Updates cause problem

[Colin Law]

On Thu, 21 May 2020 at 21:50, Kevin <wrham at eastlink.ca> wrote:
>
> Yes. Ubuntu started ok.
> Did second update last nite - "Software Updater"-
> "Software.................is up to date."
> Did third try this morning - same result.
>
> I'm not sure looking at the syslog will tell me anything. More than
> likely the command
> to shut down is missing, if indeed it is a visible command.

If you don't look you won't know.  Something prevented it from
shutting down and the only way to find what is to look in the log.  I
presume you did give it a few minutes before hitting the button,
sometimes network problems (for example) can mean that a process has
to wait for a timeout before it will shut down.  I have occasionally
known a shutdown to take several minutes.

>
> * sudo apt full-upgrade would upgrade to 19.10 or 20.04.

No it won't.   apt full-upgrade is the same as apt-get dist-upgrade
and is what Software Updater does.  Check the docs.
The command that would upgrade to the next Ubuntu version is
do-release-upgrade.  The reason for using the command line version is
that it may tell you more than the GUI version does.  But if the
Software Updater says there is nothing to do then all is probably
well.

> Neither is a practical solution.

Do you still have a problem or was it only once?  If it is now ok then
I don't know what you need a solution to.  If still will not shutdown
(or repeats then you need to look in syslog to see what is going on.

Colin