Borys Bradel's Blog: Recent experiences with updating packages in Linux

Recent experiences with updating packages in Linux

Tags: linux September 19, 2009

I've recently used Update Manager in Ubuntu (9.04) and Debian (Lenny) to update packages. The good news is that everything is now updated. The bad news is that I encountered a lot of strange behaviour.

First, although the Update Manager in Ubuntu was set to check for updates every two days, it hadn't checked in almost three weeks. There must be some setting somewhere in my configuration that's screwing things up.

Second, after the updates were installed and the system rebooted, Ubuntu had to be the next OS to be booted. I tried to boot into Debian, which caused an immediate reset of the machine. That's understandable. In Windows XP I found the same behaviour, except even more so. After reboot the same user must log in to Windows, otherwise there are errors.

Third, in Debian, the Update Manager would not install the updates through the button on the dialog. Instead, the updates needed to be installed through the icon in the Notification Panel. I'm guessing the problem is a conflict between multiple instances of the Update Manager.

Fourth, after the Debian packages were installed, although a restart seemed to be required, it was not announced. Instead, the shut down dialog was missing the sleep and hibernate buttons.

Fifth, the boot menu file in Debian reverted to an old version. Which meant I had to go change it manually. Something probably needed to be changed in it by Debian, and it has its own way of generating the file, which is out of date with respect to the current state of the multiple operating systems on my machine.

And last, and somewhat off tangent, the default chess game in Debian moved its window by a small amount every time I made a move (I started the game to kill a few minutes while waiting for things to install). The game's seems rather odd. Go figure.

All of these are somewhat annoying, and a sign that the Linux distributions need more work. Some are actual bugs, some are just the way the software functions. Regardless, knowing about them is good.