mintUpdate icon says "up to date" - even if updates avail

[foobar]

Hello everybody. I have a problem with Linux mint 13, which affects cinnamon and mate desktop. The mintUpdate icon always shows the "up to date" status - even if there are updates available. A right click and refresh does not change that behavior as well. Only when I open mintUpdate and it scans the repos, updates are displayed and the status of the icon changes. Any idea on how to resolve that issue?

Thanks in advance.

[3fRI]

I've noticed the same thing with MInt 13 Xfce on both my desk- and laptop. Unfortunately, I don't a fix to offer you.

Personally, I tend to use the terminal to update and upgrade the distro. It takes longer but it seems a more thorough way to update.

[foobar]

In fact I tend to use terminal to update my system as well. But my better half does not ... And honestly, I dont want to make her use the terminal. I am glad she finally got rid of that M$ crap Mint is a desktop system which should make it easier to work with. The question is: Do only a few installation behave like this, or is it a well known issue?

[squeezy]

Well-known issue, discussed many times. A quick forum search will yield more than you care to read.

Bottom line is that it's "working as intended", as IBM Lotus support used to say. Click on the icon, put in your password and have it check for updates.

Hey, at least it's not the terminal!

[dgilluly]

I've noticed it too, but I usually click it once a day to make sure.

[icmp_request]

Confirmed on Mint Cinnamon 13 64 bits.

Has anyone filed a bug report yet?

Although a minor issue, should be fixed on the next release as one of Mint's strong features for linux newbies is the update tool.

[dnixx]

mintUpdate cannot refresh the APT cache (i.e. run ''apt-get update'') without root permissions. Because of this mintUpdate will display a notification icon only if 1) you have launched mintUpdate and entered your password (in which case mintUpdate is running in root mode and is able to refresh the APT cache), or 2) if the APT cache has been updated by another application (e.g. Synaptic, or by manually doing apt-get update).

I figured this out today by reading this thread: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=103740

I always thought this was a bug. Now that I know why it happens, I think mintUpdate is very misleading when it gives you the option to "refresh the list of updates every X minutes/hours/days".

[sddfdds]

Why is it though that when I did a clean install of nadia, on the first boot up, I did get a notification for the updates that were available? (Since then though, I'm in the same boat as everyone else having to manually refresh)

[dnixx]

Probably because the APT cache was updated some time during the install.

[norm.h]

I had the same issue, which I mistakenly posted here:
LINK
It now seems to be OK, time will tell.

[idark77]

Hi,
I use Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon and Update Notification doesn't work. Always "System Updated" but it's not true. Can anyone confirm? Do you need to wait 15 minutes ( in the Preferences ) for the first check?
In my opinion this is a serious problem and it should be corrected asap.

[idark77]

Can anyone tell me if it will be corrected or when ? I think that for now i use Ubuntu distro again

[karlchen]

Hi, folks.

I know that the initial complaint "mintUpdate icon says "up to date" - even if updates available" was posted two months ago.
Yet, if I have not missed it, no-one has posted a solution, yet.

OK. So here is the solution which works fine for me:

Problem:
mintUpdate icon says "up to date" - even if updates available, as reported.

Cause:
There is a daily anacron job /etc/cron.daily/apt which is meant to update the local software list once per day. (apt-get update).
This job reads the configuration file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10periodic and checks the value of the setting named "APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists"
This setting defaults to "0", unless explicitly set to "1".
I do not know since when. But it is a fact that this setting is missing on all of my Mint 13 installations from the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10periodic.
As a consequence the daily job assumes it does not have to perform any

Code: Select all

apt-get update

As a consequence MintUpdate is always happily telling me there are no updates, unless I open MintUpdate by clicking on the icon in the notification area nevertheless.

Solution:
As user root edit the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10periodic and make sure it holds the line

Code: Select all

APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";

Effect:
Next time the daily job /etc/cron.daily/apt gets executed, it will perform

Code: Select all

apt-get update

thus updating the local software list.
Provided updated software packages are available a few minutes later the MintUpdate icon in the notification area will let you know.
Problem solved.

Kind regards,
Karl

[idark77]

Hi,
and about LM 14? Inside apt.conf.d there is not this file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10periodic...
Can you check it ?
Thanks.

[norm.h]

I followed karlchen's solution yesterday, and when I booted up this morning - Update Manager was showing the Updates Available icon.
So thank you.

[idark77]

Hi,
here a possible solution for Linux-Mint 14 ( i am not sure if it works ... Hope )

1) Install update-notifier-common
2) go to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10periodic
3) check or enable APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";

now the solution of karlchen shoul work also on LM 14. If i have any update in the next days, i let you know

[GeneC]

I'd like to suggest a little tip.
If you find bugs and want them addressed by the developers posting on this forum is not the correct procedure.
That is not to say that you will not find some excellent fixes such as the one solved by karlchen here(nice, thanks)..

Its assumed that the developers are actively involved in this forum and see all the complaints of 'bugs', but that seems to not be the case. Most all of us here on the forums are end users just like yourselves. Sometimes we can figure out fixes, sometimes not....

If you want to bring them to the attention of the Mint developers, you should file a 'bug report".
Here https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint

If you find a true bug (not something just particular to your system), do everyone a favor and file a true bug report....

[davidoski]

Hi,

here's my solution for this problem, which gives you an option to set how often updates should be checked.

1. Create a file with the following script:

Code: Select all

#! /bin/bash
sleep 30
(
    while : ; do
        aptitude update
        sleep 4h
    done
) &

2. Save file in any location you like.
3. Make the file executable
4. Make sure that root has permission to it.
3. Edit /etc/init.d/rc.local file and add at the end of the file the script file location line:

For example if you name the file "updatescript" and save it in your home directory and you user name is david you need to place the following location line at the end of the /etc/init.d/rc.local file:

Code: Select all

/home/david/updatescript

What does the script do? It starts on system boot, waits 30 seconds and performs aptitude update command and then repeats it every 4 hours. You can set the 30 second delay to other value in the script and the 4 hours repeat cycle as well. Just change 30 and 4h values in the script for what you want.

30 without suffix means 30 seconds, 20 means 20 seconds and so on
30m means 30 minutes, 20m means 20 minutes and so on
4h means 4 hours, 12h means 12 hours and so on