On 01/28/2014 07:41 AM, Iberê Fernandes wrote:
True, those 8 steps are not necessary once*almost* everything can be
done thru GUI using software-updater tool.
However, how do you usually perform cleaning of the local repository
of retrieved package files and remove packages that were automatically
installed to satisfy dependencies for other packages and are now no
longer needed?
I mean:
>>4) sudo apt-get autoremove
>>5) sudo apt-get autoclean
>>6) sudo apt-get clean
Besides, from upgrade to upgrade, there might be some residual config
that can be clear using Synaptic (click on the Status button) and
check if the category "residual config" appears to you. Those files
are usually useless and might be cleaned.
Finally, sometimes I also have to manually clean the sources.list and
sources.list.d under/etc/apt/ because the GUI*sometimes* is not
responsive.
Iberê:
Thanks for pointing that out.
Regarding cleaning-out the repository, thankfully, during the version upgrade
(upgrade to a new OS level), at the end, it seems to do a thorough job of
cleaning out things that are no longer used.
In particular (and probably occupying the most space), it gets rid of old
kernel and header packages.
So if you upgrade with each software level (as I do), it may take care of that
properly for you.
On machines with limited disk space, I have manually (using Synaptic Package Manager)
removed the old "linux-image*" packages, and with really limited space, I have
performed steps 4, 5, and 6 above.
Also, on my slowest machine (450 megahertz), the Software Updater doesn't work
properly (its GUI disappears, while the update goes on in the background, with
no indication of when it is finished). So on that machine, I reluctantly
perform all of the steps you listed.
It is for this reason alone that for my software product, my minimum system is
listed as 800 megahertz with 512 Megabytes RAM). I declare this, even though I
know it will work on the 450 megahertz machine. The problem being that they
would have to resort to a command-line-interface to update their software,
which would be unacceptable to my users (in general).
But aside from the above, I just use the Software Updater for my other systems,
with repository clean-up being performed when upgrading to a new OS level (such
as upgrading from 13.04 to 13.10).
I have a lot of systems I do this on (all the ubuntu variants except edubuntu
and mythubuntu), and this process has served me well since Ubuntu 11.10. Also,
this has worked for the families of my 4 kids (I am their system support
person).
I know a lot of people on this list have a fondness for using command-line
interfaces. Yet most of the people I know (such as my kids' families) get very
frustrated if they are asked to use a command-line interface.
For the majority of people I know (who I have introduced to Linux), if it
doesn't work using the available system tools (with their GUI interfaces), then
it doesn't work, and the system tool needs to be improved so that non-technical
users can be successful in maintaining their systems.
That being said, I really attempted to get the "Software Updater"
maintainers to fix the Software Updater tool, but though they have
improved it somewhat for faster machines, it still doesn't work on the
450 megahertz machine, and I have grown weary (actually, given up) of
trying to get them to fix the bug.
Regarding your last paragraph, on the "manually clean the sources.list"
topic, I have no clue. I certainly haven't done this, and don't know
what you mean, or what the symptoms would be if I needed to do it. To
my knowledge, I haven't encountered problems by neglecting this, but
perhaps the symptoms are not that obvious.
Though there are a lot of areas in Linux I am competent in, there are
also areas into-which I have never delved.
I have had to change the software sources to include multiverse and
universe, if that's what you mean, but you can do that with the GUI
interface system tools available.
--
Sincerely,
Aere
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