when to accept Update Manager available updates

Default User xyzzyx at sbcglobal.net
Sun Mar 26 17:28:33 UTC 2006


several days ago, i received an automatic updates available popup
message from update manager.  since installing 5.10, i have always just
assumed that every update offered must be appropriate for my computer,
and so i just automatically accepted them.  

but this time, one of the updates was for glibc "optimized for i686".
since my processor is an "i586" type AMD k6-2, i wondered whether i
should accept the upgrade. after all, isn't glibc a very fundamental
library file that a lot of things in my system rely upon?  

well, it must be okay for my computer.  after all, the update mamager
wouldn't offer an update that wasn't correct for my particular computer
setup . . .  would it?

so, i trustingly accepted the update.  

the next day, using FireFox, i went to a very reputable, state
government sanctioned website, as i do several times each week. this
time something was different. from the website home page, now any time i
click on a link to the other pages in the website that end in ".asp",
Firefox instantly crashes and disappears, without warning or
explanation.  this never happened before the previously mentioned
upgrade.  

fwiw, this problem does not occur when accessing the website in Amaya.  

now, i don't know that this was caused by the glibc upgrade, but i can't
think of anything else offhand that could have caused it.  

anyway the fundamental question is this: does Update Manager do
dependency checking and only offer updates appropriate for a the user's
particular hardware/software setup, or does it just blindly offer every
new Ubuntu update for any setup, to every computer has update mamager
enabled?  and it that is the case, how am i to know which updates to
accept? (i am not a computer scientist).

so would someone please let me know when to use update manager, when not
to, and how to know the difference?  

Thanks.







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