trying to install mdadm, wants to also install irrelevant pkgs

[JohnDow]

Hi all,

Trying to install mdadm, but apt-get says it also wants to install a whole mess of irrelevant 'dependencies'.


# apt-get install mdadm
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
citadel-common citadel-mta citadel-server db4.6-util libcitadel1 libical0 libsieve2-1
Recommended packages:
mail-transport-agent
The following NEW packages will be installed:
citadel-common citadel-mta citadel-server db4.6-util libcitadel1 libical0 libsieve2-1 mdadm
0 upgraded, 8 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 1330kB of archives.
After this operation, 5247kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n

Just to make sure that mdadm is the raid handler and not something else:


tool to administer Linux MD arrays (software RAID)
The mdadm utility can be used to create, manage, and monitor MD
(multi-disk) arrays for software RAID or multipath I/O.

This package automatically configures mdadm to assemble arrays during the
system startup process. If not needed, this functionality can be disabled.

First question: how do I fix this so I just get the raid package(s), not the useless stuff?

Second question: what in the world does groupware have to do with raid arrays?

Thanks!

[michael491]

I had this same problem. I installed mdadm through Synaptic without paying attention to the prompts. And during the install, I was being prompted for Citadel configuration. This is strange.

[burningapathy]

JohnDow,
I just faced this same problem.

First question: Those extra packages I guess are called "recommended packages" which will be installed by default. You can prevent them from being installed by using this command:

apt-get --no-install-recommends install mdadm

Second question: The reason that groupware is installed is because mdadm recommends an MTA (mail server) installed so that it can send an email if a raid drive fails. I guess the Citadel groupware includes an MTA and is the one chosen by mdadm/apt-get to install. I have no idea why it wouldn't install sendmail or give you a choice, but I'm sure there's a reason.

Best of luck,

-ba