"Suggests: udev" is a very weak version of "Requires: udev". I.e. it would mean that udev is installed *before* systemd. Maybe you confused it with "Enhances: udev". We have: Requires - normal dependency Recommends - weak dependency, solver tries to fulfill it Suggests - very weak dependencies, solver just uses it for ordering and choosing the best package to fulfill a dependency Supplements - reverse variant of Recommends, the package is automatically selected if the dependency is fulfilled Enhances - reverse variant of Suggests, only used for choosing the best package