mintUpdate does not update package state

Archived topics about LMDE 1 and LMDE 2
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Jeck

mintUpdate does not update package state

Post by Jeck »

Hi everybody!
I have a question / bug report concerning the mintUpdate in LMDE. Here is the behavior I see:
if I right-click on the mintUpdate icon in the tray and choose "refresh" mintUpdate reports "your system is up to date"
if I now run "sudo apt-get update" from the command line and perform the steps above, I get notified about existing updates.
I read a lot of threads in the forum concerning the "best way" of updating LMDE and concerning the "level 4 and 5" updates (which I enabled on my system). Now my question is slightly different. From the mainstream Mint I am used to the mintUpdate as a tool to keep my system up to date. This means to me, that if there are updates available out there, I get a notification. This implies, that an update of the package state is performed by mintUpdate before notifying me on the state of my system. This seems not to be the case in LMDE, as I have to update the package state via "apt-get update". Now I want to know: is this the intended behavior of mintUpdate. If yes - why? Why should the user be forced to update the package DB via command line? Isn't that the task of mintUpdate? If no - does anyone else experience this issue? Any workarounds?

Don't get me wrong, I'm actually not a linux newbie and in fact I do prefer the command line for such tasks. But on the other hand I believe the "user friendly" (whatever this is) graphical tools should work properly and every bug should be chased down by the community to improve the system. So is this issue a bug?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Aging Technogeek

Re: mintUpdate does not update package state

Post by Aging Technogeek »

The aptitude package management system used in Debian and most Debian forks (Ubuntu, Mint, etc) will show updated packages in terminal using apt-get before the same updates reach the repos used by Mint Update. This has always been the case, but, until LMDE came out, it was not so obvious.

Remember, in LMDE,using apt-get, you are getting access directly to the Debian repos. In Mint Update, all updates must be vetted by the repo maintainers before being offered to the general public. This can take from a few hours to a few weeks depending on the maintainers' workload and the possible presence of bugs in the updates.
Jeck

Re: mintUpdate does not update package state

Post by Jeck »

Thank you Aging Technogeek. That is exactly what I did not know. I supposed the mintUpdate sees the distribution repos and I did not think of the vetting system for the packages to accept them as minty. This explains the behavior and makes it reasonable to me. Thanks again!
rufong

Re: mintUpdate does not update package state

Post by rufong »

Aging Technogeek
my thanx to you as well, happily learnt!
Chasester

Re: mintUpdate does not update package state

Post by Chasester »

i'm experiencing something similiar, except my icon will say all up-to-date. but if I click on the mintupdate - it checks again and always finds new ones.
Cobra_DK

Re: mintUpdate does not update package state

Post by Cobra_DK »

Mine is a bit different, like Chasester mine will say all up-to-date. I have to click the mintupdate icon again - then it will ask me for the root password - then it will check for updates :-)

Are you all experiencing this root-password prompt the first time you click on the mintupdate icon?
beep_gr

Re: mintUpdate does not update package state

Post by beep_gr »

Cobra_DK wrote:Mine is a bit different, like Chasester mine will say all up-to-date. I have to click the mintupdate icon again - then it will ask me for the root password - then it will check for updates :-)

Are you all experiencing this root-password prompt the first time you click on the mintupdate icon?

Yes, I have the same problem. I have to click at the MintUpdate icon to find the updates.

Do I have to click on it every 3-4 days, or the applet will automatic search for updates every week or so...
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