[intrepid] update manager poor incomplete message on broken package filter

[marcobra (Marco Braida)]

Binary package hint: update-manager

[intrepid] fully upgraded/updated

When a package is broken a poor dialog message come in front to the user

"You have 1 broken package on your system!"

Use the "Broken" filter to locate it.

Casual user can't know what is "Broken" filter there is no reference to synaptic package or other info available.

I think must be more information on this warning message.

Thank you

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks for your bugreport.

The current version of update-manager should be able to deal with a lot of broken package, could you please run:
$ sudo apt-get install -f
so that I can see what particular issue your system has (but please do not apply the changes, press "n").

update-manager should kick into a recovery mode. Maybe attach a gziped version of your /var/lib/dpkg/status file as well.

Thanks,
 Michael

[marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra)]

I know my issue isn't a problem for me to dress it... is a develop package conflict bug
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/landscape-client/+bug/271119

What i mean here is: "this a bad incomplete dialog user message..."

To fix the bug number one , we need to send no cryptic messages to newbie

It is about 2 year that i answers to the users, i have seen a lot of questions for example for "dpkg-reconfigure -a" because on showed dialog there is not a clear message like this:

Please open a terminal from... Application->Accessories->Terminal and type sudo dpkg-reconfigure -a
Then type your user password, you will not see nothing when you key in, then press enter

Here the same on defective broken package with a bad suggestion message sent to user...

Thank you

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Sorry, I think you misunderstood my question :) I was asking if you could give me some more details about the error. The reason is that update-manager has a recory mode now (since hardy) that should automatically kick in and offer a solution for the problem. If that does not work for you, I would like to find out why not.

[marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra)]

Dear Michael :-) i cannot be more clear, i'm italian and my english is very poor.

My error was a develop package conflict bug
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/landscape-client/+bug/271119
now fixed, i can reproduce it no more.

But what i mean here is a not very clear (never seen before) dialog i get from update-manager that show me this info:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You have 1 broken package on your system!"

Use the "Broken" filter to locate it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The graphic style of this warning dialog seems coming from synaptic... it don't seems related with update-manager graphic style (synaptic was close during update).

Thank you

[marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra)]

Not related with this but where is your displayconfig-gtk app ?
In Intrepid i cannot download it no more...!

Thank you again...

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

This is a synaptic error message located in gtk/rgmainwindow.cc at line 1861
msgid ""
"You have %d broken package on your system!\n"
"\n"
"Use the \"Broken\" filter to locate it."

I'm marking this report as triaged/low importance because this is a usability issue and let the dev handle it from there.

Regarding our additional question: displayconfig-gtk has been removed from intrepid because it was obsoleted by newer xorg. See removal request in bug 269272 .

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

I am marking this bug as Invalid as update-manager uses aptdaemon as a backend (instead of synaptic, as it did when this bug got reported), so you will get the dialog with instructions to use the Broken filter only when using synaptic. Feel free to reopen if this still affects you, and please provide more details.