pkcon vs apt - A Personal View

[Snowhog]

Ref: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...453#post665453

I've been using the ucaresystem-core script for several years now, even here in KDE neon. I don't see any problems using it. I've only infrequently, and I mean INFREQUENTLY, used pkcon. As an informal test, I compared the two this morning. The packages identified by both utilities are identical.

2022-09-26
paul@paul-virtualbox:~$ pkcon refresh
Refreshing cache              [=========================]        
Loading cache                 [=========================]        
Downloading packages          [=========================]        
Running                       [=========================]        
Finished                      [=========================]        
 Enabled                              http://ppa.launchpad.net/utappia/stable/ubuntu jammy InRelease
 Enabled                              http://ppa.launchpad.net/utappia/stable/ubuntu jammy InRelease
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
 Enabled                              http://archive.neon.kde.org/user jammy InRelease
 Enabled                              http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
 Enabled                              http://archive.neon.kde.org/user jammy InRelease
 Enabled                              http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease
 Enabled                              http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
 Enabled                              http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease
 Enabled                              http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/main amd64 Packages
 Enabled                              http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease
 Enabled                              http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/main amd64 Packages
 Enabled                              http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 c-n-f Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/restricted amd64 Packages
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 c-n-f Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/universe amd64 Packages
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/restricted amd64 Packages
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/multiverse amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/universe amd64 Packages
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/multiverse amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
 Enabled                              http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata
paul@paul-virtualbox:~$ pkcon update
Getting updates               [=========================]        
Finished                      [=========================]        
Testing changes               [=========================]        
Finished                      [                         ] (0%)  
The following packages have to be installed:
 systemd-hwe-hwdb-249.11.1.all  udev rules for hardware enablement (HWE)
The following packages have to be updated:
 libnss-systemd-249.11-0ubuntu3.6.amd64 nss module providing dynamic user and group name resolution
 libpam-systemd-249.11-0ubuntu3.6.amd64 system and service manager - PAM module
 libspeechd2-0.11.1-1ubuntu2.amd64      Speech Dispatcher: Shared libraries
 libsystemd0-249.11-0ubuntu3.6.amd64    systemd utility library
 libudev1-249.11-0ubuntu3.6.amd64       libudev shared library
 systemd-249.11-0ubuntu3.6.amd64        system and service manager
 systemd-sysv-249.11-0ubuntu3.6.amd64   system and service manager - SysV links
 systemd-timesyncd-249.11-0ubuntu3.6.amd64      minimalistic service to synchronize local time with NTP servers
 udev-249.11-0ubuntu3.6.amd64   /dev/ and hotplug management daemon
Proceed with changes? [N/y]

_______________________________________________________
                                                      
            uCareSystem Core 4.4.0            
            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                      
                                                      
 Welcome to all-in-one System Update and maintenance  
 assistant app.                                        
                                                      
                                                      
 This simple script will automatically              
 refresh your packagelist, download and                
 install updates (if there are any), remove any old    
 kernels, obsolete packages and configuration files    
 to free up disk space, without any need of user      
 interference                                        
                                                                    
 If you’ve found it useful and saved you time and you  
 think it is worth of your support, you can make a    
 donation via PayPal by clicking on the following:    
                                                      
           https://www.paypal.me/cerebrux              
_______________________________________________________

 uCareSystem Core will start in 5 seconds...


#########################
          Started
#########################

Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Hit:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease                          
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease                        
Hit:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/utappia/stable/ubuntu jammy InRelease                                                            
Hit:5 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease                                                                
Get:6 http://archive.neon.kde.org/user jammy InRelease [104 kB]
Fetched 104 kB in 1s (102 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
9 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

###############################
Finished updating package lists
###############################
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Starting pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Starting 2 pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  libnss-systemd libpam-systemd libspeechd2 libsystemd0 libudev1 systemd systemd-sysv systemd-timesyncd udev
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.

###############################################
Finished updating packages and system libraries
###############################################

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Starting pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Starting 2 pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.

###################################
Finished removing unneeded packages
###################################

No kernels are eligible for removal
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Starting pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Starting 2 pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.

###################################
Finished removing old kernels
###################################

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Starting pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Starting 2 pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 0
Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.

#####################################
Finished removing unused config files
#####################################

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done

######################################
 Cleaned downloaded temporary packages
######################################


#########################################
 Checking to see if a reboot is required
#########################################



#########################
          Done
#########################
paul@paul-virtualbox:~$

​

[claydoh]

For useful clarification, Pkcon is the command line version for packagekit, which is a backend that simply allows GUI tools to interface with different packaging systems.
This is what allows Discover, Gnome-Software, Apper to work on *buntu, Debian, Arch, Manjaro, Fedora, etc, as long PackageKit has a backend plugin available for it.

So, running Pkcon is just running your distro's native packaging tools, same as Discover ---Apt, for us *buntu and Neon users.

Ucare is a collection of some very useful scripted apt actions.

[Snowhog]

So, running Pkcon is just running your distro's native packaging tools, same as Discover ---Apt, for us *buntu and Neon users.

Then when you said "there are those who will squeal at you if you suggest using apt in Neon", is it that "those who will squeal at you" don't fully understand how things are actually working 'under the hood'?

[claydoh]

Then when you said "there are those who will squeal at you if you suggest using apt in Neon", is it that "those who will squeal at you" don't fully understand how things are actually working 'under the hood'?

Usually.
Being the internet, even explaining things means little, sometimes.
Or often.

Some people like to squeal.
I wear earplugs.

[GreyGeek]

Lol!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dequire]

Usually.
Being the internet, even explaining things means little, sometimes.
Or often.

Some people like to squeal.
I wear earplugs.

This post should be pinned as it rings so true for any of us who have spend any amount of time in the free software world.