[SOLVED] Software Sources stuck at "Updating cache" "Waiting for synaptic to exit"

[waffeln]

Hey LM forum,

because i got an error for broken packages or something while attempting to install Wine for PlayOnLinux i attempted to change my Software Sources in the Synaptic Package Manager to some other servers. But after choosing two new one and pressing OK at the top the process get's stuck at "Updating cache" "Waiting for synaptic to exit".

Selection_001.jpg

The update manager also gives me warnings.

synaptic_002.jpg

At some point the updater also said i shouldn't update because it could break my OS.

What do i need to do to get back on the track of the Jedi?

[philotux]

At any given time, you should be using one and only one APT-handling tool. Close Synaptic and/or Software Manager and try running the Update Manager once again. If you get other error messages, please post them back here.

[waffeln]

At any given time, you should be using one and only one APT-handling tool. Close Synaptic and/or Software Manager and try running the Update Manager once again. If you get other error messages, please post them back here.

Am i supposed to have only one of those installed..? Because i'm pretty sure both have been on my system since the installation.

Anyway i rebooted my system and only opened the update manager which gives me this error when i hit refresh:

Selection_002.jpg

[philotux]

Am i supposed to have only one of those installed..? Because i'm pretty sure both have been on my system since the installation.

No, but only one of them should be running at any given time. You couldn't have Synaptic open and run Update Manager at the same time. But you could have them installed on your system.

For the Wine's public key issue, try this in a terminal (copy/paste):

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sudo apt-key adv --recv-key --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 818A435C5FCBF54A

Next, run the Update Manager orapt update in a terminal.

Hopefully it will resolve the issue.

[waffeln]

Am i supposed to have only one of those installed..? Because i'm pretty sure both have been on my system since the installation.

No, but only one of them should be running at any given time. You couldn't have Synaptic open and run Update Manager at the same time. But you could have them installed on your system.

For the Wine's public key issue, try this in a terminal (copy/paste):

Code: Select all

sudo apt-key adv --recv-key --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 818A435C5FCBF54A

Next, run the Update Manager orapt update in a terminal.

Hopefully it will resolve the issue.

I don't get any error in the Update Manager any more, but despite quitting from it beforehand i still can't change the sources in the Software Sources (stuck at "Waiting for synaptic to exit")

[philotux]

i still can't change the sources in the Software Sources (stuck at "Waiting for synaptic to exit")

Are you sure that Synaptic (Synaptic Package Manager) is not running in the background?
Try:

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sudo killall synaptic

[waffeln]

i still can't change the sources in the Software Sources (stuck at "Waiting for synaptic to exit")

Are you sure that Synaptic (Synaptic Package Manager) is not running in the background?
Try:

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sudo killall synaptic

Oh my... this is stupid design.
So i used the Synaptic Package Manager to go to Settings -> Repositories and change them from there while the Package Manager became inactive / waiting for me to close the Software Sources. But since that waited for the Package Manager to close, i wasn't able to update my Software Sources.
Either this is bad software design (for beginners) or i'm so stupid that i missed something very obvious, because this wasn't obvious to me...

Anyway thank *you* very much for your help! I got my stuff back on track again and will now continue to find proper instructions to get wine installed on my machine...

[philotux]

You are welcome! I am glad that the issue is resolved.

cheers
philotux

[gm10]

Just to add in case it's not clear, you can start Software Sources directly from the Mint menu. You can also find it in Update Manager's Edit menu. No need to go through Synaptic, which is definitely not beginner friendly software.

[waffeln]

Just to add in case it's not clear, you can start Software Sources directly from the Mint menu. You can also find it in Update Manager's Edit menu. No need to go through Synaptic, which is definitely not beginner friendly software.

Yeah that's how i ended up circumventing this design flaw. You can't just lock up the process / window that a child window requires to terminate for what it wants to do...

[waffeln]

*sighs*

It's not over yet.

Now i get this error when refreshing inside the Update Manager:

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W: Target Packages (Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:3
W: Target Translations (en_US) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:3
W: Target Translations (en) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:3
W: Target Translations (de) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:3
W: Target Packages (main/binary-amd64/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:2 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:4
W: Target Packages (main/binary-i386/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:2 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:4
W: Target Packages (main/binary-all/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:2 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:4
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en_US) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:2 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:4
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:2 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:4
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-de) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:2 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:4
W: Target DEP-11 (main/dep11/Components-amd64.yml) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:2 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:4
W: Target DEP-11 (main/dep11/Components-all.yml) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:2 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:4
W: Target CNF (main/cnf/Commands-amd64) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:2 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:4
W: Target CNF (main/cnf/Commands-all) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:2 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list:4

[philotux]

Launch Software Sources and under "Additional repositories" keep just one of each source and remove the extra ones.

[waffeln]

I tried doing that, but when i hit OK at the top to confirm it updates the cache and gives me

Code: Select all

Failed to download repository information

Check your Internet connection.

even though i'm clearly connected to the internet. Also tried switching to Wireless from Wired with no luck.

EDIT: Even though i carefully selected my official repos by speed and authenticity (universities that i know), one of them must have been down and changing them fixed that issue for me.

My update manager is also happy now, so thank all of you very much!!

[evilmrb]

I wanted to add my ten penneth to this issue. The problem of being stuck after trying change repos or add a ppa has been around for several major versions of Mint. If you go into Synaptic then Settings and Repositories and change a repo or add a ppa you are then told to update the cache. The system then says that it is 'waiting for Synaptic to exit'. Well, of course it is because you have arrived here from Synaptic. The top window is a modal window so you cannot access the Synaptic window in the background. Your only option is to cancel.

So, the comment about bad design is entirely fair. Furthermore, on my Mint 19.3 MATE system clicking Software Sources on the Adminstration menu does absolutely NOTHING. If you check the Properties for the command it says 'pkexec mintsources'. Typing this into a terminal session DOES work.

The original poster was right to say there is a fault and the fault is still there.

[gm10]

I wanted to add my ten penneth to this issue. The problem of being stuck after trying change repos or add a ppa has been around for several major versions of Mint. If you go into Synaptic then Settings and Repositories and change a repo or add a ppa you are then told to update the cache. The system then says that it is 'waiting for Synaptic to exit'. Well, of course it is because you have arrived here from Synaptic. The top window is a modal window so you cannot access the Synaptic window in the background. Your only option is to cancel.

So, the comment about bad design is entirely fair. Furthermore, on my Mint 19.3 MATE system clicking Software Sources on the Adminstration menu does absolutely NOTHING. If you check the Properties for the command it says 'pkexec mintsources'. Typing this into a terminal session DOES work.

The original poster was right to say there is a fault and the fault is still there.

Well, if you know there is a problem opening Software Sources through Synaptic then why do you keep doing that? Synaptic takes exclusive control of the package management system, while it is open you cannot have other applications update the cache.

That aside, feel free to use my PPA (see my signature) for my own take on Mint's tools. My tools generally don't exhibit the same issues that Mint's versions have. In this case you'll still get a message that you cannot update the cache while Synaptic is running (working as intended), but you should not see any of the other issues you describe.

[evilmrb]

You do like a bit of hostility, don't you? Maybe I try it for each new release to see if it's been fixed. Maybe I'm getting on a bit and forget things sometimes.

If it's known that adding repos in this way causes the issue, there shouldn't be an option to do it.

[gm10]

Now who's the hostile one? I generously offered you to use my software, which does not have all those issues you complain about, so why are you barking up my tree now? If you want to complain to the Mint team, then do that - you're in the wrong place for that and I'm the wrong addressee.

[Flemur]

Your only option is to cancel.

You can also kill synaptic.

My long-term solution is to not use the mint* software; it's too buggy for stuff that's basically extraneous.

Edit: here are some of the bugs (from Mint 19.3) This software is really bad.

$ mintsources
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR com.linuxmint.mintsources === mintinstall
Software Sources
Authenticating as: <username>,,, (<username>)
Password:
polkit-agent-helper-1: error response to PolicyKit daemon: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: No session for cookie
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ===
Error executing command as another user: Not authorized

This incident has been reported.
$

$ mintupdate
/home/<username> : ==== AUTHENTICATING FOR com.ubuntu.pkexec.synaptic ===
Authentication is required to run the Synaptic Package Manager [sic]
Authenticating as: <username>,,, (<username>)
Password: correct-password
correct-password: command not found
$
[NOTE: ^^^ that also exposes your password on the terminal]

$ mintinstall

MintInstall: Detected system architecture: 'x86_64'
...[try to install "Ttf-mscorefonts-installer"[sic - it's not even the right package name!]

Installer: Calculating changes required for APT package: ttf-mscorefonts-installer
For install: ['python3-distro-info', 'update-manager-core', 'update-notifier-common', 'ttf-mscorefonts-installer', 'python3-distupgrade', 'python3-debconf', 'python3-update-manager', 'ubuntu-release-upgrader-core']
For removal: []
For upgrade: []
Starting task for package apt:ttf-mscorefonts-installer, type 'install'
Done with task (success) apt:ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Installer: Calculating changes required for APT package: ttf-mscorefonts-installer
For install: ['python3-distro-info', 'update-manager-core', 'update-notifier-common', 'ttf-mscorefonts-installer', 'python3-distupgrade', 'python3-debconf', 'python3-update-manager', 'ubuntu-release-upgrader-core']
For removal: []
For upgrade: []
Starting task for package apt:ttf-mscorefonts-installer, type 'install'
Done with task (success) apt:ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Installer: Calculating changes required for APT package: ttf-mscorefonts-installer
For install: ['python3-distro-info', 'update-manager-core', 'update-notifier-common', 'ttf-mscorefonts-installer', 'python3-distupgrade', 'python3-debconf', 'python3-update-manager', 'ubuntu-release-upgrader-core']
For removal: []
For upgrade: []

...["Ttf-mscorefonts-installer" never gets installed and I never see a reason why or get any error message in the GUI, just the nonsense output in the terminal - type 'install' ha!

[rossdv8]

For anyone who actually prefers using Synaptic (I hate the Software Sources thing about as much as I hate Muon or Discover in KDE), there's another SIMPLE solution.

First - Synaptic was designed with a different set of users in mind. A lot of new people with not much experience have started using Linux over the last ten years.

So:
********************
Synaptic > Settings > Repositories
Choose the repository or repositories you want to change to.
Hit 'Apply'

IGNORE where it says:
Your Configuration changed
Click OK to update your APT cache

Click the CLOSE button in the Title Bar instead

When that dialog disappears:
Click 'Reload' in the Synaptic window.
******************

It all works as designed EXCEPT that pesky OK button to update the APT cache.
If you ignore that, close the window using the close button on the Title Bar and Click Reload you should be fine.
(Cancel next to OK probably works, but I can't remember)