Why doesn't MintUpdate update everything?

[humdinger70]

I'm on Mint Cinnamon 18.1. I do a pretty good job of keeping it updated via the Update Manager. But I'm irked about one thing - apparently MintUpdate (or Update Manager) doesn't announce everything to be updated. I have it set to the middle option - show everything to be updated, but only automatically check items at levels 1 thru 3. So far so good.

But recently, I did a terminal session and did the usual Debian/Ubuntu thing - 'sudo apt-get update' followed by 'sudo apt-get upgrade'. And, to my surpise, it listed about a dozen things that did NOT show up in Update Manager - Libdbus, systemd, grub2. So those did not get updated by the GUI interface - using it said my system was 'up to date'. Yeah right.

I wound up doing the upgrades via the terminal session, so I knew it was fully updated.

So Clem, what's the story here? Why did some of these items NOT show up in the Update Manager? I shouldn't have to do the extra 'apt-get' commands to ensure that my box is fully updated.

[Turtletronic]

The manager per default handles updates level 1 to 3 but holds back levels 4 and 5 as they might break your system (yada, yada). Updating via terminal on the other hand ignores all level settings and simply installs everything. If that is what you want, change the upgrade manager settings to include levels 4 and 5.

[kc1di]

Hello humdinger70 and welcome to Linux Mint,

Mint has long had a grading system of sorts to grade the Updates is allows.
They are ranked 1 thru 5 according to how safe the update is. by selecting the middle choice you choose not to update ranks 4 & 5 Which
may cause breakage to the system from time to time, #'s 4& 5 updates may not have been tested well by the Devs. Or may be know to cause problems on
certain machines.
In any event if you want to change your choice you can do so by right clicking on the update manager Icon and selecting preferences then the the Levels tab
and placing an x in the boxes for #'s 4 & 5. Then they will be shown and installed during and upgrade. if you just want to see all available updates available you can
just check the show box and it will be shown in the list and will not be upgraded unless you manually select it.

[MintBean]

The OP may wish to re-read the description of the middle option in the update manager. It does not say that it displays everything. His misunderstanding lead to him becoming 'irked.'

[all41]

Why doesn't MintUpdate update everything?

It will--if you so instruct it.

[Divine_Serpent]

The OP may wish to re-read the description of the middle option in the update manager. It does not say that it displays everything. His misunderstanding lead to him becoming 'irked.'

Oh, now, let's be easy on the young chap.

But MintBean is right, look into how the update manager is configured. It will update literally everything, but it must be configured to do so. Also, this is ill advised, and people tend to have problems after updating the kernel. Play around with the update manager and you'll see. Please continue to reach out and ask questions if you need.

[MintBean]

The OP may wish to re-read the description of the middle option in the update manager. It does not say that it displays everything. His misunderstanding lead to him becoming 'irked.'

Oh, now, let's be easy on the young chap.

You are right of course. Still there's a better way to ask questions and it involves less eye-rolling.

[Divine_Serpent]

The OP may wish to re-read the description of the middle option in the update manager. It does not say that it displays everything. His misunderstanding lead to him becoming 'irked.'

Oh, now, let's be easy on the young chap.

You are right of course. Still there's a better way to ask questions and it involves less eye-rolling.

I'm sure he'll learn, otherwise he wouldn't be here. (or she, whichever OP is)

[jimallyn]

It's a feature, not a bug.

[Cosmo.]

So Clem, what's the story here?

The story is here. If after the command line upgrade a regression should happen, you have the answer.

[lmintnewb2]

^ Thanks for that link Cosmo.

Typed out a massive post on this but thought better of it. Will restrict to a couple choice comments instead. Op it's clear Mint HQ leaves a person the freedom to manage OS packages as they see fit, whether gui or cli.

But think unless someone is on the same skill level as Clem, Mint devs and maintainers and has any clue what's involved in keeping up a distro reportedly used by millions.

Many of which are newbish with no interest in ever really looking at a cmd prompt and w a buntu upstream base on top of that, then would say such people aren't likely to have any clue what they're talking about.

While also true Mint has plenty of gnu/Nix cli ninjas and highly skilled tech junkies in the community too, everybody is free to handle package management however they prefer.

While for the aforementioned reasons, will gladly leave it up to Clem and Mint HQ to know/do what's best for the overall userbase and how Mint is config'ed default. People can rest assured they have reasons for why X, is Z etc.

Still came out a monster!

[humdinger70]

Looks like I found the issue. I had the level preferences originally set to display level 4 and 5 items, but I think the last update from 18.0 to 18.1 caused it to no longer 'stick'. Within Update Manager, I do Edit>Preferences>Levels and mark levels 4 and 5 as 'visible', but leave 'safe' as unchecked. Hit Apply, then do a 'refresh' When nothing happens, I go back to Edit>Preferences>Levels and...

'Visible' is once again unchecked. As is 'Safe?'. For both levels 4 and 5.

So to work around it, I use the 'update policy' as 'always update everything'. And I will watch what happens.

So MintUpdate *IS* at fault. And needs a fix.

[Cosmo.]

Open a terminal and enter

Code: Select all

ls -la ~/.config/linuxmint

Provide the output.

[Divine_Serpent]

Open a terminal and enter

Code: Select all

ls -la ~/.config/linuxmint

Provide the output.

I'm not OP, but I was curious as to what you'e terminal command does, and this is what I got:

Code: Select all

ls: cannot access '/home/USER/.config/linuxmint': No such file or directory

[Cosmo.]

@Divine_Serpent:

There is possibly something wrong.
For further discussion open your own thread and don't forget to provide the info of the command inxi -Sz. Without minimal system specs it is impossible to provide serious help.

[buteman]

One reason I would not want it to update everything is because I have a very recent laptop. Mint 18.1 comes with the default kernel of 4.4.0-53
Neither sound nor wifi will work with it or other 4.4.x-x kernels. It works fine with 4.8.0-34
If I had it set to update everything it would stick a 4.4.x-x kernel on and wreck my system so I would have to sort it all out again.
It's only working because a very patient knowledgeable JeremeyB advised me on what to do.
At the moment it wants to put 4.4.0-62.83 on it.