They both sound awfully "generic" (pun intended), but I can't really come up with an example for a bad match, so lets just try it I guess.
That said, isn't the "deeper" problem that these metapackages can be removed easily even through they are important to keep the kernel up-to- date (and hence secure). Perhaps some should be "Important:yes"… For the record: apts behavior is different depending on if you explicitly remove a metapackage vs. its removed as part of problem resolution like in a dist-upgrade or if you remove some dependee. Only in the later cases the manual bit is applied to the (other) dependencies of the metapackage. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to apt in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1787460 Title: Unattended upgrades removed linux-image-generic Status in apt package in Ubuntu: Triaged Status in linux-meta package in Ubuntu: Triaged Status in linux-meta-hwe package in Ubuntu: Triaged Bug description: On a fairly fresh install of 18.04 with no modifications whatsoever to the unattended-upgrades configuration, it decided to remove linux- image-generic which also removed linux-modules-extra which caused sound drivers to disappear, etc. The relative snippet from /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended- upgrades.log is: 2018-08-15 06:18:00,048 INFO Starting unattended upgrades script 2018-08-15 06:18:00,048 INFO Allowed origins are: o=Ubuntu,a=bionic, o=Ubuntu,a=bionic-security, o=UbuntuESM,a=bionic 2018-08-15 06:18:01,552 INFO Removing unused kernel packages: linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic linux-headers-4.15.0-32-generic linux-headers-4.15.0-32 2018-08-15 06:18:01,588 WARNING Keeping auto-removable linux-headers-generic package(s) because it would also remove the following packages which should be kept in this step: libxml2 linux-image-4.15.0-32-generic linux-modules-4.15.0-32-generic linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-32-generic 2018-08-15 06:18:09,476 INFO Packages that were successfully auto-removed: linux-headers-4.15.0-32 linux-headers-4.15.0-32-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic 2018-08-15 06:18:09,477 INFO Packages that are kept back: linux-headers-generic 2018-08-15 06:18:10,300 INFO Packages that will be upgraded: libxml2 linux-image-generic 2018-08-15 06:18:10,300 INFO Writing dpkg log to /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades-dpkg.log 2018-08-15 06:18:39,238 INFO All upgrades installed 2018-08-15 06:18:42,818 INFO Packages that were successfully auto-removed: linux-image-generic linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-32-generic 2018-08-15 06:18:42,818 INFO Packages that are kept back: ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04 Package: unattended-upgrades 1.1ubuntu1.18.04.5 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-32.35-generic 4.15.18 Uname: Linux 4.15.0-32-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.3 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME Date: Thu Aug 16 13:17:30 2018 InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-07-24 (23 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180724) PackageArchitecture: all ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: unattended-upgrades UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/1787460/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp