Ubuntu
update-manager package

could not calculate the upgrade, yet answer clearly in logfile

Bug #227128 reported by Matt Wilkie on 2008-05-06

This bug report is a duplicate of: Bug #249329: Intrepid dist-upgrade fails - 'nvidia-glx' is marked for removal but it's in the removal blacklist. Edit Remove

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	update-manager (Ubuntu)	Incomplete	Undecided	Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: update-manager

Update manager tells me it could not calculate the upgrade, and gives a vague variety of possible causes, but a quick perusal of the dist-upgrade logfile pinpoints precisely where the stoppage occured [1]. If it is beyond scope of update manager to parse the results of the logfile and respond accordingly, it should at least tell users to inspect it.

At least I didn't go very far down the road described in the troubleshooting threads I was reading. The sign post for that road might read "keep uninstalling the programs which might be causing the problems and try again".

[1] The problem:
2008-05-03 22:13:39,777 DEBUG The package 'nvidia-glx-new' is marked for removal but it's in the removal blacklist
2008-05-03 22:14:02,990 ERROR Dist-upgrade failed: 'An essential package would have to be removed'

Revision history for this message

Michael Vogt (mvo) wrote on 2008-05-06:

Thanks for your bugreport.

Please attach the files in /var/log/dist-upgrade to this bugreport.
Thanks Michael

Changed in update-manager:
status:	New → Incomplete

Revision history for this message

Matt Wilkie (maphew) wrote on 2008-05-07:

apt.log Edit (464.3 KiB, text/plain)

Revision history for this message

Matt Wilkie (maphew) wrote on 2008-05-07:

main.log Edit (6.4 KiB, text/plain)

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Matt Wilkie (maphew) wrote on 2008-05-07:

main_pre_req.log Edit (1.0 KiB, text/plain)

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Matt Wilkie (maphew) wrote on 2008-05-07:

okay, log files are now attached.

From your response I'm not sure if the substance of my bug report is understood: I'm not reporting, so much, that update-manager doesn't like the proprietary nvidia drivers, rather that the popup error message is vague and that if it were more direct about telling people to look at the logfiles it might potentially save frustration and needless searching about and uninstalling of unofficial program X which may be entirely innocent.

<blockquote>
Could not calculate the upgrade

A unresolvable problem occurred while calculating the upgrade.

This can be caused by:
* Upgrading to a pre-release version of Ubuntu
* Running the current pre-release version of Ubuntu
* Unofficial software packages not provided by Ubuntu

<strong>If none of this applies, then</strong> please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include the files in /var/log/dist-upgrade/ in the bugreport.
</blockquote> (emphasis added)

I had initially skipped over the last sentence, containing the path to the logfiles, because of the wording in the first phrase: "If none of this applies". I saw those words, noted that I am running unofficial packages, and so stopped reading because obviously the rest wasn't for me.

I would have let it sit there and not bothered you with a bug report here, except that in my searches I encountered a number of threads on ubuntu forums and in the mailing list where others had made the same hasty mistake I did. Perhaps if the wording were changed a bit or there was a button to open the logfile directory it would divert some of the needless casting about.

Revision history for this message

Matt Wilkie (maphew) wrote on 2008-05-07:

PS: I know the subject line for the bug report sucks, not describing the essence of the request, but have not thought of a better one yet. Sorry.

Revision history for this message

Alberto Milone (albertomilone) wrote on 2008-07-20:

Michael:
I think there's a problem with the Xserver ABI. The ABI required by xserver-xorg-core don't match the one provided by the old nvidia-glx package. As a result apt wants to remove the nvidia-glx package (but it can't because of the blacklist).

The nvidia-glx-* packages provide "xserver-xorg-video-2" in hardy and xserver-xorg-core conflicts with earlier versions (xserver-xorg-video, xserver-xorg-video-1.0, xserver-xorg-video-1.9)

How about updating the nvidia-glx-package before xserver-xorg-core?