feature request: do-release-upgrade --download-only

Bug #664534 reported by deejoe
168
This bug affects 33 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
update-manager (Ubuntu)
Triaged
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: update-manager

I would like to see a --download-only switch for do-release-upgrade, so that the network-dependent part of an over-the-net upgrade can be separated as much as possible from the local unpacking, configuration, and installation of the upgrade.

This would be similar to the -d switch available for aptitude (although, certainly, -d is already used for --devel in do-release-upgrade, so if there is to be a short version, it would have to be something different, perhaps -D)

A general use-case for this is fetching the bulk of the upgrade packages while on a cheaper or higher-capacity connection, and then completing the upgrade on a lower-capacity or more expensive connection.

For instance, I often go to conferences in the fall around release time, and have more than once thought it'd be fun to try to upgrade an altroot install during downtimes at the conference, or on the way there. But, inevitably, the conference network connections are overloaded, and I don't want to compound the problem by pulling down a full release upgrade.

Also, a bulk network download doesn't call for nearly the same amount of attention as does the configuration and installation process. Being able to fire-and-forget the download portion conserves attention and patience for dealing with the vagaries of whatever other upgrade challenges there might be.

Tags: wishlist
Changed in update-manager (Ubuntu):
status: New → Opinion
Revision history for this message
RedSingularity (redsingularity) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to make Ubuntu better. Since what you submitted is not really a bug, or a problem, but rather an idea to improve Ubuntu, you are invited to post your idea in Ubuntu Brainstorm at http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/ where it can be discussed, voted by the community and reviewed by developers. Thanks for taking the time to share your opinion!

Revision history for this message
deejoe (nyloco) wrote :

Marking wishlist bugs as "opinion" seems inconsistent with other wishlist bug reports, so I'm changing this. I seem not to have permission to set this as having Importance: Wishlist but that seems entirely appropriate and so I would appreciate it if someone with requisite access could mark it as such.

Changed in update-manager (Ubuntu):
status: Opinion → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Paul Ebermann (paul-ebermann) wrote :

I would like to see this, too.

I have a relatively slow Internet connection which i share with other persons, so I would like to download the 1.5 GB in the night (when noone else is using the connection), and then do the upgrade (with all the questions to answer) on the next day without impacting the Internet performance for everyone around.
(For the upgrade to maverick I stayed up in the night to answer all the questions (and likely will do for natty, too), but I would like to avoid this in future, since I'm not quite awake them, which impacts my ability to think about these questions.)

Can someone with the necessary rights please mark this as "Wishlist" ... and do something against the pending expiry, even if it is not yet easy to solve this?

Revision history for this message
David Austin (david-d-austin) wrote :

Bump!

Revision history for this message
Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel) wrote :

Setting to 'Wishlist' in accordance with https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Importance
"Wishlist: a request to add a new feature to one of the programs in Ubuntu. "

Thanks for your help to make Ubuntu better.

Changed in update-manager (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
status: Incomplete → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Andrew McMillan (karora) wrote :

Would a patch help? Is this a difficult thing to code?

Bandwidth is always a challenge in our house, both for the CPU in this bear of very little brain, and for the piece of magic string that connects us to the rest of the world.

Being able to separate the timing of download vs. upgrade would make managing those two conflicting requirements much nicer.

Thanks,
Andrew McMillan.

Revision history for this message
Matt Joiner (anacrolix) wrote :

@karora: No it wouldn't be too difficult. One would apply the sources.list change to a temporary or sandboxed clone of the apt config that shares the dpkg cache lock, and then do the equivalent of dist-upgrade --download-only. The goal is to populate the package cache with the next releases packages but leave the system config unmodified. There was a bug that the package cache is cleared during upgrade (thereby wasting your effort), but this is alleged to be fixed.

Revision history for this message
Nate Eldredge (nate-thatsmathematics) wrote :

As a quick hack to achieve this, I wrote

https://github.com/neldredge/fetch-release-upgrade

It doesn't fix this bug but may be useful to some people in the meantime.

Revision history for this message
Menachem Shapiro (menachem) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Jorge Morais (jorgemorais) wrote :

I want to upgrade my parents' desktop from 12.04 to 14.04. But I will only be there shortly during the weekend, and they have a slow internet connection. I would like to SSH in and download everything first, and then I could upgrade when I am there.

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