Is my system up to date?

[shawnhcorey]

I'm running LMDE Mate and when I run my Update Manager and click on Update Pack Info, I get:

[url=http://sites.google.com/site/shawnhcorey/lmde-mate/Screenshot-Update%20Pack%20Info%20-%20Update%20Manager.png?attredirects=0][img]http://sites.google.com/site/shawnhcorey/lmde-mate/Update%20Pack%20Info%20-%20Update%20Manager.png[/img][/url]
(click on thumbnail to see larger image)

Does this mean my system is not up to date? If so, how do I update it? There is no button or control that seems to do this.

Some techie stuff:

Code: Select all

$ uname -a
Linux sage 3.10-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.10.5-1 (2013-08-07) x86_64 GNU/Linux

[py-thon]

This is a bit strange. According to the kernel version, you have UP7 installed. Apart from the system's name my uname -a is identical to yours. According to the update manager UP7 is not installed. I remember having read about someone with that problem here or on linuxmintusers.de

If you want to make sure your system is up to date:
1. Make a back up of your system
2. Check that your sources.list is basically correct (it seems to be from the text in the update manager) and run

Code: Select all

mint-choose-debian-mirror

to select the currently fastest mirror.
3. Read the advice given for installing UP7 in the Update Manager (your snapshot) and the release notes on http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2455

4a. Update your system using the Update Manager
OR (alternative)
4b. Update your system via terminal with

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

if you don't trust the update manager

[shawnhcorey]

2. Check that your sources.list is basically correct (it seems to be from the text in the update manager) and run

Code: Select all

mint-choose-debian-mirror

to select the currently fastest mirror.

Already done.

3. Read the advice given for installing UP7 in the Update Manager (your snapshot) and the release notes on http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2455

Already done.

4a. Update your system using the Update Manager
OR (alternative)
4b. Update your system via terminal with

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

if you don't trust the update manager

I do this at least once a week:

Code: Select all

$ cat update-all.sh 
#!/bin/bash

apt-get -y dist-upgrade
apt-get -y update
apt-get -y autoremove
apt-get -y clean

[Monsta]

BTW, what mirror do you use?

[shawnhcorey]

BTW, what mirror do you use?

http://mirror.metrocast.net/linuxmint-debian

[py-thon]

I do this at least once a week:

Code: Select all

$ cat update-all.sh 
#!/bin/bash

apt-get -y dist-upgrade
apt-get -y update
apt-get -y autoremove
apt-get -y clean

Maybe updating with a script confuses the Update Manager and it thus shows UP6. Maybe answering everything with yes means that some config file was kept and still says UP6.
But I would suggest a small change in your script: first update (to get the current package list) and then dist-upgrade (to get the packages).

[shawnhcorey]

You should always `apt-get update` after a `apt-get dist-upgrade` because some of the libraries may be changed and won't work with the current version of your apps.

[py-thon]

If you run your current script weekly it will encounter a new package list one week and download and install the new packages the week after

[shawnhcorey]

If you run your current script weekly it will encounter a new package list one week and download and install the new packages the week after

It's not installing anything and hasn't for several months.

[Zill]

You should always `apt-get update` after a `apt-get dist-upgrade` because some of the libraries may be changed and won't work with the current version of your apps.

My understanding is that update should always precede (dist)upgrade. See http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/ch-uptodate.en.html

To use apt-get, install the apt package, and edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file to set it up, just as for aptitude
Then run
apt-get update
followed by
apt-get dist-upgrade
Answer any questions that might come up, and your system will be upgraded.

[shawnhcorey]

The first `apt-get` will get any new certificates, which are required for `apt-get dist-upgrade`. You only need do it if you added to the software sources.

[Zill]

shawnhcorey: Sorry, I disagree! From [url=http://linux.die.net/man/8/apt-get]apt-get(8) - Linux man page[/url]...

update
Used to re-synchronize the package index files from their sources. The indexes of available packages are fetched from the location(s) specified in /etc/apt/sources.list(5). An update should always be performed before an upgrade or dist-upgrade.

[py-thon]

The first `apt-get` will get any new certificates, which are required for `apt-get dist-upgrade`. You only need do it if you added to the software sources.

Of course you have to apt-get update after changes to sources.list but the everyday use is to apt-get update to see whether your distribution maintainer has put new package versions or additional packages into the repository. In both cases it is about having an up to date list of packages. This of course has to be done before apt-get dist-upgrade or your system won't know about new packages.

[Monsta]

Maybe updating with a script confuses the Update Manager and it thus shows UP6.

I can confirm this. I've reproduced this on a system upgraded to UP7 via dist-upgrade. After that, mintUpdate always shows that I still have UP6 installed.
For those interested, here's the only place in the code where the local UP number is updated. It happens only when mintUpdate is installing something, and since this time the upgrade was performed without mintUpdate's participation, this number never increased.
I think it will be settled later, when something new appears in the repositories.

[Zill]

Maybe updating with a script confuses the Update Manager and it thus shows UP6.

I can confirm this. I've reproduced this on a system upgraded to UP7 via dist-upgrade...

Ouch! This seems to be quite a dropoff then as updating via terminal or the Update Manager should be no different functionally. Thanks for posting mintUpdate.py with the highlighted line. I can't really see the way forward on this as I don't see how UM can recognise a terminal upgrade as dist-upgrade works on package lists, rather than update pack numbers.

However, I am not a coder and so hope that some of you clever guys out there can figure this one out.

[Monsta]

If I understand it correctly, this number is not really used anywhere except for showing it in the GUI. Even if the number is wrong, it doesn't get in the way of the update process. Nevertheless, I've reported this issue on github.

[Monsta]

Just as I thought. Today's updates (thunderbird and ttf-ubuntu-font-family) installed via mintUpdate made it retrieve the UP number from the website and update it locally.

[killer de bug]

I had observed the same behavior after I installed Firefox earlier this month

[Jesse654]

Just as I thought. Today's updates (thunderbird and ttf-ubuntu-font-family) installed via mintUpdate made it retrieve the UP number from the website and update it locally.

When I did this upgrade through mintupdate my current/latest-used numbers went from 7/7 to 7/6. Now they are at 8/7 before installing UP8.