On Fri, Jun 06, 2014 at 02:46:46PM +0100, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
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Neal McBurnett wrote on 02/06/14 20:49:
Is there anything in the official upgrade tools to remind users
about use of ppas, non-repo packages, unofficial desktops or other
potentially problematic bits of software like unofficial programs
which tweak UI settings and the like?
I recall some warning about some such packages at upgrade time,
but I forget when it happens, what it includes, and what advice it
gives.
The alert appears after the release notes, and before the new packages
are downloaded. It has primary text Third party sources disabled,
and secondary text Some third party entries in your sources.list were
disabled. You can re-enable them after the upgrade with the
'software-properties' tool or your package manager. It has one
button, Close.
There are several problems with this. Is it really necessary for the
sources to be disabled? Does that mean software from those channels
will be removed too? If so, which software is involved? And if not, if
a security update is issued in that third-party source later on, am I
just out of luck? Why is there no button for cancelling the upgrade at
this point? And if I cancel the upgrade after this point, do the
sources remain disabled, and if so, why?
Even if the function is unchanged, the presentation could be improved
in many ways. Why am I exposed to the filename sources.list, when I
probably added the channel through Software Sources without seeing
that filename? What is an entry, and what does it mean for it to be
disabled? Which ones were disabled, exactly? Why is a graphical tool
referred to by its command-line name? Why is it using Ascii
apostrophes instead of quote marks? And what is a package manager?
Excellent points, Matthew! And thanks for digging out the details.
It would seem most convenient to have a safe, stand-alone
application that would just look for such software and give good
advice on what might not work, where folks might go or look for
upgrade paths supported by PPA developers or other organizations,
etc. It would help a lot if it didn't spew out too much
information, e.g. by combining warnings for a set of packages into
an overall warning about a particular desktop or suite of related
packages with similar upgrade issues.
Why would it be most convenient for it to be a standalone application?
That would mean that most people upgrading wouldn't see it and
therefore wouldn't benefit from it. And if it was intended for use
outside the upgrade process, that's what Software Sources is for. It's
already a Windows-Vista-like awkwardness that Software Sources is a
standalone app instead of a System Settings panel.
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mpt
The option I was focusing on is the pre-upgrade phase. I'd like to have an
app that just keeps track for me of what I've been doing that might affect
future upgrades. It could also help me recover my third-party packages,
tweaks, etc. after an upgrade. It would help us do spring cleaning of our
sources, packages, etc, when we're not in the heat of following a shiny package
(Hey I want to try this package out and will do whatever it takes to install
it, ignoring possible upgrade issues down the line.)
In that regard, the recent response describing Aptik was most encouraging. See
e.g.
Aptik - A Tool to Backup/Restore Your Favourite PPAs and Apps in Ubuntu
http://www.tecmint.com/aptik-a-tool-to-backuprestore-your-favourite-ppas-and-apps-in-ubuntu/
Aptik: Command line utility to simplify re-installation of software packages
after upgrading and re-installing the Linux distribution.
https://launchpad.net/apt-toolkit
Unfortunately it seems to still only be available from a PPA itself.
So I see two use cases. Besides the one I describe, you're noting that the
actual upgrade process should be clearer, and I certainly agree. That would
benefit everyone who upgrades. At a minimum I'd suggest that during there be
better information, as you suggest, an option to cancel, and a reference to an
official version of aptik or something like it.
Cheers,
Neal McBurnett http://neal.mcburnett.org/
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