Update/upgrade removes hundreds of packages?

[ajgreeny]

It sounds like you've encountered issues with using the sudo apt full-upgrade command on your Xubuntu Noble VMs. This command is intended to upgrade all installed packages to their latest versions, including any dependencies, which can sometimes lead to unexpected changes or removals of packages.
In your case, it seems that the full-upgrade command resulted in the removal of essential packages, including ones you had manually installed like VLC and Audacious, as well as various library and Python packages. This left your operating system in an unusable state, with broken dependencies preventing you from reinstalling the removed packages.
It's essential to exercise caution when using the full-upgrade command, especially on production systems or VMs where data loss or downtime can have consequences. Instead, consider using the sudo apt upgrade command, which only upgrades packages that have new versions available, without removing any existing packages unless absolutely necessary.
Additionally, it's a good practice to regularly backup your system or VM before performing any significant upgrades or changes, so you can quickly restore it to a working state if something goes wrong.

Absolutely correct!

The reason I use a VM, not a hard metal installation that is used for business or important personal use, is simply to test such things; if anything terrible goes wrong I just delete the VM and start again with a new ISO file.

There is no way I would ever run a dev version as my main system but VMs are a great way to check everything.
At the moment, of course, there are no new updated ISOs to test but as soon as a new one appears I shall download and create a new VM.

[IanW]

The latest news is that the beta release of Noble has been pushed back a week to April 11th.
Source - https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/noble...y-update/43827