[Bug 1007543] [NEW] Release upgrading requiring user input baffles inexperienced users

[Matteo Settenvini]

Public bug reported:

Dear Ubuntu people,

I have several inexperienced friends using Ubuntu. This week, and the
previous one, they tried to upgrade to Precise Pangolin through the GUI:
update-manager pops up, they are told there is a new release, 12.04, and
they click on "Upgrade".

After all the packages are downloaded, though, often the process stops
in the middle of installing packages. One common case almost all my
friends stumble at, is near the beginning, when an obscure (for them)
list of services is presented, and they are asked if to "restart" them.
They have:

a) no idea what a service is. What is stuff like "rsync"? "libc"?
They're scared a wrong decision might break their machine.

b) many of them have left their machine unattended for the past hours.
They are surprised that in 6-7 hours the process is still in its early
stages and unfinished! They want to use their machine! They're not only
scared, but angry, too!

c) the window presented to them is a ncurses one. It has no focus. They
try to type with the keyboard, and nothing happens. After a while, they
try to clic on the "Ok" button (even though they do not know it is a
button). It doesn't work. They panic and call me. I tell them to try to
clic on the lower part of the update manager screen, and to press "TAB"
until "Ok" is selected. They cannot tell when it is selected reliably.
In the end I have to keep a level tone and ask them to be cool, and have
a laugh, as they would like to unplug the computer in frustration. They
are scared they will never be able to recover the documents that were
there before, but they do not know how to proceed.

Up until now, the list of affected friends includes my own mother (she's
57 years old, Italian, and owns her own PC), my girlfriend (25 years
old, she is German, has a laptop running Ubuntu), and a friend of mine
(he is 21 years old, Argentinian, and has a PC). So it looks people of
different ages, culture and gender stumble into this problem :-p.

Of course, the situation is less than optimal. This reminds me of a
discussion Richard Hughes of PackageKit's fame had with Debian devs some
time ago [1], about debconf requiring user input during an upgrade
process. I didn't get back then how much this is a *bad* idea. As far as
I know, rpm does it without user input, and creates a series of
".rpmnew" config files when needed. Then, at the end of the installation
process, notifies the users there is some manual configuration to be
done. I think this is the right way to handle the issue. If not
upgrading a config file will result in the relative package to stop
working, then a ".rpmold" file is forced to be created, so that no info
is lost.

Please, to avoid people calling their "expert" friends and make it
really "Linux for everyone", could you please make the *UPGRADE* process
*NON-INTERACTIVE*?

[1] http://wiki.debian.org/PackageKit/Discussion
"Authentication or license prompts can only be done before the transaction has started, and messages or notices about the transaction can only be shown after the transaction has completed"

** Affects: update-manager-core (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1007543

Title:
  Release upgrading requiring user input baffles inexperienced users

Status in “update-manager-core” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Dear Ubuntu people,

  I have several inexperienced friends using Ubuntu. This week, and the
  previous one, they tried to upgrade to Precise Pangolin through the
  GUI: update-manager pops up, they are told there is a new release,
  12.04, and they click on "Upgrade".

  After all the packages are downloaded, though, often the process stops
  in the middle of installing packages. One common case almost all my
  friends stumble at, is near the beginning, when an obscure (for them)
  list of services is presented, and they are asked if to "restart"
  them. They have:

  a) no idea what a service is. What is stuff like "rsync"? "libc"?
  They're scared a wrong decision might break their machine.

  b) many of them have left their machine unattended for the past hours.
  They are surprised that in 6-7 hours the process is still in its early
  stages and unfinished! They want to use their machine! They're not
  only scared, but angry, too!

  c) the window presented to them is a ncurses one. It has no focus.
  They try to type with the keyboard, and nothing happens. After a
  while, they try to clic on the "Ok" button (even though they do not
  know it is a button). It doesn't work. They panic and call me. I tell
  them to try to clic on the lower part of the update manager screen,
  and to press "TAB" until "Ok" is selected. They cannot tell when it is
  selected reliably. In the end I have to keep a level tone and ask them
  to be cool, and have a laugh, as they would like to unplug the
  computer in frustration. They are scared they will never be able to
  recover the documents that were there before, but they do not know how
  to proceed.

  Up until now, the list of affected friends includes my own mother
  (she's 57 years old, Italian, and owns her own PC), my girlfriend (25
  years old, she is German, has a laptop running Ubuntu), and a friend
  of mine (he is 21 years old, Argentinian, and has a PC). So it looks
  people of different ages, culture and gender stumble into this problem
  :-p.

  Of course, the situation is less than optimal. This reminds me of a
  discussion Richard Hughes of PackageKit's fame had with Debian devs
  some time ago [1], about debconf requiring user input during an
  upgrade process. I didn't get back then how much this is a *bad* idea.
  As far as I know, rpm does it without user input, and creates a series
  of ".rpmnew" config files when needed. Then, at the end of the
  installation process, notifies the users there is some manual
  configuration to be done. I think this is the right way to handle the
  issue. If not upgrading a config file will result in the relative
  package to stop working, then a ".rpmold" file is forced to be
  created, so that no info is lost.

  Please, to avoid people calling their "expert" friends and make it
  really "Linux for everyone", could you please make the *UPGRADE*
  process *NON-INTERACTIVE*?

  [1] http://wiki.debian.org/PackageKit/Discussion
  "Authentication or license prompts can only be done before the transaction has started, and messages or notices about the transaction can only be shown after the transaction has completed"

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