ArlieS
December 19th, 2012, 07:12 PM
I'm looking for specifics on the interaction of the "update manager" I see as part of Unity with /etc/apt/preferences and /etc/apt/sources.list
Here's the problem: I'm running ubuntu 12.04.1 but I wanted to install the pidgin-sipe version from 12.10, and simply downloading and installing it manually didn't work, and furthermore messed up my pidgin installation.
I followed the instructions at http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html modifying URLs etc. to convert from debian to ubuntu, and then did something like "sudo apt-get install pidgin-sipe/quantal".
This worked, but now I have update manager claiming I have 280 updates selected. It also occasionally produces a pop-up, saying "not all updates can be installed" and asking whether I want to run a partial upgrade. (E.g. I found that pop-up on my screen this morning.)
This is making me nervous. Do I need to abandon "update manager" entirely and stick with "sudo apt-get update" followed by "sudo apt-get upgrade"?
And does that recipe in fact work correctly? I have had situations where apt-get upgrade claims there are packages held back, which "update manager" manages to sort out, suggesting that there's an additional layer here, and using apt-get as my only interface will eventually create problems for me. Perhaps "update manager" wraps some other tool, with extra storage (and configuration?) somewhere, that uses the apt "hold" mechanism in strange ways? (Would that be aptitude? I seem to remember "interesting" results with aptitude back when I was using Debian rather than Ubuntu.)
Here's the problem: I'm running ubuntu 12.04.1 but I wanted to install the pidgin-sipe version from 12.10, and simply downloading and installing it manually didn't work, and furthermore messed up my pidgin installation.
I followed the instructions at http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html modifying URLs etc. to convert from debian to ubuntu, and then did something like "sudo apt-get install pidgin-sipe/quantal".
This worked, but now I have update manager claiming I have 280 updates selected. It also occasionally produces a pop-up, saying "not all updates can be installed" and asking whether I want to run a partial upgrade. (E.g. I found that pop-up on my screen this morning.)
This is making me nervous. Do I need to abandon "update manager" entirely and stick with "sudo apt-get update" followed by "sudo apt-get upgrade"?
And does that recipe in fact work correctly? I have had situations where apt-get upgrade claims there are packages held back, which "update manager" manages to sort out, suggesting that there's an additional layer here, and using apt-get as my only interface will eventually create problems for me. Perhaps "update manager" wraps some other tool, with extra storage (and configuration?) somewhere, that uses the apt "hold" mechanism in strange ways? (Would that be aptitude? I seem to remember "interesting" results with aptitude back when I was using Debian rather than Ubuntu.)