Ubuntu
apt-listchanges package

Update Manager hangs waiting for response to apt-listchanges hidden under Details

Bug #787802 reported by Eric Hammond
84
This bug affects 17 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
apt-listchanges (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: apt-listchanges

I have installed the package apt-listchanges.

The Update Manager prompts me to upgrade some packages and I accept.

The Update Manager starts the upgrade and then hangs.

The only way to continue is to have enough knowledge to do the following:

a. Recognize that the Update Manager has stopped the upgrade.

b. Click "Details" to open up the terminal output and see the apt-listchanges log.

c. Press "q" to exit out of the apt-listchanges pager.

This sequence would be unknown to many new Ubuntu users who might have installed apt-listchanges thinking it looks like a useful package.

There are a few problems here:

1. Update Manager is giving no indication that it is waiting for a response inside of the Details panel

2. The contents of the Details panel is hidden. This is fine when it's just technical output, but when waiting for input it needs to be open.

3. New Ubuntu users would have no idea that they need to press "q" to quite the apt-listchanges pager and continue the upgrade.

I'm not sure what the best solution would be, but perhaps apt-listchanges could simply email the changes when it is run inside of the Upgrade Manager instead of waiting for a response from a user who cannot see it.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: apt-listchanges 2.85.6ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue May 24 13:44:44 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Beta amd64 (20110415)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: apt-listchanges
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Revision history for this message
Eric Hammond (esh) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Michael Mauch (michael-mauch) wrote :

Thanks for pointing out that apt-listchanges is the culprit for this annoying behaviour. I just read its man page and then changed /etc/apt/listchanges.conf to `frontend=mail` in the [apt] section. I couldn't test it yet, but the man page says that it should not display changes now.

Revision history for this message
Eric Hammond (esh) wrote :

Changing status to "Confirmed" because others have indicated they are having the same problem.

Changed in apt-listchanges (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
summary: - Update Manager halts waiting for response to apt-listchanges hidden
+ Update Manager hangs waiting for response to apt-listchanges hidden
under Details
Revision history for this message
jarondl (jarondl) wrote :

I have this issue too.
While I want to keep the current apt-listchanges behavior when issued from the command line (with apt-get), there is no point showing the changes in the graphical update manager, as they are already shown.

The odd thing, is that I believe update manager already tries (and fails) to address this issue. See the following code line:
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/natty/update-manager/natty/view/head:/UpdateManager/UpdateManager.py#L772

Revision history for this message
Adam Conrad (adconrad) wrote :

update-manager used to invoke the GTK frontend of apt-listchanges (which seemed like a sane behaviour to me) before it started doing this pager-in-the-terminal-widget thing. Is there a reason why this was changed at all?

Revision history for this message
Darxus (darxus) wrote :

This problem also exists in 11.10 Oneric.

tags: added: oneric
Revision history for this message
Jan Claeys (janc) wrote :

Tested update-manager & Synaptic in 11.10, and apt-listchanges works fine in Synaptic, while update-manager "fails". Maybe the differences between how those 2 work can point to a solution?

Revision history for this message
Neal McBurnett (nealmcb) wrote :

Bug #995195 was filed on Update Manager, relating to the same bug. One of these should be a duplicate of the other.

Revision history for this message
mc0e (xgcsufw02) wrote :

I'm amazed that this bug has persisted so long. apt-listchanges is a useful add-on, but if it breaks major functionality (ie update-manager) and there's no energy to fix it, then apt-listchanges should be removed from the repositories.

I'm affected by this bug. I'm running oneiric.

I've confirmed that setting APT_LISTCHANGES_FRONTEND=none in the environment on the comand line before running apt-listchanges correctly inhibits the display.

I've also confirmed that the APT_LISTCHANGES_FRONTEND variable is not is not in the environement of the pager in the details panel.

I found it interesting, and a little disturbing that I could get a root shell from the pager in this situation.

Revision history for this message
Richard Hansen (rhansen) wrote :

I'm marking this as a duplicate of bug #995195 because that has already been marked 'triaged' and 'high' importance.

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