Declining partial update appears to leave "Software Updater" in unworking state

Bug #2073293 reported by Andi McClure
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
update-manager (Ubuntu)
New
Undecided
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Bug Description

I found a bug that I suspect is reproducible, but which I do not know how to test the repro steps for unaided. Here is what I saw:

I was seeing a problem and decided to run Software Updater (the gui app from the dash dock activity search thing) to see if the problem fixed itself. After checking for updates, it presented a dialog I had not seen before, saying (from memory) "Ubuntu is only able to do a partial update. This may happen because [list of reasons]. You may perform the partial update now and then finish updates later." I did not have time for this so I closed this window, as I remember by clicking the X, then rebooted.

After reboot I ran Software Updater again. This did not bring back the "partial updates" box. Instead it showed me the normal "Updated software is available for this computer" box and a list of updates. However, at this point, the GUI was "dead". I could scroll and click buttons, but clicking "Install now" or "Settings..." had no effect other than the buttons darkening on click. This state persisted after another reboot. [It was at this point I ran ubuntu-bug and collected logs.]

At this point I thought: If the GUI updater isn't working, I should try apt. I ran apt-get update and apt-get upgrade and successfully upgraded many packages. After this, I again ran Software Updater. This time it said "The software on your computer is up to date". However, the GUI is still "dead", clicking "OK" or "Settings and Pro…" have no effect other than darkening the button.

Hypothesis: Getting the partial upgrade offer box, then exiting it in an abnormal fashion such as clicking the X, does something to on-disk state that leaves Software Updater unable to run. Perhaps someone who knows how to force Software Updater to give the partial upgrade offer should try to reproduce this.

I do not know if this is the correct package to file against. If I guessed wrong, please transfer it to the correct component.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.04
Package: update-manager 1:24.04.6
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.8.0-38.38-generic 6.8.8
Uname: Linux 6.8.0-38-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.28.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Jul 16 14:20:11 2024
InstallationDate: Installed on 2023-10-18 (273 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 23.10.1 "Mantic Minotaur" - Release amd64 (20231016.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 TERM=xterm-256color
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
SourcePackage: update-manager
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to noble on 2024-06-03 (43 days ago)

Revision history for this message
Andi McClure (andi-mcc) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Andi McClure (andi-mcc) wrote :

Update: After performing one more reboot after the successful apt-get update && apt-get upgrade, the problem with the Software Updater app that had persisted across several reboots before this went away. Perhaps the upgrade itself fixed something? I do not know.

Revision history for this message
Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio) wrote : Re: [Bug 2073293] Re: Declining partial update appears to leave "Software Updater" in unworking state

Hi Andi, thank you for the very clear description and context. You filed the
bug against the correct package.

> Update: After performing one more reboot after the successful apt-get
> update && apt-get upgrade, the problem with the Software Updater app
> that had persisted across several reboots before this went away. Perhaps
> the upgrade itself fixed something? I do not know.

First of all let us try to check your hypothesis. Can you please post the
output of 'grep update-manager /var/log/dpkg.log'?

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