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

[hectorsales]

thanks, very grateful ....

[norm.h]

I've resurrected this thread because I'm having the same issue in Mint 17 (Mate).

I've looked to use Karlchen's solution, (which worked for me in Mint 13), but I have no "10 periodic" file in the "apt.conf.d" directory.
Is there a solution for Mint 17?

[norm.h]

Is nobody else experiencing this?

I have two laptops running Mint 17 (Mate) 32 bit, installed from the same DVD.
On one, the Update icon changes (as it should) whenever updates are available.
The other one, the icon stays as a green tick and reports system up to date, even when updates are available.
Refreshing from the icon reveals any available updates.

Is there some configuration difference that I should look for?

[niowluka]

I have the same issue on LM17 Mate 64 running Openbox session.

I only ever install security updates, so I am ok to just manually refresh once or twice a week.

It does seem to me that Karlchens solution is a workaround rather than fix, as the refresh frequency in the applet is meaningless.

[karlchen]

Confirmed. It was a workaround for the particular issue that affected Mint 13 and Mint 14 in 2012. No more, no less. - And I am not quite sure that what we see today on Mint 17 has got the same root cause.

[norm.h]

Not wishing to be like a dog with a slipper about this, but in my case, why does it work on one laptop but not on the other?

[niowluka]

Confirmed. It was a workaround for the particular issue that affected Mint 13 and Mint 14 in 2012. No more, no less. - And I am not quite sure that what we see today on Mint 17 has got the same root cause.

Looks like a plain old bug to me. Someone mentioned earlier this is due to priviliges, but I don't need admin password to refresh packages. It is only required for install.

[niowluka]

netgooroo, did you experience issues with mintupdate before following the tutorial ? I've read through it and frankly I don't see anything that could possibly affect mintupdate. Also, from norm.h posts it seems the problem is not affecting all installations so maybe you are just the lucky one

On a side note, I would advise against blindly following such tutorials to the letter. Every system (especially Linux) and user needs are unique, and there is never a 'one fits all' solution. What is critical for one may be completely irrelevant or even harmful for another.

[norm.h]

netgooroo,
[.....]On a side note, I would advise against blindly following such tutorials to the letter. Every system (especially Linux) and user needs are unique, and there is never a 'one fits all' solution. What is critical for one may be completely irrelevant or even harmful for another.

Not only that, but the link is for Cinnamon, and I'd be wary applying them to Mate without a lot of background work first.
If it's a bug, then surely it would affect both my machines, since they're both installed from the same DVD?

[niowluka]

Guys, I'm not a n00b.. okey dokey.. I've been around the block more than just a few times and I fully understand what you are saying about each install being unique to each user. TRUST ME I just got done going through about 4 or 5 different installs before I finally settled on Linux Mint Mate because of how FUBAR Ubuntu main branch is now.

As far as editing installs "blindly" I always make sure I read any changes before I make them and, norm.h if you would have taken the time to actually READ that page, you would have seen that there was another link to Mate settings. I shared the edits for Cinnamon because I thought I read somewhere in the earlier posts that the person asking for help was useing that distro,... so, please EXCUSE me for trying to help.. and may I suggest that you do some reading before "pointing fingers" next time?

Just sayin..

Nobody is pointing fingers or accusing you of anything. Also, each one of us was a noob at some point, so there is no shame in that, not that anyone has suggested you are one.

Back OT.

I am just trying to establish whether the tutorial you suggested we follow actually fixed the same issue for you, but so far you have not confirmed whether you had the problem in the first place. If you can provide any more details on that it would really help.

Until then I will not, and I recommend the same for others, follow it. I was not taking a dig you. If it worked for you, great, but as I said, it doesn't mean it will by default work for everybody else.

[niowluka]

So, as I have said, in my experience, utilizing the suggested edits works just fine. and I would advocate using it to anyone that wanted to tweak there system to enable it to be more reliable and stable.

Let's agree to disagree on that one.

I hope that helps.

Yes, thanks again.

[norm.h]

netgooroo, did
[......] norm.h if you would have taken the time to actually READ that page, you would have seen that there was another link to Mate settings.[.....] so, please EXCUSE me for trying to help.. and may I suggest that you do some reading before "pointing fingers" next time?

OK, you're excused. I'll even excuse you for being so touchy!
But I did miss the link to Mate - my bad, but I've since read it and can find nothing that refers to my particular issue.
Thanks for trying anyway.

[norm.h]

I've put both laptops side by side, and compared the mintUpdate preferences and settings.

On the laptop where the mintUpdate icon says "up to date" - even if updates available, there is a file "99synaptic" in etc/apt/apt.conf.d that isn't on the other laptop.
The file reads; APT::Install-Recommends "false";, and is the only difference between the mintUpdate preferences & settings that I can find.

Googling "99synaptic" I find 3-year old threads that suggest it shouldn't be there.
Could this be the cause of my issue, and what is my best course of action, please?
Synaptic Package Manager and Software Manager both work properly.

[niowluka]

I have the file. I don't think this is the problem though. When this is set to true, apt-get will also install recommended packages, in addition to plain dependencies.

Source: man apt-get

Why you have it on one pc and not on other is another question. I cannot detect what package does the file belong to.

[norm.h]

Clutching at straws here, but THIS THREAD which is some 2 years old, suggests that 99synaptic is no longer required.
As "APT::Install-Recommends" is set to "false" it's not doing anything anyway, so could it be removed?
Would that be a case of commenting out the line, or deleting 99synaptic?
Since it isn't on the other laptop, it's obviously not needed.

[norm.h]

Had a brainwave (not).
Went to my little-used desktop box, which also has LM17 from the same DVD as the two laptops.
Update icon in the system tray showed "system up to date", but as it hadn't been used for a while, I knew there were updates available.
Auto-refresh on this box is set to 30 minutes, so it can't be that.
Found "99synaptic", so decided to try to remove it using the rm command, but told "no such file or directory".

Code: Select all

normh@normh-desktop ~ $ sudo rm 99synaptic
[sudo] password for normh: 
rm: cannot remove ‘99synaptic’: No such file or directory
normh@normh-desktop ~ $ sudo rm /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99synaptic
normh@normh-desktop ~ $ 
normh@normh-desktop ~ $ rm /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99synaptic
rm: cannot remove ‘/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99synaptic’: No such file or directory
normh@normh-desktop ~ $ 

Refreshed the update icon and installed 23 updates.
Went back to find "99synaptic" but it had gone!
Rebooted and looked again - still gone!

Must try that on the laptop, and watch what happens (doubly confused)

EDIT: Carried out same procedure (exactly) on the laptop - same result.
Will have to see what effect (if any) this has on the update icon changing when updates are available.

[niowluka]

You deleted it allright, second command did it.

Let us know if it helped.

BTW, the thread was a bug report. The file was not deleted when package 'synaptic' was purged. It didn't suggest the file is not required.

[norm.h]

You deleted it allright, second command did it. Let us know if it helped.

Thanks - I get it now, and I will report back in due course.

BTW, the thread was a bug report. The file was not deleted when package 'synaptic' was purged. It didn't suggest the file is not required.

Code: Select all

I see a /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99synaptic still there after purge.
Thanks for your bug report.
I fixed this in bzr now and it will be part of the next upload.

I took this to mean that it [99synaptic] shouldn't have been there - [after the purge].

[norm.h]

Reporting back, as promised.
It's no better - my other laptop and my desktop box both found updates which this laptop failed to do.
Accessed and installed them by refreshing the systray icon.
If it's any help, this is the Update Manager Information file:

Code: Select all

++ Launching mintUpdate 
++ Starting refresh
++ Auto-refresh timer is going to sleep for 0 minutes, 0 hours and 1 days
++ System is up to date
++ Refresh finished
++ Starting refresh
++ Found 15 recommended software updates
++ Refresh finished
++ Install requested by user
++ Will install language-pack-en-base
++ Will install language-pack-en
++ Will install language-pack-gnome-en-base
++ Will install language-pack-gnome-en
++ Will install file
++ Will install libmagic1
++ Will install google-chrome-stable
++ Will install libavcodec54
++ Will install libavformat54
++ Will install libavutil52
++ Will install libswscale2
++ Will install liblwp-protocol-https-perl
++ Will install libminiupnpc8
++ Will install transmission-common
++ Will install transmission-gtk
++ Ready to launch synaptic

(synaptic:9748): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_hide: assertion 'GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
++ Return code:0
++ Install finished
++ Starting refresh
++ System is up to date
++ Refresh finished

[norm.h]

Two weeks on, and the issue is still not resolved.
If this is a bug, then surely it would affect all my machines?