Add/Remove Software Application Question

[Nigel Henry]

On Thursday 24 July 2008 17:16, Barry Premeaux wrote:
> I just installed Kubuntu on a new PC and am working my way through the
> learning curve.  When the Add/Remove Software application finished
> updating, it said I had 160 updates available.  I haven't found an
> option in that application for listing just the updates.  Apt-get has
> an apt-show updates option which will give you the listing of
> available updates.  But going through a listing of 160 files in a
> terminal window could be a bit troublesome.  I will probably install
> Synaptic, since I am familiar with it.  Since I am on a dial up
> connection, I need to select small groups to update.  Hitting the
> servers with apt-get updates would probably give me some where between
> 500-650M of data.  Not real doable on dial up.
>
> Still, I was wondering if there is a hidden option in Add/Remove
> Software for displaying just available updates.  It knows they are out
> there, but I can't find anything in the documentation that explains
> how to view just these files.
>
> Barry

Hi Barry. I too am on dialup. I think I'd just go with an apt-get update, 
followed by an apt-get dist-upgrade. On a new install there is likely to be a 
whole bunch of stuff that needs to be upgraded, that wasn't up to speed on 
the install CD.

If you have a fixed monthly payment for your dialup connection, like I have, 
and can download as much as you want, it's no problem. Of course if you're 
paying by the minute it's not much fun.

My French ISP aliceadsl.fr gives me sessions of a little more than 9hrs, and 
can download just over 150MB at a time, and I'm currently downloading 6 iso's 
for Fedora 9, which is a real bunch of fun. Kubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 on 1 cd 
was a lot quicker.

If you do get long sessions from your ISP, let it run overnight, and if you 
want to check mail, browse the web, etc, during the day, just do a CTRL + C, 
which will suspend the download, then, either during the day, or overnight 
again, just run apt-get dist-upgrade again. Say yes to it, and it will carry 
on where it left off. Try to do this over a short period of time, as if you 
do this over a week, some packages may have been updated in the meantime, and 
an apt-get dist-upgrade will be trying to find older packages that no longer 
exist, as they have been superceded by newer packages.

If you have suspended the downloads of the updates with ctrl + c, and are 
doing the updates over a longer period of time, it would be wise to run 
apt-get update, before running apt-get dist-upgrade, which will make sure 
that apt's database is up to date with all the latest packages.

All the best.

Nigel.