I have attempted to reproduce this bug in the current versions of Synaptic in both etch and sid, without success.
I constructed a "test-old" distribution containing test-package-a 0.1 and test-package-b 0.1, and a "test-new" distribution contains test-package-a 0.2. test-package-b depends on a matching version of test-package-a. So if you install both packages from the test-old distribution then switch to the test-new distribution you can upgrade test-package-a only if you remove test-package-b. When I attempt to upgrade test-package-a in Synaptic, it marks test-package-b for removal. It does not allow me to mark test-package-b for reinstallation after this. So either this bug has been fixed or you missed out some steps in your bug report. If you want to try reproducing this and cannot find an example in sid, you can find my test packages in the repositories: deb http://womble.decadent.org.uk/debian/ test-old/ deb http://womble.decadent.org.uk/debian/ test-new/ (The trailing "/" on the distribution name is critical.) These are signed with my personal GPG key, id 12066207. Ben.
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