Update manager does not show all available updates

[Jochen Fahrner]

Update manager does not install updates that are available. In Synaptic I see updates, but update manager does not see them. See attached screenshot.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: update-manager 1:0.196.12
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-24.47-generic 3.13.9
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia wl
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sun May 18 19:40:04 2014
GsettingsChanges:
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'show-details' b'true'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'window-height' b'683'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'first-run' b'false'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'window-width' b'827'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'launch-time' b'1400434690'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-05-08 (9 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: update-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

There are several sources for updates on an Ubuntu system -- the -updates pocket and the -security pocket are the most common. (There is also a -backports pocket, but you'd have to opt into it specially.)

I believe the update-manager graphical interface only shows updates from the -updates pocket weekly, in an attempt to avoid update fatigue, but shows updates from the -security pocket daily, so that security updates can be delivered in a timely fashion.

The updates in your screenshot are from the -updates pocket. I suspect you will be prompted for those by the updater within a week.

Thanks

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks Jochen for your bugreport.

Could you please run (if you can still reproduce the issue):
$ apt list -a --upgradable
and paste the output here?

[Jochen Fahrner (jofa)]

In the meantime I installed the updates with Synaptic. Can I reverse that update or do we have to wait until the next time updates are not recognized?

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

/var/log/apt/history.log should have some information about this particular update.

[Jochen Fahrner (jofa)]

I have a new sample. Synaptic just told me that there are 25 packages. I then started update-manager which also told me that there are updates, but only some of them. I installed them with update-manager. Now 17 packages are left in Synaptic. I started update-manager again, but it told me there are no updates. See screenshot and attached logs.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

This is not a bug, I think what you see is the https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PhasedUpdates feature in action.

But I wonder if we can do something to make it easier to discover whats going on, i.e. why update-manager is not showing something but synaptic (and apt) are.

[Jochen Fahrner (jofa)]

When this is a feature, not a bug, you should think about distinguishing if update-manager was started manually or by cron. When update-manager is started manually, it should install all available updates, as synaptic does.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

This is because of phased-updates and you can see what packages are phasing here:

http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/phased-updates.html

Some more details about the phasing of updates can be found in my blog post at http://www.murraytwins.com/blog/?p=127.

[Jochen Fahrner (jofa)]

Is there a way to opt-out from this phasing? I found some hints that suggest to create a file /etc/apt/apt.conf with a line

Update-Manager::Never-Include-Phased-Updates "True";

But that doesn't seem to work in 14.04. Update-manager still does not install the outstanding updates.

My gut feeling is that this "phasing" is broken, and I just don't want it.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

If you don't want to install any updates that are phasing (not distributed to all Ubuntu users) and the apt.conf line you've added will ensure that you only get updates when they are fully phased.

However, if you want to install all updates regardless of their phasing percentage (including those that have stopped phasing due to potential regressions) then you'd want the following in you /etc/apt/apt.conf file.

Update-Manager::Always-Include-Phased-Updates "True";

Don't confuse the fact that not every package manager supports phasing with it being broken.

[Paul Crawford (psc-sat)]

Having read the page on phased updates I can see the rational behind that. However, it is still a broken GUI in my view because it is not telling you the whole story. You are told one thing by the GUI and another if you look at the package status vit apt-get or similar.
Would it not be better to tell folk in the GUI that updates are being deployed in a phased manner? That way you could see if there was something you really wanted done now, or just leave the machine to deploy them over the phased period?