Weaning off of Update Manager in favor of apt-get

[hoodbu]

New to Ubuntu. Experienced with CentOS and yum. I have 12.04 LTS Desktop 64-bit for now and I'm trying to wean myself off of all the GUIs so that I can make a move to Server so as to boost my VM capabilities.

Question: How can I tell from the CLI whether a Kernel update is available? The GUI Update Manager says I'm due for a kernel update (3.2.0.29.31 -> 3.2.0.34.37). But 'sudo apt-get -s upgrade' doesn't say the kernel would be upgraded. All it says is that linux-generic, linux-headers-generic, and linux-image-generic have been kept back. I've also tried 'sudo apt-get update', but it doesn't make any difference. I'm sure I'm missing the appropriate command here. If it weren't for Update Manager I wouldn't know that there are kernel updates available. How would I know? Thanks.

[Mr. Hibba]

New to Ubuntu. Experienced with CentOS and yum. I have 12.04 LTS Desktop 64-bit for now and I'm trying to wean myself off of all the GUIs so that I can make a move to Server so as to boost my VM capabilities.

Question: How can I tell from the CLI whether a Kernel update is available? The GUI Update Manager says I'm due for a kernel update (3.2.0.29.31 -> 3.2.0.34.37). But 'sudo apt-get -s upgrade' doesn't say the kernel would be upgraded. All it says is that linux-generic, linux-headers-generic, and linux-image-generic have been kept back. I've also tried 'sudo apt-get update', but it doesn't make any difference. I'm sure I'm missing the appropriate command here. If it weren't for Update Manager I wouldn't know that there are kernel updates available. How would I know? Thanks.

I believe that "linux-generic" is actually the kernel package. When you see the "linux generic has been kept back" message, that usually means that a new version of the kernel is out. For reasons that I am unsure of, apt-get upgrade won't get the kernel updates by default. But

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

should install them for you.

Hope this helps,

Mr. Hibba

[dannyboy79]

if you install aptitude you can issue

sudo aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade

and I believe that will upgrade your kernels OR if you want to stick with apt-get the command would be

sudo apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

[arpanaut]

man apt-get

great tool
aptitude is a good tool too.
general advice is to not mix usage of these two,
pick one and stick with it.

[nothingspecial]

man apt-get

great tool
aptitude is a good tool too.
general advice is to not mix usage of these two,
pick one and stick with it.

That particular problem was fixed a long time ago. Mix and match is fine.

[DukeOfMixture]

To make things a little quicker, I've added the following to my .bash_aliases file:

alias updatenow='sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade'

So, how many of you have added the following to your .bash_aliases file:..?

alias exiy='exit'

Fat finger can be such a pain.

[mcduck]

I believe that "linux-generic" is actually the kernel package. When you see the "linux generic has been kept back" message, that usually means that a new version of the kernel is out. For reasons that I am unsure of, apt-get upgrade won't get the kernel updates by default. But

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

should install them for you.

Hope this helps,

Mr. Hibba

The reason is that apt-get update only replaces existing package versions with new ones.

On the other hand, kernel updates don't replace the old kernel, but instead add the new one alongside the old version. And to do that you need apt-get dist-upgrade.

[Mr. Hibba]

The reason is that apt-get update only replaces existing package versions with new ones.

On the other hand, kernel updates don't replace the old kernel, but instead add the new one alongside the old version. And to do that you need apt-get dist-upgrade.

Ah, thank you, that makes sense.

[StinkySQL]

That particular problem was fixed a long time ago. Mix and match is fine.

We are using CentOS 5 in dev (RH in production) and mix and match YUM and apt-get with no issues to report.

[dannyboy79]

man apt-get

great tool
aptitude is a good tool too.
general advice is to not mix usage of these two,
pick one and stick with it.

i'm still on 10.04.4 and I mix and match apt-get and aptitude all the time. It'll be fine