No Changelog information available

[marietta_greg]

Hello,

I have no changelog information available for updates INSPITE of the the fact that I am running MintUpdate 4.4.2. I am running Mint 13 (Maya)
I HAVE the LinuxMint Software sourcecode box checked.

I've searched the forum on this and this bug should have been fixed in Mint and MintUpdate versions far back. I'm not getting any errors in update, just no sourcecode available to explain what it is that's being updated on my system. This seems like pretty important and basic information to have before I decide to update.

What do you recommend I do to troubleshoot this?

Thanks,

[xenopeek]

Enabling the software sourcecode like that will only show you changelogs (if available) from the Linux Mint developed programs. Is that what you intend?

[marietta_greg]

Not necessarily. What I want to see is what the purpose of the suggested updates is before I install them. I don't want to just blindly install updates just becuase mintupdate says to. Event Windows tells you what the purpose of an update is. Certainly Mint can do the same thing when it comes to updates. I want to know what I am doing to my system.

[xenopeek]

To enable all changelogs you will have to update your sources.list to include all the source code repositories. As root edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list, for example with:

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sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Of each line that starts with "deb", see if there is an exactly matching line starting with "deb-src". If there isn't, copy the "deb" line and change it to start with "deb-src" (in nano, highlight the text to copy with your mouse and then copy it).

As an example here is my sources.list before changing:

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deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ maya main upstream import
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ precise partner
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ precise free non-free

# deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu precise-getdeb apps
# deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu precise-getdeb games
deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu precise main
deb-src http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu precise main

And here is my sources.list after enabling all source code repositories. BTW,don't copy my sources.list contents! Edit your own file as there may be differences...

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deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ maya main upstream import
deb-src http://packages.linuxmint.com/ maya main upstream import
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ precise partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ precise partner
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ precise free non-free
deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ precise free non-free

# deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu precise-getdeb apps
# deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu precise-getdeb games
deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu precise main
deb-src http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu precise main

[marietta_greg]

I added the deb-src repositories as you instructted. Closed, re-opened and refreshed mintupdate. Still no changelog. I find it unlikely that items like "mintsystem" or "firefox" or "gimp" would have no changelog info to tell what the updates are.

[xenopeek]

I don't have any upgrades available right now, but with the next batch I'll have a look also and see if something else is wrong.

[xenopeek]

Right, so I have some upgrades right now and found the problem. mintUpdate is using the "aptitude changelog" command to fetch changelogs, and Internet search shows that this currently doesn't work for some reason (haven't found the specifics). You can easily fix this by replacing "aptitude changelog" with "apt-get changelog", which does the same but does work

I've prepared a patch so you can easily apply this. To proceed, please first exit the Update Manager. Right-click its icon in the panel and choose "Quit". Then download the attached file:

mintupdate_changelog_fix.patch.tar.gz

(399 Bytes) Downloaded 68 times

After downloading, extract the mintupdate_changelog_fix.patch from the archive somewhere to your home folder. Then open a terminal at the location where you extracted the file (browse there with your file manager and from its menu select File > Open in Terminal). Then run the following command to apply the patch:

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sudo patch /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/mintUpdate.py mintupdate_changelog_fix.patch

Provide your password when asked (note that the terminal will not show any feedback as your type your password; your keyboard ain't broke ). When all goes well, the output should be "patching file /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/mintUpdate.py". Then from the Mint Menu restart the Update Manager and changelogs will be available again (Provided you did the changes I shared in the earlier comment.)

You may have to re-apply this patch when mintUpdate itself is upgraded. If you want to undo the changes, just run the following command:

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sudo apt-get install --reinstall mintupdate

Edit: I've submitted the patch also to the GitHub repository (https://github.com/linuxmint/mintupdate/pull/6).

[Cro-Magno]

Very nice. Thank you for the fix Vincent. The strange thing is now I have an update with no description. I've never seen that before. That happened before I applied the patch. I'm not implying a connection. I'm sure it's just a fluke.

[xenopeek]

[...] I have an update with no description. [...] I'm sure it's just a fluke.

Yes, it is As you can see on the patch I linked to (https://github.com/linuxmint/mintupdate/pull/6/files), there is only the one line changed in /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/mintUpdate.py. That is in the class ChangelogRetriever. The list of available upgrades and their descriptions are fetched in the class RefreshThread, through calling the /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/checkAPT.py file. Neither that class nor that file have been changed, so how descriptions are fetched is not impacted by changing how changelogs are fetched

[marietta_greg]

My mintupdate was updated from 4.4.3 to 4.4.4, yesterday or day before. Sure enought, changelog info again not available.

So I reapplied the patch, and have changelog information back. BUT, wouldn't it be a good idea to FIX mintupdate, so it doesn't need to be patched after updates? I mean, isn't the incorporation of patches one reason that new versions of an app comes out?

call me crazy, but if patches are proven to work, wouldn't that be a no brainer.

[xenopeek]

mintUpdate 4.4.7 has changed the way changelogs are fetched. You neither need to enable the source code repositories, nor apply the patch I provided.

This version of mintUpdate comes with Linux Mint 14, but is also available on Linux Mint 13 through the backports repository: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2225