Problems Updating Lubuntu 12.04, 12.10, and 13.04 on Slow Machines

[Ioannis Vranos]

I always use:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

at the command line.


"dist-upgrade" is equivalent to "upgrade" + it removes obsolete packages.

When upgrade gets back at the command prompt, the upgrade process has
finished (reasonably).



Ioannis Vranos

http://www.cppsoftware.net


On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 8:28 PM, Aere Greenway
<Aere at dvorak-keyboards.com> wrote:
> All:
>
> I have been observing a problem where on slow (450 megahertz) machines, the
> software updater window disappears, and the updates are applied in the
> background, with no notification of completion.
>
> I tried applying updates using terminal commands:
>
> sudo apt-get update
> sudo apt-get upgrade
>
> These would start out with me being able to see what was going on, but it
> would come back to the command prompt during the trigger processing (and new
> commands could be entered), while processing continued in the background.
> Again, there was no notification of completion.
>
> More updates were available recently, so I tried it again on my 450
> megahertz machine.
>
> I used the terminal commands (as above), and the output was encouraging,
> because I could see the progress of what was going on.
>
> But then it got to the mkinitramfs step, and control returned to the
> command-prompt (I could enter commands), without it proceeding farther.
>
> Repeating the "sudo apt-get upgrade" step responded with something about the
> (new kernel) change being "held-back".
>
> This made me lose all trust in the terminal method of updating, because when
> I apply updates, I want them all to be applied - not just some of them.
>
> So I ran the software updater, and it showed that the kernel update still
> needed to be applied.
>
> The cursor on the software updater window showed as being busy, and stayed
> that way for a long time.  I clicked the "Apply Updates" button (or whatever
> it is called), but that never seemed to get going, and at one point the
> software updater crashed.
>
> I was hopeful I could submit a crash report, but updating appeared to be
> going on in the background, and apport was consuming a lot of memory, to the
> point that constant swapping started to occur.  I finally (reluctantly) had
> to kill the apport task, and (eventually) the software updater task as well.
>
> At this point, I feared I had lost this particular system.
>
> On rebooting, if I ran the software updater, it showed that the kernel
> updates still needed to be applied, but the cursor on the software updater
> window remained busy, for a really long time.
>
> A check of the Task Manager window showed Update Manager using time, as well
> as apt-check.
>
> Remembering an earlier e-mail about an apt-check (correction - that e-mail
> said "dpkg") needing to complete (and taking as long as 90 minutes to do
> so), I left it running, and went to do something else.
>
> When I returned a half-hour later, the CPU-usage was back to an idle state,
> and the cursor (when on the software updater window) was no longer 'busy'.
>
> So I clicked the "Apply Updates" button, and 30 seconds or so later, I was
> presented with a dialog box to enter my password, which I did.
>
> But as before, after awhile, the software updater window disappeared.
>
> But the Task Manager window showed processes running that I could identify
> as part of the updating process (such as mkinitramfs), so I just watched it.
>
> Eventually (after a long time), the CPU-usage went back to an idle-state.
> Again, there was no notification of completion.
>
> When I ran the software updater at that point, it (after checking for
> updates) said that a reboot was required for updates to finish, which I
> proceeded to do, and now the system appears to be properly updated.
>
> That's a long story, but with some precision in the description of what
> happened.
>
> So anyway, here is my description of the problem, and what ought to happen:
>
> Problem:
> On slow machines (450 megahertz, single-processor, 512 meg RAM), when you
> run the software updater, the software updater window disappears, yet
> updates seem to get applied in the background. There is no notification of
> the completion of this process.
>
> 1. The software updater window should not disappear.  It should be possible
> to monitor the progress of applying the updates.
>
> 2. There should be some notification of the completion of the update
> process, if for some reason it /has/ to run in the background.
>
> 3. There is a lengthy step performed by the software updater (apt-check)
> which runs for a long time (30 minutes, for example). While it is running,
> the software updater is not actually usable. If you click the "Apply
> Updates" button during this time, you only cause more problems.  There is no
> progress-meter display.  The application appears to be hung.  CPU-usages is
> at 100%, so it appears the system is hung.  This should not happen - really.
>
> Summary:
>
> On slow machines, the method of applying software updates is broken, and not
> something an ordinary user can deal with, or use with any real chance of
> success.
>
> If you can't update your system, then you system is not supported - despite
> what the website may claim.
>
> I have submitted a bug-report for this, but it has been declared "invalid"
> because my machine doesn't have a speed of 1 gigahertz, with 1 gigabytes of
> RAM - despite the fact that I was using Lubuntu.
>
> Here is a link to the bug-report:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1159589 Title: When applying software
> updates, updater window disappears
>
> --
> Sincerely,
> Aere
>
>
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