[Bug 1877759] [NEW] update-manager takes proxy settings from unreasonable places

[Jure Sah]

Public bug reported:

While trying to do a do-release-update today on Ubuntu 16.04 I hit an
unusual snag ("No new releases found") which turned out to be caused by
out of date proxy settings in Synaptic -- an apt package management GUI
that was last relevant approximately 10 years ago in Ubuntu 9.04 .

Test case:
1. Have invalid proxy settings from 10 years ago in "/root/.synaptic/synaptic.conf"
2. Run release update either through GUI or using "do-release-upgrade" in bash
3. Receive error "No new releases found"

I have confirmed that once I deleted "/root/.synaptic/synaptic.conf",
the distribution update shows up correctly.

I understand the consideration of this file was added to the release-
updater code trying to resolve a bug, but it is really unreasonable to
expect someone to be able to figure out this is to blame for a rejected
distribution update in 2020.

At the very least include some debugging information.

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

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1877759

Title:
  update-manager takes proxy settings from unreasonable places

Status in update-manager package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  While trying to do a do-release-update today on Ubuntu 16.04 I hit an
  unusual snag ("No new releases found") which turned out to be caused
  by out of date proxy settings in Synaptic -- an apt package management
  GUI that was last relevant approximately 10 years ago in Ubuntu 9.04 .

  Test case:
  1. Have invalid proxy settings from 10 years ago in "/root/.synaptic/synaptic.conf"
  2. Run release update either through GUI or using "do-release-upgrade" in bash
  3. Receive error "No new releases found"

  I have confirmed that once I deleted "/root/.synaptic/synaptic.conf",
  the distribution update shows up correctly.

  I understand the consideration of this file was added to the release-
  updater code trying to resolve a bug, but it is really unreasonable to
  expect someone to be able to figure out this is to blame for a
  rejected distribution update in 2020.

  At the very least include some debugging information.

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