update-manager cannot find meta-release info

[Will Newton]

The symptom is that if I do gksudo "update-manager -d" I get no option to upgrade and this error:

current dist not found in meta-release file

Looking at the code in:

/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/Core/MetaRelease.py

It seems I had a zero sized METARELEASE_FILE. This was being created by the __init__ method of MetaReleaseCore:

        try:
            open(self.METARELEASE_FILE,"a")
        except IOError, e:
            path = os.path.expanduser("~/.update-manager-core/")
            if not os.path.exists(path):
                os.mkdir(path)
            self.METARELEASE_FILE = os.path.join(path,"meta-release")

Then the download() method checks the mtime of METARELEASE_FILE in order to add an If-Modified-Since header to the http request. The mtime is very recent because we just touched it in __init__. Because of this urllib throws an exception with HTTP 304 Not Modified.

The exception handler then sees the empty METARELEASE_FILE:

        except urllib2.URLError:
            if os.path.exists(self.METARELEASE_FILE):
                self.metarelease_information=open(self.METARELEASE_FILE,"r")

And sets metarelease_information to the newly opened empty file. Later on a parse is attempted on this file which results in no meta-release information matching the current distro.

Fix/workaround:

Taking the last-modified check out works, but probably the best thing to do is to check for a zero sized file at the same time as reading the mtime.

[Will Newton (will-newton)]

Sorry, I should add this is with update-manager 0.59.23 and a fresh feisty install.

[Wousser (wousser)]

Thanks for your bugreport.
This bug is a duplicate of 103911.

[Juan Pablo Salazar Bertín (snifer)]

This is not a duplicate of bug #103911.

[Bruce Cowan (bruce89-deactivatedaccount)]

Indeed it isn't, and I can confirm this issue.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Just apply straight to:

/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/Core/MetaRelease.py

and let me know if that helps.

Thanks,
 Michael

[Bruce Cowan (bruce89-deactivatedaccount)]

Applying the patch doesn't do anything. I even removed the /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/Core/MetaRelease.pyc file too.

This is a fairly recent install of a fairly early version of Feisty, I forgot to get the final release on CD.

[Bruce Cowan (bruce89-deactivatedaccount)]

Sorry, running update-manager as root works. Sorry about that.

[Jean Elsner (silenter)]

I can confirm this patch too, thank you :)

[Eugene (varnav)]

Thank you, the patch does help.

[Eugene (varnav)]

Now, after the patch, I was able to successfully upgrade from 7.04 to 7.10

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

update-manager (1:0.69) gutsy; urgency=low

  [ Michael Vogt ]
  * UpdateManager/Core/MetaRelease.py:
    - remove zero size meta-release files (LP: #127263)
  * utils/demoted.cfg:
    - updated to current gutsy
  * DistUpgrade/DistUpgrade.cfg:
    - added "esound", "esound-common" to forced obsoleted
      packages (replaced by pulseaudio)

  [ Jonathan Riddell ]
  * Change version text from 7.04 to 7.10 in KDE frontend

 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:41:02 +0200

[vMeson (rwmacleod)]

I hope this will be pushed int Feisty soon as suggested by Eugene.
I'd apply the patch but I'd like prefer to test the mainstream upgrade path.
Thanks.
// Randy

[Kyle Mathews (mathews-kyle)]

I had the same problem -- and the patch seemed to solve the issue... so far anyways, I'm upgrading as I type

Kyle

[Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount)]

As of Feisty 2007-07-27, this still occurs:

$ sudo update-manager -c -d
Password:
warning: could not initiate dbus
current dist not found in meta-release file

Has the patch been uploaded to the repositories? I'm not sure how to merg a .diff file.

[Bruce Cowan (bruce89-deactivatedaccount)]

On Mon, 2007-08-27 at 18:22 +0000, brettalton wrote:

> Has the patch been uploaded to the repositories? I'm not sure how to
> merg a .diff file.
>
sudo
patch /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/Core/MetaRelease.py
u-m.diff should do it (I hope).
--
Bruce Cowan <email address hidden>

[ysth (sthoenna)]

That's really not sufficient. If If-Modified-Since is going to be used at all, the three different
http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/meta-release* files need to be cached as three separate files.
(Though I'm not sure how ~/.update-manager/meta-release plays into it.)

A workaround:

sudo touch -t 197001010000 /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release

before running update-manager -d.

[ysth (sthoenna)]

For an example of when the patch isn't good enough:

# make sure we don't already know about gutsy or have the problematic empty file
sudo rm /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release
sudo update-manager -c
# Close, then:
sudo update-manager -d

/var/lib/update-manager/meta-release created by update-manager -c won't have a gutsy entry, but update-manager -d won't fetch a new copy, since the timestamp on the file is recent, so the upgrade button won't appear.

[Daniel Moyne (dmoyne)]

Thanks as
$ sudo touch -t 197001010000 /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release
$ update-manager -d
is a fix.
Daniel

[Martin Pool (mbp)]

The recipe give by Daniel Moyne of just touching the file to the epoch does not work for me, neither does the one from ysth.

mvo's patch does fix it. I would suggest this should be pushed into feisty pretty soon.

[Emiliano (emiliano-perulli)]

I can confirm that the patch works in my case.
Please include it into feisty.

[ysth (sthoenna)]

On Tue, August 28, 2007 3:17 am, Martin Pool wrote:
> The recipe give by Daniel Moyne of just touching the file to the epoch
> does not work for me, neither does the one from ysth.

Touching the file may not work if you don't sudo update-manager.
I'd like to know what you tried.

> mvo's patch does fix it. I would suggest this should be pushed into
> feisty pretty soon.

Yes, it should resolve most problems - I think only people who used -c or -p
before trying -d might still have a problem - and then they should be able to
just rm the file to get it working.

[Anders (andersja+launchpad-net)]

I am experiencing this bug too, on a fully updated feisty:

After confirming that my system is up to date
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade

I run
$ gksudo "update-manager -c -d"
GTK Accessibility Module initialized
warning: could not initiate dbus
current dist not found in meta-release file
could not send the dbus Inhibit signal: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
GTK Accessibility Module initialized
GTK Accessibility Module initialized
andersja@plasken:~$

The meta-release bug appears present still? (the referenced 'fix released' has not yet been published?)

[Bruce Cowan (bruce89-deactivatedaccount)]

It's true, making committed instead.

[Anders (andersja+launchpad-net)]

I tried

$ sudo touch -t 197001010000 /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release
$ update-manager -d

to no avail.

[ysth (sthoenna)]

On Thu, September 6, 2007 4:33 pm, Anders wrote:
> I tried
> $ sudo touch -t 197001010000 /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release
> $ update-manager -d
> to no avail.

Try using sudo for both commands. Or try:

$ rm ~/.update-manager-core/meta-release
$ update-manager -d

[schnollk (schnollk)]

I'd like to report what happend here[1]:

1. procedure as suggested <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyGibbon/Tribe5#head-81cc88734ebf046f2eea75748ddc33707ae6cc4d">in ubuntu wiki</a>
2. needed the touch cli
3. "new release" showed up for one but coulnd't carry out the upgrade right away
4. next time I ran update-manager -d option was gone
5. variouse touches and update-manager -d's didn't help (sudoed or not)
6. finally a came around to rm ~/.update-manager-core/meta-release
7. now the option showes up every time update-manager is called without sudo. If I do sudo updat... it wouldn't show up.

Unfortunatelly I didn't capture the meta-release file... Hope this helps never the less. Let me know soon if you need more since I'd like to update in the next couple of days.

Cheers.

[1]
$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu-desktop-i386 2.6.20-15-generic #2 SMP Sun Apr 15 07:36:31 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 7.04
Release: 7.04
Codename: feisty

$ apt-cache policy update-manager
update-manager:
  Installed: 1:0.59.23
  Candidate: 1:0.59.23
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.59.23 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com feisty-updates/main Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com feisty-updates/main Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com feisty-proposed/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:0.59.20 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/main Packages

[Will Newton (will-newton)]

Should we be checking for corrupt meta release info as well as 0
length files here?

Is it that bad to download the meta release file every time when -d is passed?

On 9/7/07, schnollk <email address hidden> wrote:
> I'd like to report what happend here[1]:
>
> 1. procedure as suggested <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyGibbon/Tribe5#head-81cc88734ebf046f2eea75748ddc33707ae6cc4d">in ubuntu wiki</a>
> 2. needed the touch cli
> 3. "new release" showed up for one but coulnd't carry out the upgrade right away
> 4. next time I ran update-manager -d option was gone
> 5. variouse touches and update-manager -d's didn't help (sudoed or not)
> 6. finally a came around to rm ~/.update-manager-core/meta-release
> 7. now the option showes up every time update-manager is called without sudo. If I do sudo updat... it wouldn't show up.
>
> Unfortunatelly I didn't capture the meta-release file... Hope this helps
> never the less. Let me know soon if you need more since I'd like to
> update in the next couple of days.
>
> Cheers.
>
> [1]
> $ uname -a
> Linux ubuntu-desktop-i386 2.6.20-15-generic #2 SMP Sun Apr 15 07:36:31 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux
>
> $ lsb_release -a
> No LSB modules are available.
> Distributor ID: Ubuntu
> Description: Ubuntu 7.04
> Release: 7.04
> Codename: feisty
>
> $ apt-cache policy update-manager
> update-manager:
> Installed: 1:0.59.23
> Candidate: 1:0.59.23
> Version table:
> *** 1:0.59.23 0
> 500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com feisty-updates/main Packages
> 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com feisty-updates/main Packages
> 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com feisty-proposed/main Packages
> 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> 1:0.59.20 0
> 500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/main Packages
>
> --
> update-manager cannot find meta-release info
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/127263
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

This diff should fix both the sudo and the non-sudo case:

In the sudo case the empty file creates if-modified-since (I-M-S) hits that are newer than the version on the server so no metarelease file is downloaded. Empty files now get simply removed.

In the non-sudo case both the "meta-release" and the "meta-release-development" file are mapped onto the same local filename. This confuses the i-m-s mechanism. The metarelease filename now will be build based on the actual download filename.

Cheers,
 Michael

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

I put packages online at:

deb http://people.ubuntu.com/~mvo/update-manager /

Please give them a go.

Thanks,
 Michael

[ysth (sthoenna)]

On Mon, September 10, 2007 4:07 am, Michael Vogt wrote:
> I put packages online at:
>
> deb http://people.ubuntu.com/~mvo/update-manager /
>
> Please give them a go.
>
> Thanks,

Thank *you*. Seems to work just great, except that running
sudo update-manager -d, I needed to hit "Check" before the
new distribution was shown.

I didn't actually try the upgrade, since I need that box to
stay on Feisty for the moment, but I wonder if that "import os"
line you removed from DistUpgradeFetcher.py is actually
unneeded...I remember running into a problem with it before.

[teedog (teedog)]

Wanted to note that neither "touching" nor removing /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release worked for me. The following solution did work:
http://www.go2linux.org/upgrading-to-gutsy

Sorry I did not try update-manager_0.59.24 posted above.

[Michael Heimann (michael-heimann)]

Just had the "current dist not found in meta-release" error. But at least for me it was correct since the /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release file was empty (!!!). Quite strange since I just did an upgrade from edgy (possible to update edgy->gutsy, would have saved 800MB download...)

I then followed http://www.go2linux.org/upgrading-to-gutsy and corrected the cutted-off http:// lines from there (at least the gutsy part) and the upgrade is now running :)

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Fixed in gutsy with the 0.72 upload

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Looks fine to me.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Accepted into feisty-proposed, please go ahead and test.

[Michael Hofmann (mh21)]

Works for me, no empty /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release anymore.

[Michael Hofmann (mh21)]

I still get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/UpdateManager.py", line 914, in on_button_dist_upgrade_clicked
    fetcher.run()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/Core/DistUpgradeFetcherCore.py", line 178, in run
    self.runDistUpgrader()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/DistUpgradeFetcher.py", line 53, in runDistUpgrader
    if os.getuid() != 0:
NameError: global name 'os' is not defined
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/update-manager", line 91, in <module>
    app.main(options)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/UpdateManager.py", line 1017, in main
    gtk.main()

which is fixed by the attached patch.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Thanks, Michael Hofmann, for the testing. Patch approved for feisty-proposed; mvo, can you please upload a new package to -proposed?

[Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount)]

I think Pitt is saying that the fix has not yet been approved, but I'll add this anyway.

As of upgrading Feisty on 2007-09-15 (on 2 computers), I still had to use:

sudo touch -t 197001010000 /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release

To run:

sudo upgrade-manager -d

and get it to work.

[ThinkpadUBUNTU (wjkierstead)]

I am afraid none of the above allowed the upgrade to run on my system -

here is the output

wes@ubuntu:~$ sudo touch -t 197001010000 /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release
wes@ubuntu:~$ sudo upgrade-manager -d
sudo: upgrade-manager: command not found
wes@ubuntu:~$ sudo update-manager -d
warning: could not initiate dbus
extracting '/tmp/tmphTlaZf/gutsy.tar.gz'
authenticate '/tmp/tmphTlaZf/gutsy.tar.gz' against '/tmp/tmphTlaZf/gutsy.tar.gz.gpg'
could not send the dbus Inhibit signal: global name 'dbus' is not defined
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/UpdateManager.py", line 914, in on_button_dist_upgrade_clicked
    fetcher.run()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/Core/DistUpgradeFetcherCore.py", line 178, in run
    self.runDistUpgrader()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/DistUpgradeFetcher.py", line 53, in runDistUpgrader
    if os.getuid() != 0:
NameError: global name 'os' is not defined

[sem (semitones)]

I can confirm this output (notably failing to initialize dbus, and the
NameErrors

--phix

On 9/20/07, ThinkpadUBUNTU <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> I am afraid none of the above allowed the upgrade to run on my system -
>
> here is the output
>
> wes@ubuntu:~$ sudo touch -t 197001010000
> /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release
> wes@ubuntu:~$ sudo upgrade-manager -d
> sudo: upgrade-manager: command not found
> wes@ubuntu:~$ sudo update-manager -d
> warning: could not initiate dbus
> extracting '/tmp/tmphTlaZf/gutsy.tar.gz'
> authenticate '/tmp/tmphTlaZf/gutsy.tar.gz' against
> '/tmp/tmphTlaZf/gutsy.tar.gz.gpg'
> could not send the dbus Inhibit signal: global name 'dbus' is not defined
> Traceback (most recent call last):
> File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/UpdateManager.py",
> line 914, in on_button_dist_upgrade_clicked
> fetcher.run()
> File
> "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/Core/DistUpgradeFetcherCore.py",
> line 178, in run
> self.runDistUpgrader()
> File
> "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/DistUpgradeFetcher.py", line
> 53, in runDistUpgrader
> if os.getuid() != 0:
> NameError: global name 'os' is not defined
>
> --
> update-manager cannot find meta-release info
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/127263
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[William F Pearson (wfpearson)]

I followed the fix here and it works http://www.go2linux.org/upgrading-to-gutsy

Populating the file /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release with the attatched file fixes the issue.

Original source:
http://www.go2linux.org/pics/other_files/meta-release.txt
Note: this is not my fix, thanks to Patrick and Projekt Enterprises, whoever they are.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

This needs to be verified today, so that people upgrading to gutsy tomorrow are good.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

The version 0.59.25 in feisty-proposed should fix this issue as well as the issue with the missing imports.

Here are instruction to verify the problem:
0. install update-manager 0.59.23 from feisty-updates
1. make sure your time is correct (ntpdate pool.ntp.org)
2. run update-manager
3. close it again
4. check that ~/.update-manager-core/meta-release was created
5. run "update-manager -d"
6. no new version will come up (no upgrade to gutsy button)

To verify the fix install new version 0.59.25 for update-manager and update-manager-core
from feisty-proposed and repeat steps 1-5. In Step 6 there should be a button that lets you
upgrade to gutsy. Also verify that a new file ~/.update-manager-core/meta-release-development was created.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Using update-manager and update-manager-core 0.59.23 I did not see the distribution upgrade button. After updating to 0.59.25 in feisty-proposed I saw that the distribution upgrade button was available.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Copied to -updates.

[Trance (emilien-girault)]

I have followed all the indications but I still experiment the same problem ; I want to update to Gutsy and update-manager doesn't show me the update button.
I deleted my ~/.update-manager-core/meta-release, my ~/.update-manager/meta-release but it didn't fix anything. And I have no /var/lib/update-manager/meta-release. Moreover, I'm behind a proxy.
I've downloaded and installed the versions of update-manager and update-manager-core on http://people.ubuntu.com/~mvo/update-manager/ but it didn't change anything. I've also tried to follow http://www.go2linux.org/upgrading-to-gutsy (I don't have the message "current dist not found in meta-release") but it still don't help ; this update button remains invisible !