'apt' and some other packages 'kept back' after Mint 21 upgrade

[BeyondLies_MintForum]

I upgraded Mint 20.3 Cinnamon to Mint 21. Now - some days later, and perhaps because Ubuntu has just released a point release - I see the following when running sudo apt upgrade.

The following packages have been kept back:
apt apt-transport-https apt-utils libapt-pkg6.0 libgtk-4-1 libgtk-4-bin libgtk-4-common

That is not good. For, should one, or should one not, force installation of that stuff by doing sudo apt dist-upgrade?

[antikythera]

you need apt to be kept up to date for security and stability reasons. I'd do a dist-upgrade as you propose and if that still won't push it through try a different mirror just in case the ones you are using are not fully synchronised which can lead to package mismatches.

[BeyondLies_MintForum]

Thanks for the reply.

'[Y]ou need apt to be kept up to date for security and stability reasons': yes, but the 'holding back' suggests that something has gone wrong with Mint's packaging and, thus, that installing the updates might break things.

Your advice about trying another mirror - to try to avoid packaging problems - seems good. I reverted to using the default servers. But so doing did not change anything. So I changed the 'base (jammy)' server to something random - which produced 'failed to download repository information'. So I changed to another one. That worked. But I still had packages held back.

But it would help - because I am considering filing a bug report against Mint - to know whether anyone else is seeing these 'held' packages.

[BeyondLies_MintForum]

I am about to try the approach labelled, 'Cautious solution 2' here. And . . I did it, rebooted, ran `apt` again and all seems fine.

[astronomad]

The following packages have been kept back in my system (Vanessa Cinnamon):
cryptsetup cryptsetup-bin cryptsetup-initramfs cryptsetup-run libcryptsetup12

[astronomad]

The following packages have been kept back in my system (Vanessa Cinnamon):
cryptsetup cryptsetup-bin cryptsetup-initramfs cryptsetup-run libcryptsetup12

sudo aptitude safe-upgrade upgraded all the held back packages.

[astronomad]

This issue has recurred. Two other packages were held back. Update Manager did not inform this. The packages were upgraded only with specific terminal commands ( I used sudo aptitude safe-upgrade)

[BeyondLies_MintForum]

I just had ubuntu-advantage-tools offered in the 'held back' way. That is a central package. Given that, and given that others are reporting held back packages,and given that it is now some time since Mint 21 came out (which reduces the change of a temporary mirror problem being responsible), I suspect that here we have a Mint packaging problem or - if this be different - a problem with the Mint upgrade process. So, who is going to file the bug report? I won't, because I think I file enough of them as it is!

[astronomad]

The problem may not be with Mint upgrade process, because, between my first and last (previous) post in this thread, I re-installed Mint 21. That is, this issue - packages being kept back - occurred both after an upgrade from 20.3 to 21 using Mintupgrade and after a re-install (without formatting /home partition).

[Moem]

The following packages have been kept back in my system (Vanessa Cinnamon):
cryptsetup cryptsetup-bin cryptsetup-initramfs cryptsetup-run libcryptsetup12

Mod note:
You should start a topic of your own if you want help with that. We feel that a new question, even if related to an existing one, deserves a new topic.

[Termy]

You can use apt-mark(8) to mark packages as held and unheld, but be careful, as some packages are held for a good reason. Refer to man apt-mark for more information.

[ajgreeny]

Packages being kept back is happening quite a lot at the moment in the Ubuntu 22.04 family of OSs which is why you are seeing it in Mint 21.

I always use command

Code: Select all

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

and even when packages are kept back the package manager (apt) seems to make sure all is OK.

[Termy]

[...]

Assuming nothing related has changed with apt-get(8), I don't see anything in the documentation about dist-upgrade ignoring held packages. In-fact, I've held packages in the past, something which was respected by apt-get(8). I mentioned apt-get(8) and dist-upgrade, because that's the under-the-hood version of apt(8)'s full-upgrade, AFAIK. Unless apt(8) (and/or '/usr/local/bin/apt') oddly does something different. If those options didn't respect package holding, I'm not sure I'd see the point in holding packages in the first place.

Again, if you want to unhold packages, you can use apt-mark(8), but also again, some packages are held for good reason. I have no idea why those packages are being held in Ubuntu 22.04 though; perhaps it's just temporary, to avoid a known issues with those packages, in which case I'd wait a while to see if it changes, or look online.

[demux]

Having the same issue, since the upgrade to Mint 21. In my case Firefox is pending, kept back - currently stuck with version 103. apt full-upgrade did not help so far:

The following packages have been kept back:
firefox firefox-locale-en
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.


Small push FWD was, when I ran:

Code: Select all

sudo aptitude safe-upgrade 

that made installing ubuntu-advantage-tools, but not Firefox that I want updating.

Any ideas how to fix this?

[astronomad]

The following packages have been kept back in my system (Vanessa Cinnamon):
cryptsetup cryptsetup-bin cryptsetup-initramfs cryptsetup-run libcryptsetup12

Mod note:
You should start a topic of your own if you want help with that. We feel that a new question, even if related to an existing one, deserves a new topic.

Wouldn't it be better if we had all information about one particular issue in one single thread?

[astronomad]

... but be careful, as some packages are held for a good reason.

That's the question isn't it? 'Are the packages being kept back for a good reason or is it a bug?' Is this something that can be ignored?
If they're being kept back for good reasons why different packages for different people?
For example, I had no trouble upgrading Firefox to 104, unlike demux!

[cfb]

Read this https://askubuntu.com/questions/1420969 ... as-automat and especially the two answers to the question.
You will see that "Phased Updates" is intended and a feature introduced in Ubuntu 21.04.

[Moem]

Wouldn't it be better if we had all information about one particular issue in one single thread?

That's not how we roll here. Please re-read the forum rules if you already forgot them.

[BeyondLies_MintForum]

Packages being kept back is happening quite a lot at the moment in the Ubuntu 22.04 family of OSs which is why you are seeing it in Mint 21.

Ah. Thanks. I infer that this is an Ubuntu bug. But I can't find anything that seems directly relevant on the Ubuntu bug tracker.

[ajgreeny]

I was using Xubuntu yesterday and had one package kept back, ubuntu-advantage-tools, when using apt update and upgrade.

Out of interest I the used synaptic and the package upgraded with no difficulty.
I'm aware that the usual Mint synaptic package does not offer package upgrades as the Ubuntu flavours do though you can get the Ubuntu version of synaptic instead of Mint's.
I leave it to you to decide whether you wish to try using Ubuntu's synaptic or just accept the phased upgrades.

FYI, I always use apt with no problems from any kept back packages.