[System] Stuck on "Fetching Updates

[Teksonik]

I keep getting stuck on "Fetching Updates". It's been stuck for fifteen minutes today and there is no network activity and very little CPU demand. Is this a known issue? Something I'm doing wrong? I'm not new to Linux or Kubuntu but I am by no means an expert with either. 26.04, Kernel version 7.0.0-15. Thanks for any help.

[Snowhog]

How are you 'updating'; from Discover, or from a terminal using apt?

[Teksonik]

I'm updating from Discover as it offers updates. Apt works fine.

[Teksonik]

This is what a search reveals:

"Users experiencing KDE Discover stuck on Fetching Updates in Kubuntu can resolve the issue through several targeted fixes, primarily involving fwupd, network configuration, or package dependencies.

Disable or Remove fwupd The most common cause is a hang in the firmware update backend.

• GUI Fix: Open Discover Settings and uncheck any options related to fwupd (firmware updates).
• CLI Fix: If the GUI option is unavailable, remove the backend packages via terminal:
  sudo apt-get remove fwupd plasma-discover-backend-fwupd

[Snowhog]

It will serve you better; IMO; if you use the terminal (Konsole) and use apt (sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade) to keep your system up to date.

[die.boer]

It will serve you better; IMO; if you use the terminal (Konsole) and use apt (sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade) to keep your system up to date.

Yea that's what I normally do too ,if I see there's updates in discover ,I just run that command in terminal rather.
But I use Nala instead of apt , it's prettier and clearer what's happening ,and supposedly faster ...

[Teksonik]

That may well be but what's the point of a non-terminal update method through Discover if that method doesn't work? Discover notifies me that updates are available but then fails to install those updates. That smells like a bug to me or certainly not the way things should work. People coming from Windows don't want to faff about with terminal commands they just want things to work. This is a perfect example of why Linux struggles to gain more acceptance. Anyway thanks for your response.

[die.boer]

That may well be but what's the point of a non-terminal update method through Discover if that method doesn't work? Discover notifies me that updates are available but then fails to install those updates. That smells like a bug to me or certainly not the way things should work. People coming from Windows don't want to faff about with terminal commands they just want things to work. This is a perfect example of why Linux struggles to gain more acceptance. Anyway thanks for your response.

there have been quite a few reports of this with Discover on recent KDE Plasma / Kubuntu releases, especially early in a release cycle like 26.04. “Fetching Updates…” hanging indefinitely while showing no network or CPU activity is usually a Discover/PackageKit backend issue rather than an actual apt problem.
A lot of experienced Kubuntu users eventually stop using Discover for system updates entirely and use:sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade , or Nala

Discover is generally fine for:
Flatpaks
browsing apps
firmware notifications

…but it has had intermittent reliability problems with PackageKit for years on some distros.
also early-release versions like 26.04 often have rough edges that get smoothed out over the following months through updates. Long-term support releases tend to stabilize significantly after the first few point releases.

[Teksonik]

…but it has had intermittent reliability problems with PackageKit for years on some distros.

As I said that's a bug, either in Discover or Kubuntu. It would seem to me that the developers (and fans) of Kubuntu would want an issue like this to be fixed.

As someone who has been an alpha and beta tester for a lot of Windows software I know full well that early releases can contain bugs and unresolved issues but the end goal is always to fix those bugs and solve those issues.

I love Kubuntu and want to recommend it to those who are looking into switching to Linux but an issue like this gives me pause to do so. In October if Micro$oft doesn't extend support for Windows 10 again there is likely to be a large influx of people looking for an alternative. But they're going to want updates to work without workarounds since updates have always been a source of problems on Windows. Out of the frying pan into the fire so to speak.