[xubuntu-users] Updating - a couple of questions

[Peter Flynn]

On 12/04/2014 07:45 PM, David Walland wrote:
> I thought I'd sent this to the List but it doesn't seem to have got
> through.  

It got distributed this time anyway.

> I've tried to Google but can get no meaningful answers. 

Google can be useful, but phrasing the query takes practice and
foreknowledge, as there are established ways of referring to things that
need to be used (as you rightly note at the end).

> I'm running an old Dell Latitude D620 Laptop with Xubuntu 64 bit (Core
> Duo cpu).  

Interesting. I'm running a D810 and a D610 with 14.04 and Enlightenment.

> I've been moving between 12.04 and 14.04 as I originally
> found 14.04 stopped me from accessing my WiFi as it wouldn't let me get
> to where I could put in my WiFi system password.

What security is the network using? Did you mean:

a. it found your network but didn't prompt for the password
OR
b. it prompted you for (eg) username, but the password was invisible

> This has now resolved itself.

Do you know if you did something that helped it to resolve?

> Now it's doing (14.04) something similar with Update.  This works
> happily automatically 

Do you mean it pops up "Software Updater" from time to time by itself?
I just logged out of e17 and into xfce, and sure enough, there was a
taskbar item for Software Updater.

> but my access to run it as and when *I* want has
> magically disappeared from everywhere on the Applications Menu.  It
> *was* always on the "Systems" sub-menu.  Any idea how I can get this back?

My System menu *does* have an entry for Software Updater. Are you using
xfce or some other interface?

> Secondly, when it does come up for automatic Updating, two items are
> totally inaccessible to me on the list but always present.  Can anyone
> explain why or how to get them to be available for updating?

Can you expand on "inaccessible"? Do you mean greyed-out?

> "Command-line driven interactive plotting program. No-X package"
> and
> "Command-line driven interactive plotting program. X package".

You don't say what the names of the programs are; I'm guessing these are
gnuplot-nox and gnuplot-x11.

> If the update is needed surely it should be runnable, if it isn't why is
> it there?

One way to resolve these questions is to run the update from the command
line. That way you remove the graphical layer between you and the
program. Open a Terminal window and type

sudo apt-get upgrade

It will ask for your password: type it in (it will not show anything)
and press Enter. This should list the pending updates: examine them for
these two oddities. Some updates get held back (for a variety of
reasons), and apt-get should list these separately. You can use Y or N
to do the suggested upgrade or not.

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

should upgrade everything, held over or not.

///Peter