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

[Phill Whiteside]

Hi Aere,

thank you for a well written and detailed posting on what to expect and do
when updating a low powered CPU system. The update-api-index process is
easiest described as a process checking to see if there are more updates.
That it causes heavy processor usage is a known issue.

Regards,

Phill.
1. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt-xapian-index/+bug/363695

On 19 April 2013 20:23, Aere Greenway <Aere at dvorak-keyboards.com> wrote:

> All:
>
> There were more system updates, so I updated my (slow, 450 megahertz)
> system using the command-line-interface, using the following commands:
>
> sudo apt-get update
> sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
>
> I ran into two problems, but knowing these problems, I can avoid them.
>
> The first problem, is that while I was doing the first command, the system
> was trying to find out if updates were available, so it had ownership of a
> lock that the "apt-get update" command needed.  This resulted in the first
> step not successfully completing.
>
> To get it to work, I had to run the update-manager GUI to where it
> reported the updates available, but use the "Remind Me Later" button to
> dismiss it.  At that point, I could (in the terminal window) do the
> "apt-get dist-upgrade" command.
>
> The second problem, was that after doing the "apt-get dist-upgrade", the
> CPU was still 100% busy for quite awhile (a minute?) afterwards even though
> control had returned to the command prompt.  I entered the "top" command,
> and it showed there was a root process, named something like
> "update-xapi-index".
>
> After awhile, CPU-usage went back to zero, so it was done.  It took
> perhaps a minute.
>
> So I guess the way I need to do this, is let the update-manager notify me
> of updates, and observe the available updates in the list, but instead of
> applying the updates in the GUI, click the "Remind Me Later" button,
> whereupon the update-manager exits, releasing its lock.
>
> Then, I need to fire-up a terminal, and enter the
>
> sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
>
> command, and can monitor the progress of the system being updated.
>
> When control returns to the command-prompt, I need to enter the "top"
> command to monitor the progress of the root processes associated with
> updating the system.
>
> When that process completes (and CPU usage goes back to an idle state),
> the updates are done.
>
> So I have a usable work-around for the problem with the update-manager,
> and I can keep using my 450 megahertz machine.
>
> Many thanks to all of you with insights that made this work-around
> possible.
>
>
> - Aere
>
>
>
> On 04/13/2013 06:54 PM, Ioannis Vranos wrote:
>
>> "dist-upgrade" includes the functionality of "upgrade", so no need to do
>> both.
>>
>>
>> Ioannis Vranos
>>
>> http://www.cppsoftware.net
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 2:36 AM, Aere Greenway
>> <Aere at dvorak-keyboards.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 04/13/2013 12:26 PM, Ali Linx (amjjawad) wrote:
>>>
>>>> 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
>>>>
>>> Ali, and all:
>>>
>>> Knowing that apt-get dist-upgrade doesn't upgrade to a new level, I tried
>>> much of the procedure listed above on my UbuntuStudio 12.04 system.
>>>
>>> When I installed Lubuntu 13.04 on that system, I increased the size of
>>> the
>>> swap partition to 992 megabytes, which is not quite the 1GB you indicated
>>> above.  But watching the panel indicators (and the "top" command-display)
>>> while updating/upgrading, it did not show any swap usage at all.
>>>
>>> So anyway, I did the following terminal commands (not having a printed
>>> version of the above):
>>>
>>> sudo apt-get update
>>> sudo apt-get upgrade
>>> sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
>>> sudo apt-get autoclean
>>>
>>> This time, it went all the way to the end, with me being able to observe
>>> what happened.
>>>
>>> I think what threw me before, was that it (on the apt-get upgrade step)
>>> ended on the "update initramfs" step (not on mkinitramfs, as I was
>>> thinking).
>>>
>>> So it works fine on UbuntuStudio 12.04 on that machine, a system which
>>> exhibited similar symptoms to what I reported for Lubuntu 12.10.
>>>
>>> The next time updates become available for Lubuntu 12.10, I will try that
>>> procedure, and report the results.
>>>
>>> That machine actually runs both Qsynth and the Java Sound Synthesizer
>>> quite
>>> well, so it will be good if this new upgrade procedure works out.
>>>
>>
>
> --
> Sincerely,
> Aere
>
>
>
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