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mint-release-upgrade: point upgrade keeps on removing synaptic #1016
Description
Describe the bug
in the past, mint's fork of synaptic was part of the base system and used by other programs. eventually, dependency on synaptic was eliminated and mint's fork was retired. the point upgrade that retired mint's synaptic uninstalled the package.
some users chose to have ubuntu's synaptic installed instead for reasons, and the point upgrade blindly uninstalled that too; but that was not really important as it affected only non-standard setups.
more importantly, mint-release-upgrade keeps on uninstalling synaptic on each upgrade for no reason. once mint's fork was out of the picture with the first upgrade, there is no point in keeping on removing the package (which now must be ubuntu's, or else some orphan). if the package is there it is because the user manually installed and point upgrades should not touch it.
To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
- setup mint 22.2
- install ubuntu's synaptic
- upgrade to mint 22.3
- synaptic is gone
Expected behavior
synaptic should not be touched by recent point upgrades.
Distribution:
- Linux Mint
- LMDE
- Other (please specify)
Software version:
7.1.1
Activity
mlcfr commentedon Mar 7, 2026
Synaptic is intentionally removed during updates.
/usr/share/mint-upgrade-info/zara/removalsLanchon commentedon Mar 9, 2026
yes, and it shouldn't.
as i said in the OP:
it was a dep of the system (mint's fork actually), then it wasn't anymore, and that's when the upgrade removed it. the point is that now subsequent upgrade shouldn't keep on removing the package for ever: if the package is there it's because the user manually installed it from another source (typically ubuntu) after mint's fork was retired, and future upgrade shouldn't touch it.
mlcfr commentedon Mar 13, 2026
I know that, but discussions on the Mint forum clearly indicate that this is not a bug, so there is no point in reporting it as such.
Upgrade to 22.2 removed Synaptic
Lanchon commentedon Mar 20, 2026
well at least i'd want linux mint based on 26.04 to stop removing the package, it'd make no sense anymore, but they need to remember to take it off the black list. hence this bug has a point, i think. they could milestone it to the next major mint.