useless error message "package operation failed" on every update

[Marius Gedminas]

Every time I use update-manager to update my laptop, I end up looking at this dialog:

    Package operation failed

    The installation or removal of a software package failed.

    [Settings...] [ Ok ]

There's is no indication about what package failed or why it failed, no way to view apt/dpkg logs.

Attempts to use apt-get dist-upgrade or even dpkg --configure -a show that apt/dpkg do not know anything about any unfinished updates, any errors, and that the packaging state is consistent.

The only time I don't get such a dialog is when update-manager tells me I must reboot my computer instead.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: update-manager 1:0.186
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-22.33-generic 3.8.11
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-22-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Jun 1 09:36:16 2013
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
GsettingsChanges:
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'first-run' b'false'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'launch-time' b'1370068397'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'show-details' b'true'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'window-height' b'708'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'window-width' b'640'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-07-25 (310 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: update-manager
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-04-26 (35 days ago)

[Marius Gedminas (mgedmin)]

This is probably caused by my use of etckeeper with VCS="git". It complains about user.name/user.email being not set (despite me having them in my ~/.gitconfig and also in /root/.gitconfig for good measure and cron scripts).

My main problem with update-manager is that it doesn't provide any information about the failure it reports.