"Not all updates can be installed" requires a decision most people can't make
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| update-manager (Ubuntu) |
Confirmed
|
Medium
|
Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
In some situations, Update Manager presents a "Not all updates can be installed" alert box:
------------
Not all updates can be installed
Run a partial upgrade, to install as many updates as possible.
This can be caused by:
* A previous upgrade which didn't complete [1]
* Problems with some of the installed software [2]
* Unofficial software packages not provided by Ubuntu [3]
* Normal changes of a pre-release version of Ubuntu [4]
( Partial Upgrade ) ( Close )
------------
The problem is that except for alpha/beta testers [4], people can't reasonably be expected to know which of those four has happened. So no matter how these buttons are labelled (bug 120689), they can't tell whether it actually is a good idea to "run a partial upgrade". And if it is not a good idea, but they do it anyway, upgrading may leave the system unusable (bug 802991). We should detect which case has happened, and handle it automatically instead of putting up an alert box.
For [1], detect it by setting a flag when an update starts and unsetting it when it finishes. For [2], detect it using aptdaemon. For both [1] and [2], repair it using aptdaemon's FixIncompleteIn
For [3], distinguish between packages that were installed manually by themselves, and all other packages. For packages that were installed manually by themselves, present them as a list of applications and other things that will be removed by the update. For all other packages, remove them without comment.
And for alpha/beta testers [4], disallow partial updates altogether (bug 430197).
Eliminating the partial upgrade dialog would be one way of resolving bug 537243, bug 961938, bug 120689, bug 430197, bug 551357, bug 599972, bug 741503, bug 802991, bug 832315, bug 954038, bug 973811, bug 974228, bug 980061, bug 990449, bug 994052, bug 1027335, bug 1056131, and bug 1078302.
| Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote | #1 |
| Changed in update-manager (Ubuntu): | |
| status: | New → Opinion |
| tags: | added: update-manager |
| Changed in update-manager (Ubuntu): | |
| status: | Opinion → New |
| Changed in update-manager (Ubuntu): | |
| importance: | Undecided → Medium |
| Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote | #2 |
| Changed in update-manager (Ubuntu): | |
| status: | New → Confirmed |
| Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote | #3 |
| description: | updated |
| description: | updated |
Matthew, I'm not sure why this would ever be shown *except* during alpha/beta testing. Our rules on archive consistency should prevent this from ever being shown in a released version of Ubuntu, unless someone has opted in to testing of -proposed (which would seem to warrant the same handling as alpha/beta). Have you seen this in an Ubuntu release?
I'm confused by bug #430197, as that's not consistent with my own experience regarding partial upgrades. But maybe I don't understand what this "partial upgrade" actually entails!