update manager confused about available updates vs. up-to-date

SaintDanBert · 09-28-2011, 11:53 PM

I've installed Linux Mint 11.

The update-manager shows in the notification area saying, "there are updates."

When I open the update-manager, it does its usualy dance but the status line says, "up to date". On the toolbar, the app shows
a checkmark to "install updates"

Nothing happens when I select the "install updates" item.

sudo apt-get update reports "Fetched ..."

sudo apt-get upgrade reports "O..." for everything
upgraded, installed, removed, etc.

sudo aptitude update reports "Fetched ..."

sudo aptitude upgrade reports "No packages ..."

How do I get things back in sync re TODO vs. DONE?

Thanks,
~~~ 0;-Dan

jdkaye · 09-29-2011, 04:14 AM

You can open a terminal and type

Code:

aptitude --no-gui

Then you will see

Code:

--- Upgradable Packages

You can then find out what they upgradable packages are if any. They may have dependency problems which is why they won't be upgraded on a safe-upgrade.
ciao,
jdk

kasl33 · 09-29-2011, 04:44 AM

Try this:

Code:

 apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get -f install

andrewthomas · 09-29-2011, 06:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdkaye

You can open a terminal and type

Code:

aptitude --no-gui

Then you will see

Code:

--- Upgradable Packages

You can then find out what they upgradable packages are if any. They may have dependency problems which is why they won't be upgraded on a safe-upgrade.
ciao,
jdk

But, he never issued the safe-upgrade command.

I haven't used a Debian-based system for awhile, but it seems to me that it would be best to try:

Code:

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade

As far as I recall, upgrade will not install new packages to meet dependencies, while safe-upgrade will.

jdkaye · 09-29-2011, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrewthomas

But, he never issued the safe-upgrade command.

I haven't used a Debian-based system for awhile, but it seems to me that it would be best to try:

Code:

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade

As far as I recall, upgrade will not install new packages to meet dependencies, while safe-upgrade will.

If you look at his first post he did do "sudo aptitude upgrade" which still works.
ciao,
jdk

andrewthomas · 09-29-2011, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdkaye

If you look at his first post he did do "sudo aptitude upgrade" which still works.
ciao,
jdk

But an aptitude upgrade will not install new dependencies, only update already installed packages.

An aptitude safe-upgrade, on the other hand, will install new dependencies.

Just pointing out a possible reason for a held-package.

jdkaye · 09-30-2011, 04:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrewthomas

But an aptitude upgrade will not install new dependencies, only update already installed packages.

An aptitude safe-upgrade, on the other hand, will install new dependencies.

Just pointing out a possible reason for a held-package.

Where do you see that, Andrew? I've looked at at man aptitude and aptitude --help and neither mentions an upgrade command but only safe or full upgrade. I know they changed the command from dist- to full- and upgrade to safe-upgrade. My understanding was both old commands still work but they prefer to you use the more current ones.
Anyway, If you have a reference, I'd like to see it. Thanks,
jdk

andrewthomas · 09-30-2011, 06:10 AM

OK, I guess that I am wrong.

I must have been confusing the difference between apt-get upgrade and aptitude safe-upgrade.

Since I haven't used a debian-based system in awhile, it is probably understandable.

What I did find funny is that I did look at the Ubuntu aptitude man page

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/...ptitude.8.html

and found no reference to aptitude upgrade, only safe-upgrade and the fact that dist-upgrade is now full-upgrade.

It doesn't actually state what happens when you issue an upgrade.

Quote:

safe-upgrade
Upgrades installed packages to their most recent version. Installed
packages will not be removed unless they are unused (see the
section "Managing Automatically Installed Packages" in the aptitude
reference manual). Packages which are not currently installed may
be installed to resolve dependencies unless the --no-new-installs
command-line option is supplied.

If no <package>s are listed on the command line, aptitude will
attempt to upgrade every package that can be upgraded. Otherwise,
aptitude will attempt to upgrade only the packages which it is
instructed to upgrade. The <package>s can be extended with suffixes
in the same manner as arguments to aptitude install, so you can
also give additional instructions to aptitude here; for instance,
aptitude safe-upgrade bash dash- will attempt to upgrade the bash
package and remove the dash package.

It is sometimes necessary to remove one package in order to upgrade
another; this command is not able to upgrade packages in such
situations. Use the full-upgrade command to upgrade as many
packages as possible.

full-upgrade
Upgrades installed packages to their most recent version, removing
or installing packages as necessary. This command is less
conservative than safe-upgrade and thus more likely to perform
unwanted actions. However, it is capable of upgrading packages that
safe-upgrade cannot upgrade.

If no <package>s are listed on the command line, aptitude will
attempt to upgrade every package that can be upgraded. Otherwise,
aptitude will attempt to upgrade only the packages which it is
instructed to upgrade. The <package>s can be extended with suffixes
in the same manner as arguments to aptitude install, so you can
also give additional instructions to aptitude here; for instance,
aptitude full-upgrade bash dash- will attempt to upgrade the bash
package and remove the dash package.

Note
This command was originally named dist-upgrade for historical
reasons, and aptitude still recognizes dist-upgrade as a
synonym for full-upgrade.

My bad jdkaye, sorry.

jdkaye · 09-30-2011, 12:02 PM

No problem. You help a hell of a lot of people. And who of us hasn't made mistakes. I certainly have done.

ciao,
jdk