Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: x11-common
The x11-common package lists several 3rd-party packages in its conflict section.
Packages which do not exist in-distro should never, ever be listed as
dependencies.
Two specific packages I encountered conflicts with are xv and opera.
After installing feisty, I went to install these, and apt/dpkg refused
to even try. The packages work otherwise; there's nothing actually
wrong with them, but x11-common's conflict list prevents them from
installing.
I realize there may be issues attempting to run old versions of 3rd-
party packages on a new Xorg, but listing those packages as conlicts
seems like the wrong solution.
Currently, x11-common uses conflicts. This forces either x11-common or
the 3rd-party package to be removed. Or, it prevents the 3rd-party
package from being installed, so the user may resort to tarballs or
other messy mechanisms. For example, my old xv binary runs just fine.
For that matter, so does my old copy of Opera. But in order to use
them, I have to either modify the x11-common package, convert the
xv/opera debs to tar and give up the ability to remove them cleanly, or
make new packages with faked version numbers.
Instead, I'd prefer if x11-common simply didn't care about anything
outside the distro. The 3rd-party packages may break, or they may work,
but who cares? They're not part of Ubuntu, they aren't supported, and
Ubuntu shouldn't care. Third-party packages are the user's problem.
** Affects: xorg (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: Unconfirmed
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x11-common conflicts with 3rd-party packages
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/120307
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