12.04 Update Manager is Recommending Updates Related to 12.10

[thatstheway]

I'm running 12.04 and my kernel version is 3.5.0-23. I occasionally get kernel-related updates that I can't install, or, I can install them but I can't use them, because they "depend on the latest generic 12.10 kernel image and header packages available," as indicated in the descriptions. What happens is that after I boot up I get a broken package error, and synaptic tells me of the dependency, so just delete the package and go my merry way with 3.5.0-23.

Now Update Manager wants me to install:

linux-headers-3.13.0-44 and linux-headers-3.13.0-44 generic, which I'm sure will depend on a 12.10 kernel, and

linux-headers-generic-lts-trusty, which says that it "will always depend on the latest generic 14.04 LTS kernel headers available."



So I have two questions about this:

How can I get Update Manager to stop recommending updates that I can't use? ; )

Also, I'm running 12.04 because my humble machine (Toshiba Portege r100) can't run 12.10 (or beyond, of course). Is this... Ok? Meaning, should I be running Lubuntu or something more lightweight, but more current? Like, Lubuntu 14? Is it bad to be stuck on 3.5.0-23, from a security perspective? I mean, I like the OS, and everything works well, except for these baffling update suggestions.

Thanks much!

[Bucky Ball]

12.04 LTS is fine. It is supported until April 2017.

What I'm stumped about is that it is not offering 12.10 updates, it is offering 14.04 LTS updates. 3.13.0.44 is in the most recent updates for it. :-k

Have you installed any third-party Trusty repositories by mistake? Have you installed anything that might be asking for the 14.04 kernel?

[deadflowr]

the 3.5 kernel hit end of life in the summer of 2014 sometime, I forget when exactly, but that's the gist of it.
The kernel series for 12.10, 13.04 and 13.10 were discontinued and users who are running those version, which came with ubuntu 12.04's four previous point releases 12.04.2, .3 and .4, were informed via the update manager, that they would need to install the newer hardware stacks.
3.5 came with Ubuntu 12.04.2.

So overall this is normal and expected.

[Bucky Ball]

the 3.5 kernel hit end of life in the summer of 2014 sometime, I forget when exactly, but that's the gist of it.
The kernel series for 12.10, 13.04 and 13.10 were discontinued and users who are running those version, which came with ubuntu 12.04's four previous point releases 12.04.2, .3 and .4, were informed via the update manager, that they would need to install the newer hardware stacks.
3.5 came with Ubuntu 12.04.2.

So overall this is normal and expected.

Thanks deadflowr. Presuming it will install all that's needed, and correct me if I'm wrong, I suggest opening a terminal and:



sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Agree to install what it offers. Report any and all errors. Good luck. ;)

[deadflowr]

Some reference points
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/1204_HWE_EOL
and
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

[thatstheway]

Thanks all! deadflowr, I believe I need to upgrade to 12.04.5 HWE (Trusty kernel/graphics) (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/1204_HWE_EOL#A1._Install_12.04.5_HWE_.28Trusty_ker nel.2BAC8-graphics.29), but I'll take a careful read of both of your links, do what seems sensible, and report back.

[thatstheway]

Ok, from deadflowr's first link (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/1204_HWE_EOL), indeed I want to do that first option: install 12.04.5 HWE (Trusty kernel/graphics). The next step says "The hwe-support-status tool will tell you what you need to do," but for me, that only told me:

Your current Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE) is no longer supported
since 2014-08-07. Security updates for critical parts (kernel
and graphics stack) of your system are no longer available.

For more information, please see:
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/1204_HWE_EOL

There is a graphics stack installed on this system. An upgrade to a
supported (or longer supported) configuration will become available
on 2014-07-16 and can be invoked by running 'update-manager' in the
Dash.

Note that a few weeks ago I DID see a message, at the top, above the normal updates, about updating the HWE, and I tried that, but it said that it failed, because it couldn’t find 3.13.0-43. So now that option no longer appears in update manager.

deadflowr, would you suggest the best path to take, I suspect in the terminal? I tried to follow your second link (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack), but I'm over my head here, not being sure exactly what to install (quantal, raring, and saucy?).

Thanks much!

[kansasnoob]

it said that it failed, because it couldn’t find 3.13.0-43

It's probably best that we gather some info to figure out exactly where we're at and why the update mangler failed, so please start by posting the full output of:


sudo apt-get update


sudo apt-get -f install


cat /etc/apt/sources.list


ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d

All of the above will provide some info about the state of the package manager, but lets also look at space limitations, the contents of /boot, and current kernel in use:


df -H


ls /boot


uname -a

That will hopefully give us a clue where to start.

[thatstheway]

Thanks kansasnoob, here you go:

sudo apt-get update:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/9737495/

sudo apt-get -f install:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
thunderbird-globalmenu libxrandr-ltsq2 gir1.2-ubuntuoneui-3.0
firefox-globalmenu libubuntuoneui-3.0-1 libdrm-nouveau2 libxvmc1
libxcb-dri2-0 libllvm3.1
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.

cat /etc/apt/sources.list:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/9737562/


ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d: No output (returned to command line)





df -H:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 37G 3.9G 31G 12% /
udev 651M 4.1k 651M 1% /dev
tmpfs 132M 820k 131M 1% /run
none 5.3M 0 5.3M 0% /run/lock
none 659M 78k 659M 1% /run/shm

ls /boot:

abi-3.5.0-23-generic memtest86+.bin
config-3.5.0-23-generic memtest86+_multiboot.bin
grub System.map-3.5.0-23-generic
initrd.img-3.5.0-23-generic vmlinuz-3.5.0-23-generic

uname -a:

Linux Tosh 3.5.0-23-generic #35~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 25 17:15:33 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

[kansasnoob]

Hmmmm, 3.5.0-23-generic is the original kernel that shipped with 12.04.2 so it's never received a kernel update. The 3.5 series kernel was up to 3.5.0-54 when it stopped receiving updates last July. So lets see what those two held/upgradeable packages are:


sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -s

Note: the -s at the end means it will only simulate what would happen so we can look at that output and see if it tells us anything. Otherwise nothing just jumps out at me as being wrong. But it's possible that those kernel updates are now only available thru an "old/release" repo - I'm not sure about that but I can boot a box with Precise installed and see if need be.

[Bucky Ball]

Run the commands I gave earlier in post #4. Replace the last with the one kansasnood gave for the simulation if you want.

[thatstheway]

It sez:


Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
linux-headers-3.13.0-44 linux-headers-3.13.0-44-generic
The following packages will be upgraded:
flashplugin-installer linux-headers-generic-lts-trusty
2 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Inst flashplugin-installer [11.2.202.425ubuntu0.12.04.1] (11.2.202.429ubuntu0.12.04.1 Ubuntu:12.04/precise-updates [i386])
Inst linux-headers-3.13.0-44 (3.13.0-44.73~precise1 Ubuntu:12.04/precise-updates [all])
Inst linux-headers-3.13.0-44-generic (3.13.0-44.73~precise1 Ubuntu:12.04/precise-updates [i386])
Inst linux-headers-generic-lts-trusty [3.13.0.43.37] (3.13.0.44.38 Ubuntu:12.04/precise-updates [i386])
Conf flashplugin-installer (11.2.202.429ubuntu0.12.04.1 Ubuntu:12.04/precise-updates [i386])
Conf linux-headers-3.13.0-44 (3.13.0-44.73~precise1 Ubuntu:12.04/precise-updates [all])
Conf linux-headers-3.13.0-44-generic (3.13.0-44.73~precise1 Ubuntu:12.04/precise-updates [i386])
Conf linux-headers-generic-lts-trusty (3.13.0.44.38 Ubuntu:12.04/precise-updates [i386])

[Bucky Ball]

Run those commands in post four again, last one without the '-s' on the end.

[kansasnoob]

I agree with Bucky Ball, it looks like it should complete the kernel upgrade OK. There is, of course, always a chance of kernel updates breaking things but hopefully you'd still be able to boot the older kernel from grub if things go awry.

[thatstheway]

Ok, progress! I followed Bucky Ball's steps and got no errors. And Update Manager says, "no updates to install." So really, this is resolved, and many thanks! However I'm confused: When I boot up, 3.5.0-23-generic is still the only option. I thought I was going to an updated kernel. Did I upgrade the HWE?

[Bucky Ball]

You ran:


sudo apt-get autremove
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

The last command, no '-s' on the end? I don't use 12.04 LTS so not as familiar with this aspect of it as others here, but if you ran the last command with the '-s' at the end, that was a simulation and wouldn't have upgraded anything. As you are getting no errors from any of those commands, though, I figure you didn't use the -s option ...

I might boot into 12.04 in awhile and try this myself as that hasn't been updated in over a year! I haven't used it in that long pretty much. I should be able to replicate what you are up to and see what I come up with at this end. ;)

[kansasnoob]

If that completed successfully and grub updated properly you should be booting 3.13.0-44-generic on reboot.

[thatstheway]

Thanks much Bucky Ball! Yep, I ran those exact steps, no -s on the last, and got no errors. I even tried
sudo update-grub to see if a later kernel would appear as an option on boot-up, but no luck. Ah, thanks kansasnoob, I just saw your post come in. So, I didn't succeed. Happy to post the output of everything but the grub-update-attempt (which I didn't save, but had no errors), if that helps.

[thatstheway]

Maybe I need to do something more "drastic" with grub. The update command yielded


Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-23-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-23-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done\

with no mention of the updated kernel.

[deadflowr]

Hmm, that seems really odd to me.
(I mean that particular kernel in grub)
I would think more kernels would be installable, since 3.5 goes past 3.5.0-23.

What does

ls /boot
show.
Or even more clear what does

dpkg -l linux-image*
show.
(the -l is lower case L, ftr)

[thatstheway]

ls /boot:

abi-3.5.0-23-generic memtest86+.bin
config-3.5.0-23-generic memtest86+_multiboot.bin
grub System.map-3.5.0-23-generic
initrd.img-3.5.0-23-generic vmlinuz-3.5.0-23-generic

dpkg -l linux-image*:

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
un linux-image <none> (no description available)
un linux-image-3. <none> (no description available)
in linux-image-3. <none> (no description available)
ii linux-image-3. 3.5.0-23.35~pr Linux kernel image for version 3.5.0 on 32 b
in linux-image-3. <none> (no description available)
un linux-image-ge <none> (no description available)
un linux-image-ge <none> (no description available)

[deadflowr]

Oddly, for what it's worth.
That's the kernel for the liveCD for 12.04.2.
Hmm...

How long has this been installed?

[thatstheway]

Hm, you may have nailed the problem, deadflowr. I installed this from a disc I burned back in 3/13. Then, after a hard-disk failure, I re-installed using the exact same disc (because it worked so well the first time), on 1/1/15. So, is the quickest path to sanity reinstalling with the latest 12.04 iso?

[kansasnoob]

I'd like to see the output of:


apt-cache policy linux-image* > apt_kernel.txt

I suspect it'll be quite long, that's why I added "> apt_kernel.txt" to the command. It'll create a document in your Home folder named "> apt_kernel.txt".

I also did some searching of your former forum postings and I'd love to see the Bootinfo from Boot Repair (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair) now that you have that drive running in the Toshiba rather than hooked up to the Mac. Do not run the recommended repair, just post the URL to the Bootinfo - it includes a lot of info that may (or may not) be helpful.

This is becoming quite interesting :-k

[kansasnoob]

Hm, you may have nailed the problem, deadflowr. I installed this from a disc I burned back in 3/13. Then, after a hard-disk failure, I re-installed using the exact same disc (because it worked so well the first time), on 1/1/15. So, is the quickest path to sanity reinstalling with the latest 12.04 iso?

If you wanted to just reinstall Ubuntu Precise I'd either use the 12.04.5 images which have the Trusty kernel and X-stack (please notice that both the 12.04.4 and 12.04.5 images are at this link but 12.04.4 is HWE-EOL):

http://releases.ubuntu.com/12.04/

Or the 12.04.1 images that have the actual Precise kernel and X-stack (please note that this link includes 12.04.2 and 12.04.3 which are also HWE-EOL):

http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/precise/

Both 12.04.5 and 12.04.1 are supported until April 2017 but some of my older hardware won't run with the Trusty HWE so you might find yourself in the same boat.

[thatstheway]

Here you go, kansasnoob! Thanks for digging in. It would be great to avoid reinstalling, but I'll do what I gotta do.

apt-cache policy linux-image* > apt_kernel.txt:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/9752767/

Bootinfo:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/9752802/

[thatstheway]

So, while kansasnoob is checking out the output in my last post, wanted to throw something out there: Synaptic says that 3.13.0-44 is installed. Not sure if that is obvious from the results I posted, but throwing it out there!

[Bucky Ball]

/dev/sda1:The OS now in use - Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS CurrentSession:linux

From your bootinfo. That looks like you're up to date.

[thatstheway]

Wacky! But uname -r says

3.5.0-23-generic

And that's the only option Grub shows me. Is that... Ok? Shouldn't I be running the 3.13.0-44 kernel?

[deadflowr]

So, while kansasnoob is checking out the output in my last post, wanted to throw something out there: Synaptic says that 3.13.0-44 is installed. Not sure if that is obvious from the results I posted, but throwing it out there!
Is it possible synaptic is showing you the linux-headers packages, instead of the linux-image packages?
Since the pastebin output for linux-image is only showing 3.5.0-23 as the only linux-image package installed.

[thatstheway]

Ah deadflowr you're exactly right, the headers are installed, not the image. Synaptic shows


linux-image-3.13.0-44-generic

and also


linux-tools-3.13.0-44-generic
linux-lts-trusty-tools-3.13.0-44


as being not installed. Should I just install these three from Synaptic?

[Bucky Ball]

Probably no. Your machine looks up to date if it is showing 12.04.5, which it is.

If, after you have run the update, upgrade and dist-upgrade commands in a terminal you are getting no errors and there seems to be no further problems, I'd imagine you are good to go.

As mentioned, the 3.13.0-44 kernel is for 14.04. I don't even know if that would work ok in 12.04. I could be wrong, though, so don't take that as gospel. Perhaps a wiser head might like to confirm, but if you've run the commands I've mentioned with no errors, that should be it.

[grahammechanical]

Look at the charts at the bottom of this wiki page. 12.04.x Ubuntu Kernel Support. 12.04.5 should have the Linux 3.13 kernel. It will receive the updates to that kernel until the end of 12.04's support period. This is the kernel that 14.04 and 14.04.1 have and will stay on until the end of the 14.04 support period. See chart 14.04.x Ubuntu Kernel Support.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

Regards.

[thatstheway]

Ok, so on the one hand everything seems fine, because I'm running 12.04.5, and the update steps didn't turn up any errors, but theoretically I should be using the 3.13 kernel, rather than the 3.5 kernel that I'm running now.

I just ran


hwe-support-status --verbose

again, and still got


Your current Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE) is no longer supported
since 2014-08-07. Security updates for critical parts (kernel
and graphics stack) of your system are no longer available.

For more information, please see:
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/1204_HWE_EOL

There is a graphics stack installed on this system. An upgrade to a
supported (or longer supported) configuration will become available
on 2014-07-16 and can be invoked by running 'update-manager' in the
Dash.

So this makes me think I should try installing those 3 packages from Synaptic that I mentioned above, but really, I have no idea what I'm doing. ; ) But I suppose I'll go back to Synaptic and read up on the Properties tabs for those packages, and see what I can learn about dependencies, etc., and maybe I'll give it a whirl, but I'm all ears if anyone has thoughts!

[deadflowr]

What I find interesting is the fact that you do not have linux-image-generic installed, in any of the variants.
(Those variants include a tag at the end for whichever point release you are running, like those packages that end with -lts-trusty or what have you.)
Typically installing both the linux-image-generic and linux-headers-generic packages automatically pulls in and installs whatever the latest kernel packages are available for your system; For which ever variant you have for those packages. If you installed only the linux-image-generic package, without any added name at the end, then you'd get kernel updates for just the main/original kernel, which for 12.04 is 3.2.0-XX.
While I do not think they are a required packages, I think it's suppose to be helpful for ease of updating...

[thatstheway]

Yeah this is getting interestinger and insterestinger. And of course I've got a bunch of those variants "on hand," listed in Synaptic as "not installed," and I wonder if I should try just installing linux-image-generic, and see if that stirs up any recommended updates, etc.

[thatstheway]

Hi All -- Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but...

I decided to reinstall 12.04.5, and booted up with the correct kernel. But, I got the dreaded low-graphics-mode (http://askubuntu.com/questions/141606/how-to-fix-the-system-is-running-in-low-graphics-mode-error/141607#141607) error. Now in the past, I've fixed that by installing the correct driver for my machine (xserver-xorg-video-trident), but this time, after I did that, it said

Note, selecting xserver-xorg-video-trident-lts-trusty instead of xserver-xorg-video-trident.
At the command line, how can I get it to use xserver-xorg-video-trident instead?

[thatstheway]

Ok, got around this by removing xserver-xorg-video-trident-lts-trusty, and now I'm up, and running the correct kernel. Thanks so much, everyone. Marking this puppy resolved!:D

Edit: Ok, not exactly, but I'll keep this [solved] and I'll keep that smiley up there. Removing that driver was probably not a good idea (doesn't really seem like a good practice in general) because at one point during an Update Manager process the screen just went dark, tried everything and had to reboot, which is never a good sign. So I re-did the install, and this time I took care of low-graphics mode by adding a xorg conf file, as described here (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Trident), and trying out a few of the options mentioned in comments. Note, that's an ArchLinux page, but it worked for me.

Another thing is that I wasn't actually running the "correct" kernel, 3.13.0-44, as in the latest/greatest, I was running 3.13.0-32. And after a few errors I realized that the latest needs a PAE-enabled processor, which I don't have. I'm going to try reinstalling while forcing PAE, something that just might work with my kind of processor (Pentium M), but that will be another story.