19.10 Software Updater says 20.04LTS avail, but Update fails

[WB0HYQ]

I apologize if this is posted anywhere else, but I did search diligently. I recently upgraded from 18.04 to 19.10 eoan and all seems to run okay, but now the software updater says "18.04LTS is available - you have 19.10". When I click the Upgrade button absolutely nothing happens. I waited for an hour, yet nothing seemed to do anything toward upgrading. When I watched the Task manager, there were two entries popping up every five or six seconds in green, turning red, then dying. They were:

/user/lib/gvfs/gvfs-smb --spawner:1.7 /org/stk/gvfs/exec-spaw/1274
/user/lib/gvfs/gvfs-smb --spawner:1.7 /org/stk/gvfs/exec-spaw/1273

The 1274 and 1273 are incrementing with each appearance. Not sure if these two entries are germane to the problem.

When I run the updater in a terminal, I get this:



bill@bill-UBU:~$ sudo apt update
[sudo] password for bill:
Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu eoan InRelease
Hit:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu eoan-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu eoan-security InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
1 package can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see it.

bill@bill-UBU:~$ apt list --upgradable
Listing... Done
libsnmp30/eoan 5.7.3+dfsg-5ubuntu5 amd64 [upgradable from: 5.7.3+dfsg-1.8ubuntu3.3]
N: There is 1 additional version. Please use the '-a' switch to see it

bill@bill-UBU:~$ apt list --upgradable -a
Listing... Done
libsnmp30/eoan 5.7.3+dfsg-5ubuntu5 amd64 [upgradable from: 5.7.3+dfsg-1.8ubuntu3.3]
libsnmp30/now 5.7.3+dfsg-1.8ubuntu3.3 amd64 [installed,upgradable to: 5.7.3+dfsg-5ubuntu5]



Here is where my knowledge gets fuzzy on what to do:



bill@bill-UBU:~$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
libsnmp30
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.


What does "kept back" mean, and how do I fix this? I can see it has to do with 'libsnmp30', but beyond that, I don't know what to do. Is 20.04LTS actually out there and ready to be downloaded? I get conflicting answers, one of which tells me it isn't ready yet and won't be until August.

Bill

[Dennis N]

Is 20.04LTS actually out there and ready to be downloaded?
The upgrade to 20.04 from 19.10 has been available for quite a while.

In 19.10 terminal you can run:

sudo do-release-upgrade

preliminary steps are to fully upgrade 19.10 and disable PPAs. If Ubuntu, I would disable the gnome shell extensions as well as they won't update during this process.

[WB0HYQ]

I have run the software updater many times. Each time it tells me "everything is up to date", then adds the "20.04 is available, you have 19.10". None of the PPAs listed on the "Other Software" tab are checked.

The output of your suggestion is:



bill@bill-UBU:~$ sudo do-release-upgrade
[sudo] password for bill:
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading.
bill@bill-UBU:~$


So, I am trapped in a never-ending circle -- you need to update 19.10, yet it is up to date -- yet I cannot update to 20.04 because 19.10 isn't updated.

Bill

[Dennis N]

bill@bill-UBU:~$ apt list --upgradable -a
Listing... Done
libsnmp30/eoan 5.7.3+dfsg-5ubuntu5 amd64 [upgradable from: 5.7.3+dfsg-1.8ubuntu3.3]
libsnmp30/now 5.7.3+dfsg-1.8ubuntu3.3 amd64 [installed,upgradable to: 5.7.3+dfsg-5ubuntu5]

Observations:
1st line of output is in the usual format: package/repo new-version [upgradable from: old-version]
2nd line of output: I would investigate the 'now' repo source shown there, as I don't see any source labeled with 'now' in my /etc/apt/sources.list for eoan. It could be causing a problem preventing upgrade. Try commenting out that source and try upgrade again.

That's about all I can see here.

[ActionParsnip]

Run:


sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt clean
sudo apt upgrade


Does that help?

[shantiq]

just did very same 18.04 >> 19.10 >> 20.04

maybe read this (https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-upgrade-ubuntu-to-20-04-lts-focal-fossa)

since you have done
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

now you need to run:


sudo do-release-upgrade -d


see if it lets you in

Technically the software-properties-gtk will notify you by the 06-08-2020 that it is ready the
-d there allows you to bypass that

try it see what you find

Best of Luck


PS when i got out the other side on 20.04 I found many dependencies had to be corrected so up to you

[WB0HYQ]

I apologize profusely. I have not been receiving any notification emails for this thread. I will try the possible solutions and reply as fas as I can.

Bill

[WB0HYQ]

. . . .
2nd line of output: I would investigate the 'now' repo source shown there, as I don't see any source labeled with 'now' in my /etc/apt/sources.list for eoan. It could be causing a problem preventing upgrade. Try commenting out that source and try upgrade again.

That's about all I can see here.

I'll check that list. EDIT: The word "now" does not exist in that file. I can't imagine where that entry is coming from.

@ActionParsnip:



bill@bill-UBU:~$ sudo apt autoremove
[sudo] password for bill:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
bill@bill-UBU:~$ sudo apt clean
bill@bill-UBU:~$ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
libsnmp30
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.


@Shantiq: "Can't connect to linuxconfig.org" Page simply hangs until it times out.

and:



bill@bill-UBU:~$ sudo do-release-upgrade -d
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
There is no development version of an LTS available.
To upgrade to the latest non-LTS development release
set Prompt=normal in /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades.


I did edit the file and set 'normal'. Still, nothing happened when I clicked the "Upgrade" button on the Software Updater. In Software and Updates, I've tried both "any version" and "LTS version". Neither will produce any visible results.

Bill

[Dennis N]

EDIT: The word "now" does not exist in that file. I can't imagine where that entry is coming from.
Check in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d

[WB0HYQ]

I have checked *.list and *.distUpgrade in every readable file in the /etc/apt/ directory for "now". It does not exist anywhere I can find.

What is really odd is that I can't find any reference to "libsnmp30" in any of those files either.

Bill

[ActionParsnip]

The package comes from the sources listed in those files. You won't see specific packages named there. The libsnmp30 package comes from the sources listed. You can see where the package comes from by running:


apt cache policy libsnmp30


The package is "held back" because it depends on a package that isn't updated yet. When the dependancy is satisfied it will install as you expect.

[deadflowr]

The word now is nothing more than an indication of which version is currently installed.
Is not listed anywhere outside of the apt listing, really.
https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/408950

[Dennis N]

OK, I get the listing with 'now' when I use that -a option:


dmn@Sydney-VM:~$ apt list --upgradable -a
Listing... Done
gnome-shell-common/eoan-updates,eoan-updates 3.34.3-1ubuntu1~19.10.1 all [upgradable from: 3.34.1+git20191024-1ubuntu1~19.10.1]
gnome-shell-common/now 3.34.1+git20191024-1ubuntu1~19.10.1 all [installed,upgradable to: 3.34.3-1ubuntu1~19.10.1]
gnome-shell-common/eoan,eoan 3.34.1-1ubuntu1 all

But the result with 'now' is just a restatement of the first;
and it doesn't appear without the -a ↓

Without the -a option:

dmn@Sydney-VM:~$ apt list --upgradable
Listing... Done
gnome-shell-common/eoan-updates,eoan-updates 3.34.3-1ubuntu1~19.10.1 all [upgradable from: 3.34.1+git20191024-1ubuntu1~19.10.1]

and in this case at least, no suggestion that 'additional versions' are available if were to use -a.

Anyway, this is not the reason the upgrade to 20.04 doesn't start.

[WB0HYQ]

I see now (there's that word again, LOL) where it comes from. I did some sleuthing into the early morning hours and approached this from the other end: What did I download/install that required 'libsnmp30?' Turns out, when I installed Gambas (programming language GUI), this library was installed for messaging.

Next, I ran Synaptics GUI and searched for the library. When I found it, there were two entries, one of which had "-dbg" tacked onto the end. The debug version was unchecked, but the other libsnmp30 had a red exclamation mark as being broken. Right-clicking the entry and selecting Properties, showed both of the entrues (the /eoan and the /now) under Sources.

Knowing I would have to re-install Gambas, I marked the 'broken' package for complete uninstall and executed it. I was right, it too Gambas and a few other applications I couldn't identify along with it.

At 0145, I opened Software Updater and checked. This time, the message had changed: Software updates are no longer provided for Ubuntu 19.10, to stay secure, you should upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04LTS.

When I clicked the Upgrade, the Authentication popup appeared.

I think I've managed to fix this.

Thanks so much for everyone's help.

Bill