Why am I getting updates for apps I don't have?
 

The mint updater in my Bodhi 5.1 system is trying to give me updates for Virtualbox and Chromium (extra ffmpeg) both of which I don' t have installed. I've heard it may have to do with dependencies but don't know how that works.

I'm also mysteriously getting an update for ubiquity (Ubuntu Live cd installer.) I know this another question but "Why do I need this when I already have my OS installed?"

ubiquity is needed by Bodhibuilder which is installed by default. There are some virtual box packages also installed via default (so bodhi is better behaved in a virtual box VM), most distros do this. as to Chromium (extra ffmpeg) I would need more details.

Thanks. I don't know what to tell you. The update manager says: "chromium-browser" / Extra ffmpeg codecs for the chromium browser

mine looks like this:
i always assumed they were general browser multimedia codecs.

How did you get that info?

i ran this command apt list chromium* | grep installed
to get the name of the package: chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra.

the other commands were listed with the info above: apt list, aptitude why (i had to install aptitude manually) and dpkg -s.

i have both firefox and web (epiphany browser) installed, but i also checked mint 19.3 and ubuntu 20.04 vm's with only firefox installed and they both have the same codecs (chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra).

Great answer cordx :D

I suppose this thread is now solved?