The following packages have been kept back:

[Dotan Cohen]

Often I get the message that some packages have been kept back when updating:

jaunty2@laptop:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic
linux-restricted-modules-generic

What causes that?

--
Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il

--
ubuntu-users mailing list
[hidden email]
Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users

[Ruben Laban]

On Friday 31 July 2009 at 11:34 (CET), Dotan Cohen wrote:

> Often I get the message that some packages have been kept back when
> updating:
>
> jaunty2@laptop:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> The following packages have been kept back:
>   linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic
> linux-restricted-modules-generic
>
> What causes that?

New kernel with a higher ABI will be a new package (not a newer version of an
existing package). apt-get upgrade doesn't install new packages, apt-get
dist-upgrade does (when needed).

--
Regards,

Ruben Laban
Systems and Network Administrator
ISM eCompany

--
ubuntu-users mailing list
[hidden email]
Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users

[Karl Auer]

On Fri, 2009-07-31 at 11:47 +0200, Ruben Laban wrote:
> On Friday 31 July 2009 at 11:34 (CET), Dotan Cohen wrote:
> > Often I get the message that some packages have been kept back when
> > updating:
> New kernel with a higher ABI will be a new package (not a newer version of an
> existing package). apt-get upgrade doesn't install new packages, apt-get
> dist-upgrade does (when needed).

Because they are "new" packages rather than upgrades of existing
packages, apt-get will not install them as part of an "apt-get
upgrade".

If you want the packages that have been kept back, just use "apt-get
install" for those packages.

"apt-get dist-upgrade" is not something anyone should get into the habit
of using for routine updates. It's safe enough as long as you are on the
currently highest OS revision - but one day it will suddenly upgrade
your whole OS, which is not something you generally want to happen
unexpectedly.

Regards, K.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer ([hidden email])                   [phone] (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  [phone] (mob)

GPG fingerprint: 07F3 1DF9 9D45 8BCD 7DD5 00CE 4A44 6A03 F43A 7DEF


--
ubuntu-users mailing list
[hidden email]
Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users

[Dotan Cohen]

> New kernel with a higher ABI will be a new package (not a newer version of an
> existing package). apt-get upgrade doesn't install new packages, apt-get
> dist-upgrade does (when needed).
>

Thanks.

--
Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il

--
ubuntu-users mailing list
[hidden email]
Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users

[Shannon McMackin-3]

Karl Auer wrote:

> On Fri, 2009-07-31 at 11:47 +0200, Ruben Laban wrote:
>> On Friday 31 July 2009 at 11:34 (CET), Dotan Cohen wrote:
>>> Often I get the message that some packages have been kept back when
>>> updating:
>> New kernel with a higher ABI will be a new package (not a newer version of an
>> existing package). apt-get upgrade doesn't install new packages, apt-get
>> dist-upgrade does (when needed).
>
> Because they are "new" packages rather than upgrades of existing
> packages, apt-get will not install them as part of an "apt-get
> upgrade".
>
> If you want the packages that have been kept back, just use "apt-get
> install" for those packages.
>
> "apt-get dist-upgrade" is not something anyone should get into the habit
> of using for routine updates. It's safe enough as long as you are on the
> currently highest OS revision - but one day it will suddenly upgrade
> your whole OS, which is not something you generally want to happen
> unexpectedly.
>
> Regards, K.
>
>

I thought dist-upgrade would only update your OS if you actually changed
the sources.list file to point to the next rev.


--
ubuntu-users mailing list
[hidden email]
Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users

[Markus Schönhaber-11]

Karl Auer:

> If you want the packages that have been kept back, just use "apt-get
> install" for those packages.

I use 'aptitude full-upgrade' or 'apt-get dist-upgrade' instead.

> "apt-get dist-upgrade" is not something anyone should get into the habit
> of using for routine updates. It's safe enough as long as you are on the
> currently highest OS revision - but one day it will suddenly upgrade
> your whole OS, which is not something you generally want to happen
> unexpectedly.

I don't see how 'apt-get dist-upgrade' should "suddenly" upgrade to a
newer Ubuntu version. At least not if you didn't manually change the
sources.list entries to point to the new revision's repositories. But:
- that is not a recommended way of upgrading,
- if you do it anyway, you can be expected to know what you're doing.

BTW: I consider apt-get's parameter 'dist-upgrade' confusingly named.
Exactly because it will *not* make a distribution upgrade out of the blue.
Maybe that's the reason why for aptitude 'dist-upgrade' is deprecated in
favour of 'full-upgrade' (and 'upgrade' in favour of 'safe-upgrade').

My guess would be that 'dist-upgrade' stems from the time where changing
sources.list and calling 'apt-get dist-upgrade' afterwards was the way
to indeed make a disrtibution upgrade.

--
Regards
  mks

--
ubuntu-users mailing list
[hidden email]
Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users

[Karl Auer]

On Fri, 2009-07-31 at 08:00 -0400, Shannon McMackin wrote:
> I thought dist-upgrade would only update your OS if you actually changed
> the sources.list file to point to the next rev.

I don't believe that is the case, no. But I am not 100% certain. I'd be
interested to know for sure - the man page for apt-get isn't clear on
the point.

The GUI update manager offers a distribution upgrade when one becomes
available, and I'm pretty sure that no alterations to sources.list are
required before proceeding. Of course, the update manager may add the
entries itself, *then* do the dist-upgrade.

Regards, K.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer ([hidden email])                   [phone] (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  [phone] (mob)

GPG fingerprint: 07F3 1DF9 9D45 8BCD 7DD5 00CE 4A44 6A03 F43A 7DEF


--
ubuntu-users mailing list
[hidden email]
Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users

[Markus Schönhaber-11]

Karl Auer:

> On Fri, 2009-07-31 at 08:00 -0400, Shannon McMackin wrote:
>> I thought dist-upgrade would only update your OS if you actually
>> changed the sources.list file to point to the next rev.
>
> I don't believe that is the case, no. But I am not 100% certain. I'd
> be interested to know for sure - the man page for apt-get isn't clear
> on the point.

The important sentence wrt this point in apt-get's man page seems to be [1]
| The /etc/apt/sources.list file contains a list
| of locations from which to retrieve desired package files
To really perform a distribution upgrade, apt-get has to have access to
the packages of the new distribution. Which is not the case if the
corresponding respository sources are not listed in sources.list.

> The GUI update manager offers a distribution upgrade when one becomes
>  available, and I'm pretty sure that no alterations to sources.list
> are required before proceeding. Of course, the update manager may add
> the entries itself, *then* do the dist-upgrade.

Of course, the GUI update manager as well as the do-release-upgrade
command line tool will alter sources.list. That's part of what they're
designed to do. But even that is nothing that will happen out of the
blue - you have to start the distribution upgrade manually.
And it will definitely not happen just because of typing
apt-get dist-upgrade

[1] The man page should mention that repository sources in files located
under /etc/apt/sources.list.d are also taken into account. But that's of
no importance wrt this topic.

--
Regards
  mks

--
ubuntu-users mailing list
[hidden email]
Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users

[Jay Ridgley]

[hidden email] wrote:

>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:34:42 +0300
> From: Dotan Cohen <[hidden email]>
> Subject: The following packages have been kept back:
> To: "ubuntu-users." <[hidden email]>
> Message-ID:
> <[hidden email]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Often I get the message that some packages have been kept back when updating:
>
> jaunty2@laptop:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> The following packages have been kept back:
>   linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic
> linux-restricted-modules-generic
>
> What causes that?
>

Folks,

  I have seen this message when I am using Update Manager to add a new
package that I want to get from the repositories and there are also
Updates waiting that are part of the automatic update feature...

Since I am requesting just a package or two, the rest are held until I
request an Update of the release.

I have no idea if the command line interface works in that same fashion
or not.

Cheers,
Jay
--


Jay Ridgley
[hidden email]
Registered Linux User ID - 9115
Registered Ubuntu User ID - 23320

--
ubuntu-users mailing list
[hidden email]
Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users