Differenses between the update notifier and Kpackagekit

[Oceanwatcher]

In the systray when I hover the mouse over the notifier, it tells me there are 58 updates available. But when I click it an get the window up, or opens KpackageKit it only shows 6 blocked updates.

What is correct? I have tried clicking the refresh button several times, but no change.

[Rog131]

Usually the cli is right ;) so what tells:

sudo apt-get -s upgrade

man apt-get


-s, --simulate, --just-print, --dry-run, --recon, --no-act
No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur but do not actually change the system.


Hmm, maybe (?) - the /usr/share/python-support/update-notifier-kde/update-notifier-kde.py has a line:

checkNewPackages = True #kpackagekit has a new package notifier but it's broken so use this...
;D

[Oceanwatcher]

The result from the command:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
gtk-qt-engine libgpgme11 linux-generic linux-headers-generic
linux-image-generic linux-restricted-modules-generic
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.

I checked the script and yes, it has this line. No idea what it means, though. Of the methods I have here, only the notifier shows that there are updates available. KpackageKit and apt-get seems to agree.

[kubicle]

The six packages are held back because upgrading them would require the installation of new packages (in this case likely 52 new packages...to a total of 58 packages. The large number of new packages is probably due to the gnome dependencies included in the newest version of gtk-qt-engine...which are needed for it to function, and can be set as dependencies now that gtk-qt-engine isn't installed by default anymore)

You can simulate a full upgrade with:
sudo apt-get -s dist-upgrade
(This should give you a total of 58 packages to upgrade/install...the number reported by the notifier)

[Oceanwatcher]

That solved it :-) But should this not have been shown in KpackageKit? Maybe as a summary? 6 packages to update and 52 dependencies to be installed?

At least, the notifier and KpackageKit should agree. It is really confusing for someone that do not get this information and could lead to a few bug filings.

[kubicle]

That solved it :-) But should this not have been shown in KpackageKit? Maybe as a summary? 6 packages to update and 52 dependencies to be installed?

I don't have kpackagekit installed so I can't really say, but isn't there a way to perform a "full-upgrade" with kpackagekit...what happens if you try to upgrade those six packages with it?

[Oceanwatcher]

There is an "Apply all available updates" button.

I guess it would install everything if I tried to update the six packages. But that still do not help the confusion for newcomers :-)

[kubicle]

But that still do not help the confusion for newcomers :-)

If you found it confusing, others will likely do so as well. I'm sure it could be improved.