There is no way to stop a check for update for ubuntu images

Bug #1272313 reported by Diego Sarmentero
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Ubuntu system image
Triaged
Low
Unassigned
ubuntu-system-settings (Ubuntu)
Fix Committed
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

The designs requires to stop the process of "checking for updates".
But the system image update service doesn't provide anyway to call a function to do that.

<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareUpdates#check-interactive-mobile>: "At the top of the screen (replacing the “Install All” button, if it was present) should be a “Checking for updates…” spinner and a “Stop” button."

Tags: client updates

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Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for your bug report.

Hey Matthew, what would you recommend doing in the UI if we can't stop the check, just not have a button I guess?

Barry, I'm added the system image component to the bug, the design has a "stop" button for "check update", it might be a feature to add to the service?

Changed in ubuntu-system-settings (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

What do you mean by "can't stop the check"? I understand why the ability to stop might not be implemented yet, but I don't see why it would be impossible to implement.

Compare the installation of packages in Ubuntu Software Center: even though the installation is performed by a separate service (aptdaemon), a Stop button is still present in the Progress screen.

Revision history for this message
Manuel de la Peña (mandel) wrote :

> What do you mean by "can't stop the check"? I understand why the ability to stop might not be implemented yet, but I don't see
> why it would be impossible to implement.
>
> Compare the installation of packages in Ubuntu Software Center: even though the installation is performed by a separate
> service (aptdaemon), a Stop button is still present in the Progress screen.

Probably means that there is no dbus method to stop the check and therefore cannot be stopped with the current implementation of the dbus service from the system-image-updates. Therefore there is going to be some time in which this feature in system settings cannot be implemented until a patch is sent to the code that really deals with updates.

I have talked with barry and the check is an operation with several steps and adding such a feature (cancelling/stopping the check) might take some time to land. Is not impossible and we should do it, is just hard and will take time and a possible plan B should be considered.

Diego, am I wrong?

Revision history for this message
Barry Warsaw (barry) wrote : Re: [Bug 1272313] Re: There is no way to stop a check for update for ubuntu images

On Feb 03, 2014, at 12:11 PM, Manuel de la Peña wrote:

>I have talked with barry and the check is an operation with several
>steps and adding such a feature (cancelling/stopping the check) might
>take some time to land. Is not impossible and we should do it, is just
>hard and will take time and a possible plan B should be considered.

Checking for whether an update is available is a complicated, multi-step
process. For example, there are potentially 4 gpg keyring files that must be
present, but only one that is shipped with the image, so the "check for update
available" process must be able to backtrack and download any missing keys.
It's surprisingly complicated!

The biggest challenge with adding a stop method during update available checks
is that all the various combinations and backtracking must be tested, so
that's a lot of additionally complicated test code to add. It's not
insurmountable -- I just have to find the cycles to tackle it.

Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

If checking for an update is a multi-step process, that's excellent news, because it means the progress display can be determinate rather than just a spinner. Like the ability to stop, I guess that would require an extra dbus method to ask "how far through are you right now". Reported bug 1276061 for that.

In the meantime, let's treat the Stop button the same as anything else in System Settings that isn't implemented: don't show the UI until it is implemented.

Changed in ubuntu-system-settings (Ubuntu):
assignee: Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) → nobody
Revision history for this message
Barry Warsaw (barry) wrote :

On Feb 04, 2014, at 09:38 AM, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:

>If checking for an update is a multi-step process, that's excellent
>news, because it means the progress display can be determinate rather
>than just a spinner. Like the ability to stop, I guess that would
>require an extra dbus method to ask "how far through are you right now".
>Reported bug 1276061 for that.

The tricky part is that we won't know how many steps are involved ahead of
time. For example, let's say we have three of the four keys already when we
start the check. The first thing we do is download the blacklist, and if one
of the three keys is now on the blacklist, we'll have an extra step to
download a replacement. Also, it's possible that once we've downloaded the
first key, it might make subsequent key checks fail validation.

There's an upper limit to the number of things we have to download during the
check though, so we could just emit something like:

step 1 of 7
step 2 of 7
(steps 3-5 can be skipped so...)
step 6 of 7
step 7 of 7

It might make the display a bit jumpy, but it would be feasible without much
work. For backward compatibility we'd have to add new dbus signals for these
progress steps.

description: updated
Changed in ubuntu-system-settings (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Barry Warsaw (barry)
tags: added: client
Barry Warsaw (barry)
Changed in ubuntu-system-image:
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Low
tags: added: updates
Changed in ubuntu-system-settings (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Fix Committed
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