Bug#539578: [pbuilder] Non-functional if aptitude uninstallable (even in classic mode)

[Jason Heeris]

Junichi Uekawa wrote:

> Why not fix aptitude or remove it from base?

I may well be doing things wrong, but it seems impossible to do that. I
can put it in "REMOVEPACKAGES" and it still gets installed. I should
point out that I'm also trying to create a new base, and I get the same
problem.

I realise that this is a known problem, and that sid can't always be
expected to be sane:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2009/08/msg00089.html

...but my point is just that aptitude seems to be installed without any
intervention from the user, and it isn't strictly necessary (again,
maybe I'm wrong).

Cheers,
Jason