[Bug 319146] Re: When a release reaches End-of-Life, update manager should show EoL status and provide a link with working procedures and more information.

[ifireball]

I just encountered another instance of this bug - I got notified a few days ago that my releases (12.4) is EOLed, ant was offered to upgrade, since I couldn't attent the upgrade at that time, I chose to upgrade later and closed the update manager window.
Now that I'm trying to upgrade I get an "Upgrade the 12.10 release" that essentially does nothing. Furtunately I know how to upgrade from the command line, so I'm only annoyed. but If I was a novice user I would be compleatly stuck.

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Title:
  When a release reaches End-of-Life, update manager should show EoL
  status and provide a link with working procedures and more
  information.

Status in “update-manager” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: update-manager

  Severity: wishlist
  Related to: Bug #1, update-manager, ubuntu documentation

  Description:
  Supposedly a release reaches its End-of-Life (EoL). In that case repositories simply disappear, just as they have with 7.04 Feisty, see: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/feisty/
  The old releases archives and installation files are transferred to http://old-releases.ubuntu.com
  Imagine being a simple user, that has just entered the world of Internet. They had installed an Ubuntu release before and were using it offline, and the release is not supported anymore.
  With the Internet connection present, the update-manager prompts the user with the choice to upgrade to a newer release and, due to these changes, they can't.

  Scenario:
  - A granny has been using a computer with Ubuntu installed.
  - The same granny recently decided to get connected to the internet, but she was using an Ubuntu distribution that has reached its EoL.
  - She connects to the internet, says "OK, let's see some Internet-related applications".
  - She discovers System > Administration > Update Manager. "Oh let's try it and see if there's anything new of games for my grandchildren"
  - She checks for updates and notices the new release upgrade. "A new version of Ubuntu, how nice, let's download it then!"
  - She can't upgrade because the repository or repositories are missing and cannot be found. The notification for new release upgrade is still available though. "Oh great, now what do I do?"

  Problem:
  This gives out a broken upgrade plan to the user who gets confused.
  A normal desktop user does not read mailing lists or could be completely tech-agnostic, a person that doesn't know how to connect to the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and find a solution to their problems. I realise that these releases are unsupported and "are supposed to be broken" as many of you think - I'm *not* asking to support with security updates nor to provide new packages for old releases.

  Tested and reproduced on:
  Ubuntu 6.10 edgy (upgrade to 7.10 through update-manager)
  Ubuntu 7.04 feisty (upgrade to 7.10 through update-manager)
  Ubuntu 7.04 feisty (upgrade to 7.10 with alternate CD)

  Note:
  Upgrades with alternate CD *work* if you choose "No" to the question "Include latest updates from the Internet".
  This step could be included in the documentation.

  Expectations:
  I simply wish that the users, who eventually end up using the internet on an old unsupported release, get notified about that. They should be given *at least* a link which they could simply click to find out more information.

  Solution steps:
  1) There should be a way to check for the End-of-Life status from within the repository http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
  The same way it gets the "Release" file, there should be a file that states that this current distribution is not supported and not available anymore.
  There should also be a link explaining more information about it, for example for upgrades from unsupported 7.04 Feisty Fawn to the next supported release, 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon:
  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GutsyUpgrades

  This file for End-of-Life could be let's say an RSS feed, showing the
  supported releases a person could attempt to upgrade to, and the date
  when is their (of the supported releases) End-of-Life. An RSS Parser
  with update-manager would do the trick for the client application.

  2) As it is now, the update manager shows "Your system is up-to-date".
  Once update-manager realises that the release it's being run on has a
  specific EoL tag or file in the archive mirrors, it should state that
  "Your system is outdated and not supported anymore" (with letters that
  can be easily noticed, e.g. red colour), along with the link in the
  help documentation about upgrading to the new release.

  3) If the upgrade process involves changing a file's contents, such as
  the deb source repos in /etc/apt/sources.lists, then the update
  manager should attempt to do that on its own (with a Yes/No
  confirmation by the user). This step is a bit far-fetched, but (1) and
  (2) are of utmost importance.

  4) There should be a link to the help documentation about the new release and how to upgrade, I mean it should refer to the latest supported or LTS release, for example: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardyUpgrades
  In that link, there should be a section for end-of-life upgrades (as I mentioned in a note above), with enough information to at least attempt an upgrade, even on an unsupported release.

  Attached are some screenshots I've taken during the upgrade
  procedures.

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