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I've a problem with a few packages that I've installed from the repositories in the past. However now I prefer to compile them myself because this makes it possible to use the newest version. Unfortunately Ubuntu remembers that once those packages have been installed from a repository so I get update reminders about 'new' versions in the repository even though those are older than my current version. How can I make Ubuntu to forget that those packages were installed from the repository?

wie5Ooma
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There are a number of ways.

If you compile software yourself, then you can uninstall the package. But this is not always good, becuase it may break dependencies. You can just hold a package.

To stop package updates you can run

sudo apt-mark hold <package>
Pilot6
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  • It's too late for uninstalling because I installed the compiled version over the version installed from the repository. I know about holding packages but that's even more annoying because during upgrades I get a warning about packages being hold and sometimes it refuses to upgrade certain other packages because of alledged problems with broken dependencies, which is not true. I just want to get rid of any message about those packages. – wie5Ooma Aug 03 '15 at 21:45
  • I do not get what you mean. What do you compile? Deb packages? – Pilot6 Aug 03 '15 at 21:47
  • Compiling from source code. – wie5Ooma Aug 03 '15 at 21:49
  • This does not affect installed packages at all. – Pilot6 Aug 03 '15 at 21:50
  • Sorry, now I don't get what you mean. It does affect installed packages. Let's take as example the package tt-rss. There is/was an outdated version in the repository which I replaced with a version not from the repository. Ubuntu still knows about the outdated version and remembers about new but still outdated versions. Same for Privoxy, Deluge, etc. – wie5Ooma Aug 03 '15 at 21:58
  • You do not replace packages when compile same software from source. – Pilot6 Aug 03 '15 at 21:59
  • Yes, I do because I don't want two versions of the same package on my system. Probably it's stupid to install over an existing version but I did. – wie5Ooma Aug 03 '15 at 22:03
  • Why don't you uninstall package and install it again from source, or install software as deb packages? – Pilot6 Aug 03 '15 at 22:04
  • Not all software is delivered as deb packages especially when compiling from source. I think uninstalling will not work because the original package isn't any more on the computer so that would require me to install the obsolete version over the custom version, uninstall it, reinstall the custom version, reconfigure it and pray that Ubuntu is not complaining now. That's not worth the hassle. Somehow Ubuntu must be registering somewhere info about installed software and versions. Removing it from there is probably faster. – wie5Ooma Aug 03 '15 at 22:12