about changing which packages to install.
>
>*If* we were to do that, there should definitely be some kind of
>analysis comparing the situation as it is now, and what it would be if
>A (task-desktop) were to be totally taken out of the equation.
>
>
>I'm not saying the current situation is ideal (see Jeremy's reply
>regarding the “subtle difference” for example), but it would seem
>reasonable to me to start by having some kind of before/after analysis.
>
>So far I've only read “we don't lose too much functionality”. That
>*might* be the case, but I would feel much more confident if someone had
>actually checked and reported that each and every desktop environment
>actually pulls task-desktop anyway (this was definitely *not* obvious to
>me before actually looking).

Obviously there was a lack of communication here on my side, sorry.
My idea was to ask in the first run, if people could agree in the removal of 
the hierachical structure, without any patch.

But then I thought, I should try it out first, if I can get it done and if it 
works at all, before pushing it to the public.

My outcome to this bug was then a ready patch, without any info about it works 
together and that my tests were successful and why.

Sorry, issue on my side.
I'm not good in that apparently.

Additionally, this all could mean, that the task-desktop package could go away 
completely, but I did not check that.


Holger




-- 
Sent from /e/ OS on Fairphone3

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Cyril Brulebois]

Holger Wansing  (2026-03-01):
> Cyril Brulebois  wrote (Sun, 1 Mar 2026 01:00:41 +0100):
> > Holger Wansing  (2026-03-01):
> > Regardless of the documentation aspect that you haven't replied to, it
> > looks to me like we're not really talking about “Removing hierarchical
> > structure for desktop environments”, but we're talking about removing
> > task-desktop from the equation entirely, and I think this is a rather
> > different discussion.
> 
> Right, I did not comment on the documentation aspect, sorry.
> 
> But IMHO this is not the same as really fixing an issue (if that's
> possible): even if something is documented in the installation-guide,
> that does not mean that users read (or understand) it.

The initial report was: “A and B were selected, I deselected A, and
still B got installed”.

You're proposing to remove A altogether, while calling that “removing
hierarchical structure”. The latter looks to be about something visual,
while the former is about changing which packages to install.

*If* we were to do that, there should definitely be some kind of
analysis comparing the situation as it is now, and what it would be if
A (task-desktop) were to be totally taken out of the equation.


I'm not saying the current situation is ideal (see Jeremy's reply
regarding the “subtle difference” for example), but it would seem
reasonable to me to start by having some kind of before/after analysis.

So far I've only read “we don't lose too much functionality”. That
*might* be the case, but I would feel much more confident if someone had
actually checked and reported that each and every desktop environment
actually pulls task-desktop anyway (this was definitely *not* obvious to
me before actually looking).


Cheers,
-- 
Cyril Brulebois (k...@debian.org)
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant


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Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Holger Wansing]

Hi,

Stéphane Blondon  wrote (Sun, 1 Mar 2026 21:49:16 
+0100):
> I'm naive about how tasksel works but, from a user point of view,
> choosing the graphical environment and the servers are two different
> needs so it could be two different screens in the installer.
> Perhaps, it could be another way to simplify the interface?

That's the core idea behind tasksel I think:
It covers the whole area of use cases for a Debian machine, from a minimal
console-only installation (that can be turned into everything you want
afterwards) over servers to desktop systems (and on top, since some time
it can also be tuned via the Debian Pure Blends installation).


Holger


-- 
Holger Wansing 
PGP-Fingerprint: 496A C6E8 1442 4B34 8508  3529 59F1 87CA 156E B076

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Stéphane Blondon]

Le dim. 1 mars 2026 à 01:03, Cyril Brulebois  a écrit :
> Holger Wansing  (2026-03-01):
> AFAICT this implementation meant we wouldn't need to touch debconf
> frontends to teach them about some minimal tree-like structure…
>
> > Maybe we could add an "empty" line (like "---") after the desktop
> > entries, to visually separate the desktops from the rest?
>
> … and that looks like an attempt to work around a limitation in debconf
> frontends by replacing a kludge with another one.


I'm naive about how tasksel works but, from a user point of view,
choosing the graphical environment and the servers are two different
needs so it could be two different screens in the installer.
Perhaps, it could be another way to simplify the interface?

-- 
Stéphane

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Holger Wansing]

Hi,

Cyril Brulebois  wrote (Sun, 1 Mar 2026 01:00:41 +0100):
> Holger Wansing  (2026-03-01):
> Regardless of the documentation aspect that you haven't replied to, it
> looks to me like we're not really talking about “Removing hierarchical
> structure for desktop environments”, but we're talking about removing
> task-desktop from the equation entirely, and I think this is a rather
> different discussion.

Right, I did not comment on the documentation aspect, sorry.
But IMHO this is not the same as really fixing an issue (if that's possible):
even if something is documented in the installation-guide, that does not mean
that users read (or understand) it.

But that's only my opinion.

Holger


-- 
Holger Wansing 
PGP-Fingerprint: 496A C6E8 1442 4B34 8508  3529 59F1 87CA 156E B076

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Cyril Brulebois]

Holger Wansing  (2026-03-01):
> It's mostly a visual topic. But we don't loose much functionality, if
> we drop that.

(Same disclaimer as previously.)

AFAICT this implementation meant we wouldn't need to touch debconf
frontends to teach them about some minimal tree-like structure…

> Maybe we could add an "empty" line (like "---") after the desktop
> entries, to visually separate the desktops from the rest?

… and that looks like an attempt to work around a limitation in debconf
frontends by replacing a kludge with another one.


Regardless of the documentation aspect that you haven't replied to, it
looks to me like we're not really talking about “Removing hierarchical
structure for desktop environments”, but we're talking about removing
task-desktop from the equation entirely, and I think this is a rather
different discussion.


Cheers,
-- 
Cyril Brulebois (k...@debian.org)
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant


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Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Holger Wansing]

Hi,

Am 28. Februar 2026 23:20:30 MEZ schrieb Pascal Hambourg 
:
>On 28/02/2026 at 17:03, Cyril Brulebois wrote:
>> Holger Wansing  (2026-02-28):
>>> I wonder why we have this hierarchical structure for the desktops at all ???
>
>Is it only visual or also functional in any way ?

It's mostly a visual topic. But we don't loose much functionality, if we drop 
that.
That is:
if you choose only the "Debian desktop environment", you get the default 
desktop for your architecture.

In my proposal you have to choose manually which desktop you want.
However, if the machine you are installing has enough RAM and free harddisk 
space (2G + 5G), the default desktop for your arch (GNOME in most cases ATM) 
will be pre-selected anyway when calling tasksel.
I have tested, that this still works after my proposed changings.

>>> And if we could switch from the current
>> […]
>>> to something like
>
>[Remove "Debian desktop environment" entry and append "desktop" to other 
>desktop task descriptions]
>
>> I'm not sure that's a good idea, it makes it much harder to spot/ignore
>> desktop stuff and focus on critical things like whether to install an
>> SSH server… Especially after the extra additions to the list of desktops…
>
>True, but isn't it worth getting rid of endless users' confusion about what 
>the "Debian desktop environment" task actually does ?

+1

Maybe we could add an "empty" line (like "---") after the desktop entries, to 
visually separate the desktops from the rest?


Holger

-- 
Sent from /e/ OS on Fairphone3

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Jeremy Bícha]

I noticed a subtle difference today. I installed Debian in Hebrew
today with the Testing net installer. I chose Hebrew because it is one
of the several languages that currently has a -desktop and a
-gnome-desktop. (Many languages currently do not have both of these.)
If I installed GNOME and Debian desktop, task-hebrew,
task-hebrew-desktop, and task-hebrew-gnome-desktop were installed. If
I deselected Debian desktop and only installed GNOME (and standard
system utilities), task-hebrew was installed but neither of the hebrew
desktop tasks were installed.

This detail is not mentioned in the Debian Installation Guide 6.3.6.2
and it's not directly stated in
https://salsa.debian.org/images-team/debian-cd/-/blob/master/tasks/README.tasksel
either, although line 40 suggested to me that something like this was
possible.

This behavior feels like a bug to me.

Thank you,
Jeremy Bícha

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Cyril Brulebois]

Pascal Hambourg  (2026-02-28):
> On 28/02/2026 at 17:03, Cyril Brulebois wrote:
> > I'm not sure that's a good idea, it makes it much harder to spot/ignore
> > desktop stuff and focus on critical things like whether to install an
> > SSH server… Especially after the extra additions to the list of desktops…
> 
> True, but isn't it worth getting rid of endless users' confusion about what
> the "Debian desktop environment" task actually does ?

We (almost) never hear about people who are happy with the current
situation, so “user confusion” on its own is hardly a good reason.

One could argue this is something that should be documented in the
installation guide, and easy to find by looking up “desktop” or “task”
in its table of contents.


Cheers,
-- 
Cyril Brulebois (k...@debian.org)
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant


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Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Pascal Hambourg]

On 28/02/2026 at 17:03, Cyril Brulebois wrote:

Holger Wansing  (2026-02-28):

I wonder why we have this hierarchical structure for the desktops at all ???


Is it only visual or also functional in any way ?


And if we could switch from the current

[…]

to something like


[Remove "Debian desktop environment" entry and append "desktop" to other 
desktop task descriptions]



I'm not sure that's a good idea, it makes it much harder to spot/ignore
desktop stuff and focus on critical things like whether to install an
SSH server… Especially after the extra additions to the list of desktops…


True, but isn't it worth getting rid of endless users' confusion about 
what the "Debian desktop environment" task actually does ?

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Olaf van der Spek]

Op za 28 feb 2026 om 17:03 schreef Cyril Brulebois :
> I'm not sure that's a good idea, it makes it much harder to spot/ignore
> desktop stuff and focus on critical things like whether to install an
> SSH server… Especially after the extra additions to the list of desktops…

Perhaps the other entries can go at the top and the list of DEs can go
at the bottom.

> > > web server

It'd be nice to know which one. Apache?

-- 
Olaf

Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Cyril Brulebois]

Hi,

Holger Wansing  (2026-02-28):
> I wonder why we have this hierarchical structure for the desktops at all ???
> 
> And if we could switch from the current
[…]
> to something like
> 
> 
> GNOME desktop
> Xfce desktop
> GNOME Flashback desktop
> KDE Plasma desktop
> Cinnamon desktop
> MATE desktop
> LXDE desktop
> LXQt desktop
> Lomiri desktop
> Phosh mobile desktop
> web server
> SSH server
> standard system utilities
> Choose a Debian Blend for installation

I'm not sure that's a good idea, it makes it much harder to spot/ignore
desktop stuff and focus on critical things like whether to install an
SSH server… Especially after the extra additions to the list of desktops…


Cheers,
-- 
Cyril Brulebois (k...@debian.org)
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant


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Bug#1129195: tasksel: Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

[Holger Wansing]

Hi,

Pascal Hambourg  wrote (Sat, 28 Feb 2026 11:36:25 
+0100):
> On 27/02/2026 at 11:52, Olaf wrote:
> > 
> > In the software selection dialog, the Debian desktop environment checkbox
> > doesn't seem to do anything. Unchecking it doesn't uncheck GNOME and
> > it'll still install GNOME.
> 
> Only if GNOME is checked.
> 
> > I think it should uncheck all desktop environments.
> 
> I am not sure if the "multiselect" debconf dialog type used by tasksel 
> can support this kind of hierarchical selection.
> 
> > Checking it when no DE is checked should probably do something as well.
> It does: it installs the first available desktop environment. Maybe this 
> is a bit unintuitive.

This all has been a long-standing issue, really.

I wonder why we have this hierarchical structure for the desktops at all ???

And if we could switch from the current


Debian desktop environment
... GNOME
... Xfce
... GNOME Flashback
... KDE Plasma
... Cinnamon
... MATE
... LXDE
... LXQt
... Lomiri
... Phosh
web server
SSH server
standard system utilities
Choose a Debian Blend for installation


to something like


GNOME desktop
Xfce desktop
GNOME Flashback desktop
KDE Plasma desktop
Cinnamon desktop
MATE desktop
LXDE desktop
LXQt desktop
Lomiri desktop
Phosh mobile desktop
web server
SSH server
standard system utilities
Choose a Debian Blend for installation



I have worked out a diff to achive this (that is: remove the "Parent: desktop"
lines, remove the entry for the "Debian desktop environment" and adjust the 
"Relevance" to get the same order as before).

Patch attached.


Holger


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Holger Wansing 
PGP-Fingerprint: 496A C6E8 1442 4B34 8508  3529 59F1 87CA 156E B076
>From e4a5705bbd098a96aaae6dacb851c6b0d1775635 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Holger Wansing 
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2026 16:36:56 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Remove hierarchical structure for desktop environments

---
 tasks/blendsel| 2 +-
 tasks/cinnamon-desktop| 3 +--
 tasks/desktop | 6 --
 tasks/gnome-desktop   | 1 -
 tasks/gnome-flashback-desktop | 3 +--
 tasks/kde-desktop | 3 +--
 tasks/laptop  | 2 +-
 tasks/lomiri-desktop  | 3 +--
 tasks/lomiri-tablet   | 3 +--
 tasks/lxde-desktop| 1 -
 tasks/lxqt-desktop| 3 +--
 tasks/mate-desktop| 1 -
 tasks/phosh-desktop   | 3 +--
 tasks/ssh-server  | 1 +
 tasks/standard| 2 +-
 tasks/web-server  | 2 +-
 tasks/xfce-desktop| 1 -
 17 files changed, 12 insertions(+), 28 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 tasks/desktop

diff --git a/tasks/blendsel b/tasks/blendsel
index f5dc0331..3ef56dcf 100644
--- a/tasks/blendsel
+++ b/tasks/blendsel
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Task: blendsel
-Relevance: 10
+Relevance: 16
 Section: user
 Key:
   task-blendsel
diff --git a/tasks/cinnamon-desktop b/tasks/cinnamon-desktop
index 78acab42..0d887fc3 100644
--- a/tasks/cinnamon-desktop
+++ b/tasks/cinnamon-desktop
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 Task: cinnamon-desktop
-Parent: desktop
 Test-default-desktop: 3 cinnamon
-Relevance: 6
+Relevance: 5
 Section: user
 Key:
   task-cinnamon-desktop
diff --git a/tasks/desktop b/tasks/desktop
deleted file mode 100644
index 6b1a993f..
--- a/tasks/desktop
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-Task: desktop
-Relevance: 1
-Section: user
-Test-desktop: 1
-Key:
-  task-desktop
diff --git a/tasks/gnome-desktop b/tasks/gnome-desktop
index 53caf8c6..4ca68d09 100644
--- a/tasks/gnome-desktop
+++ b/tasks/gnome-desktop
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 Task: gnome-desktop
 Relevance: 1
-Parent: desktop
 Test-default-desktop: 3 gnome
 Section: user
 Key:
diff --git a/tasks/gnome-flashback-desktop b/tasks/gnome-flashback-desktop
index b7875ea3..94d1dd6a 100644
--- a/tasks/gnome-flashback-desktop
+++ b/tasks/gnome-flashback-desktop
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 Task: gnome-flashback-desktop
-Relevance: 5
-Parent: desktop
+Relevance: 3
 Test-default-desktop: 3 gnome-flashback
 Section: user
 Key:
diff --git a/tasks/kde-desktop b/tasks/kde-desktop
index f0f01cda..5e2c01b9 100644
--- a/tasks/kde-desktop
+++ b/tasks/kde-desktop
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 Task: kde-desktop
-Relevance: 5
-Parent: desktop
+Relevance: 4
 Test-default-desktop: 3 kde
 Section: user
 Key:
diff --git a/tasks/laptop b/tasks/laptop
index c2cd8e12..96fefb32 100644
--- a/tasks/laptop
+++ b/tasks/laptop
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Task: laptop
 Section: user
 Test-laptop: 1
-Relevance: 9
+Relevance: 12
 Key:
   task-laptop
diff --git a/tasks/lomiri-desktop b/tasks/lomiri-desktop
index 571293dd..5d7e6515 100644
--- a/tasks/lomiri-desktop
+++ b/tasks/lomiri-desktop
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 Task: lomiri-desktop
-Relevance: 8
-Parent: desktop
+Relevance: 9
 Test-default-desktop: 3 lomiri
 Section: user
 Key:
diff --git a/tasks/lomiri-tablet b/tasks/lomiri-tablet
index b15fe24b..70d1ca28 100644
--- a/tasks/lomiri-tablet
+++ b/tasks/lomiri-tablet
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 Task: lomiri-tablet
-Relevance: 8
-Parent: desktop
+Relevance: 10
 # Only perform one test, the table