Preparing upgrade for 13.10

[Philip Muskovac]

On Monday 17 June 2013 15:10:21 Harald Sitter wrote:
> ahoy,
> 
> On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 2:58 AM, Àlex Fiestas <afiestas at kde.org> wrote:
> 
> > Hi there
> >
> > A few weeks (months?) back I upgraded my parents system to 13.04, they
> > were quite scared of doing it themselves so they asked me to do it (which
> > is weird since they have done the process already).
> >
> > So I found this on the systemtray:
> > http://wstaw.org/m/2013/06/17/instant%C3%A1nea5_png_750x750_q85.jpg
> >
> > First I clicked on the bulb since it is the most different icon. I tasked
> > me to "Run this action". I did. A terminal opened with some text that since
> > I was distracted I was not able to see. Once it finished the bulb appeared
> > again in what seemed to be an infinite loop of "Run this action", "Terminal
> > Opens", "Bulb appears again".
> >
> 
> this issue is really really really weird. so the bulb essentially represent
> an ubuntu feature called package hooks. it allows a package to let the user
> execute a command after installation/upgrade. this is to move time
> consuming or complex configuration out of the installation.
> most prominent example is apt-file, which requires a file cache of all
> packages available through apt, creating that cache takes ages and requires
> an active internet connection so someone moved it into a hook. this allows
> the user to create/update the cache after installation when he does not
> intend to use the system and has internet available.
> 
> a hook needs to explicitly declare that it wants a terminal to be shown
> making it very much a packagers' choice. you could have a gui application
> 'myconfig' run via the hook as well, allowing the user to do indepth
> configuration of mysql or something without ever showing a terminal.
> 
> all that said, the only reason you'd get this behavior is by having a very
> weird package installed (i.e. there are very few archive packages using
> this and really only apt-file comes to mind) or the notifier kded module
> is/was bugged.
> 
> you could take a look at /var/lib/update-notifier/user.d/ to see what files
> linger there.
> 
> 
> > Then I clicked the white update icon I think, muon-updater was executed I
> > selected all packages when it was suggested that a new version was
> > available but I decided to upgrade the current version first. The process
> > failed because it was unable to download some packages.
> >
> 
> I am not sure whether that was fixed meanwhile... Jonathan? I have been
> complaining about this for years :P
> What happens is that apt-get update is run -> notifier is shown -> user
> waits 3000 days -> clicks notifier -> tries to install -> 404 parade
> (though I have to admit this only happens with PPAs, the official archive
> does not remove packages). Easy as hell to resolve by simply forcing a
> cache update before starting the actual package installations.
> 
> this really should not ever happen. in fact, updates should not ever fail
> for no reason what so ever, not even if the internet connection is lost the
> flipping update should fail but be put on hold or something. I know, I am
> day dreaming again... :(
> 
> 
> > Then I clicked the other button, the dialog that appeared was not fully
> > translated to Spanish (this would be important to my parents).
> >
> 
> was it this here thingy?
> http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8T_jRbxYK90/T3w0m25UgtI/AAAAAAAADv8/drL2O9WLjqs/s1600/3.png

That beauty should be
python3-distupgrade: /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeViewKDE.py

> 
> I do admit that I have not ever looked at upgrade l10n as that is supposed
> to be shared with the gnome tool, so it should work(tm) -.-
> 
> 
> > Once the upgraded finished and I rebooted the computer, I found again two
> > icons on the systemtray, this time only the colored upgrade and the bulb.
> >
> > I clicked the bulb, then "Run this action", then a terminal opened, and
> > the bulb was finally gone.
> >
> > I clicked on the colored icon, muon-updated appeared, upgraded some
> > packages and offered me restart.
> >
> 
> this is curious. Jonathan, isn't muon-updater supposed to be the monochrome
> icon? :O
> 
> 
> > How can we improve this? what is this bulb doing? can it stop showing a
> > terminal?
> >
> > Can we only show one icon instead of 2 for upgrade?
> >
> 
> my best guess for this is that one was the dist-upgrade and one was the
> muon-upgrader for regular packages. Jonathan would know. supposedly it
> should be still be the same notifier though (perhaps simply use a different
> icon if a dist-upgrade is available?). upon clicking it muon-updater comes
> up and presents both options.
> 
> 
> > Why did I have to upgrade just after upgrading? I had bad luck or is it
> > normal?
> >
> 
> bad luck most likely. though some time ago we discussed the possibility of
> phasing non-security updates - such that updates only get offered every 7
> days by default - it would prevent this type of experience fail.
> 
> 
> I really think we eventually should sit down and fix the
> update/upgrade/dist-upgrade experience there are many of these minor issues
> that at least to me pretty much wreck the experience (not that anyone likes
> doing upgrades anyway, but at least we should make them less awkward ;)).
> 
> HS

Philip