Comment 28 for bug 8896

@Felipe:
You can do this quite easy by adding an entry in the /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/ directory.

Make a new file in there, e.g. sudo gedit 99recommends

And paste
APT::Install-Recommends “true";

into it.

Go to Synaptic in Preference and just check if "consider recommendations as dependencies" is active, if not, check the box active.

Then go >Synaptic >Settings >Filters,
Make a new one e.g. "Missing recommends"
Uncheck all boxes, only check the line "broken policy" (which means the apt policy in the config files)

Reload package information (I guess it is not explicitly necessary).

And with "Search filters" you have the Filter Missing Recommends.

E.g., if you select abiword-gnome, it will automatically set abiword-gnome-plugins for install, which is only a recommend not a dependency.

Ok, that all did not answer your questions if this configurations gets automatically backported for hardy. ;-)

Regards,