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

Sat Apr 13 18:38:05 UTC 2013

Further to my previous reply, I forgot to include two links:

1- This will explain how important it is to have SWAP and how important it
is to have it twice as RAM when Physical RAM is 512MB -
http://amjjawad.blogspot.com/2013/04/howto-heavy-testing.html<http://amjjawad.blogspot.ae/2013/04/howto-heavy-testing.html>

The machine I'm using is a bit stronger than yours. However, my SWAP is 1GB
:)

2- This machine is far weaker and older than yours -
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1590614&page=16&p=11832431#post11832431

It is P2 with 64MB RAM ONLY. Believe it or not? I did update it without
problems :)

If that machine managed to run: sudo apt-get update without problem, your
machine must be able too.

Sorry, forgot to include these two links :)

On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 10:26 PM, Ali Linx (amjjawad) <amjjawad at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear Aere,
>
> I'm really sorry, I couldn't read each and every word because this is
> indeed a very long email but I did get the idea :)
>
> Please, read this carefully:
>
> 1- When you have LESS than 1GB RAM, SWAP Partition MUST be as twice as
> your RAM. Having that said, Your SWAP Partition in your case MUST be 1GB.
> This is from long experience not from a Wiki Page :)
>
> 2- You need to understand that whether you are using the Terminal or the
> Update Manager, these two are the same :) one is CLI and the other is the
> graphical front end and both do the same thing.
>
> 3- You need to understand that "sudo apt-get upgarde" does not upgrade
> Linux Kernel. For that, you need: "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade".
>
> Now, please, follow these steps:
>
> 1- Make sure your SWAP is 1GB at least.
> 2- From LXTerminal or whatever Terminal you are using, please run:
>
> sudo apt-get clean
> sudo apt-get update
> sudo apt-get upgrade
> sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
> sudo apt-get autoremove
> sudo apt-get autoclean
>
> Make sure to close ALL the other applications
> Each command at a time.
>
> 3- If your machine have a LAN/Wired connection, you can run the above
> commands from CLI without logging to your Desktop.
>
> Ctrl+Alt+F1
> Type your Username and Password
> then run the above commands
>
> 4- Please, post here the output of at least two commands (apt-get update
> and apt-get upgrade).
>
> 5- That is all :)
>
> Thank you!
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 9:28 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<https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1159589>Title: When applying software updates, updater window disappears
>>
>> --
>> Sincerely,
>> Aere
>>
>>
>> --
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> *Best Regards,
> amjjawad*
> *https://wiki.ubuntu.com/amjjawad/*
> Lubuntu One Stop Thread <http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1844755>|
> My Launchpad <https://launchpad.net/%7Eamjjawad> | My Ubuntu Forum Profile<http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=941822>
> **
>

-- 
*Best Regards,
amjjawad*
*https://wiki.ubuntu.com/amjjawad/*
Lubuntu One Stop Thread <http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1844755>| My
Launchpad <https://launchpad.net/%7Eamjjawad> | My Ubuntu Forum
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