“How To Satisfy Debian Dependencies Without Installing The Stupid Package”

I paid for a mindmapping program a couple of years back as I found the open source options somewhat lacking. The program uses java and the provided .deb has a flexible dependency on java 5 or 6, oracle-or-open-take-your-pick but later version of java – like the openjdk-8-jre package I have on my system – fail to satisfy. Installing the .deb was easy – just tell dpkg to –ignore-depends, brush your hands and think ‘job well done’. And then the next apt-get upgrade fails because there’s a missing dependency. I don’t get the logic here: I can’t upgrade packages A and B because completely unrelated package C has unresolved dependencies? However, the issue was resolved with the help of the satisfyingly titled post “How To Satisfy Debian Dependencies Without Installing The Stupid Package”.  Go check it out.