Linux Lite Updates list is empty

[leclelrc]

Hi,

LinuxLite 6.6

Usually, when I start "Install Updates" and some updates are available, new window will open with list of updates, then I can chose to update...

Recently, this window is empty. I mean, there are updates and I can update, but I cannot see them before updating.

What can I do?
Thx

[stevef]

Recently, this window is empty. I mean, there are updates and I can update, but I cannot see them before updating.

To show us the problem can you post back with a screen shot of the empty window ?

Next time you get the empty window press 'Prt Scr' before proceeding.
Set a short delay and 'choose active window', then click ok
Select the empty window and then wait the remainder of the delay.
If the preview looks right choose 'save' and ok

You should find the screenshot file in your home Pictures directory.
Check it to ensure it doesn't show anything private (edit if necessary) and then post it to the forum using imgur by following the instructions in
https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/intro...uidelines/

[waynebob]

I have had the same problem on my spare machine for a while now. It shows LL 6.6 for operating system.My main machine works fine and shows Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS.
Will attach screenshots of both.

[Valtam]

Try via Terminal:

Code:

sudo apt-get update

Code:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

see if it still is blank the next time you get notified for updates.

[Valtam]

I can confirm this is happening on 6.6 and 7.0 on Install Updates and Lite Welcome, but am yet to discover why. I welcome suggestions for a resolution. Thank you.

This one works just fine - https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/linux...d-version/ for Install Updates.

[waynebob]

Did the update and dist-upgrade, will post back after next update try.Thank you.

[trinidad]

I've been using Linux Lite since 2.x series and I have never had this happen on any of my systems on a wide variety of hardware (at least 100) so I might hazard a guess here that it is a geographical problem i/e slow mirror, or local ISP regulations, maybe local IPv6 stuff. I have had no trouble with 6.x or 7.x thus far. The code looks fine to me though Perl is a foreign language to me. I checked to see if there were any recent changes to stream editor that might affect its syntax but found none. Occasionally the window takes a while to populate but it always does for me. I'm US Chicago and have had no issues. Maybe a slow or ISP regulation fettered mirror might cause the rm iteration to remove temp file prematurely? It's not broken for me.
TC 

[Şerban S.]

I've been using Linux Lite since 2.x series and I have never had this happen on any of my systems on a wide variety of hardware (at least 100) so I might hazard a guess here that it is a geographical problem i/e slow mirror, or local ISP regulations, maybe local IPv6 stuff. I have had no trouble with 6.x or 7.x thus far. The code looks fine to me though Perl is a foreign language to me. I checked to see if there were any recent changes to stream editor that might affect its syntax but found none. Occasionally the window takes a while to populate but it always does for me. I'm US Chicago and have had no issues. Maybe a slow or ISP regulation fettered mirror might cause the rm iteration to remove temp file prematurely? It's not broken for me.
TC

I've been using Linux Lite since late 2018 (LL 4.2) on a daily basis. I never stumbled upon this issue, except a delayed population of the update window.
It's now difficult for me to say if that occurs on LL 7.0 since I quit using the update script about 2 years ago. I go with:

Code:

sudo apt upgrade

I'm far from being a CLI geek or fan, but some things, go better or faster or both in CLI. And I'm a huge fan of efficiency...
Anyway, I guess I can update this post as soon as there is a new update. On LL 6.6 there was one, but I read the post after updating.
On LL 7.0, might be. I'll test today to see if this happens. The machine is Dell Precision T1700. (see left panel for details).

Update 1:

[21:10, UTC+3]

I started the LL 7.0 installation in order to see if I can reproduce the  "blank update window" issue.

Available updates: YES. The Update icon though, lags showing them.
Moved to the CLI. (sudo apt upgrade)

Code:

The following packages will be upgraded:
[...]
  cloud-init ghostscript gir1.2-vte-2.91 google-chrome-stable libgs-common
  libgs10 libgs10-common libmysqlclient21 libndp0 libopenshot25 libtiff6
  libtiff6:i386 libvte-2.91-0 libvte-2.91-common linux-firmware openshot-qt
  openshot-qt-doc python3-openshot thunderbird
[...]

After a while, the update icon changed and I triggered the graphic update sequence. I got some errors:

Code:

===========================
Install Updates Error log
===========================
Install Updates could not fetch the package cache information lists.
Go to https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/ and paste the log below into the Software - Support - Updates section for assistance.

============ Log ===========

Hit:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security InRelease
Hit:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease
Hit:3 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu noble InRelease
Hit:4 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/thunderbird-next/ubuntu noble InRelease
Hit:5 https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Hit:6 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/openshot.developers/libopenshot-daily/ubuntu noble InRelease
Hit:7 http://repo.linuxliteos.com/linuxlite galena InRelease
Hit:8 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates InRelease
Ign:9 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/openshot.developers/ppa/ubuntu noble InRelease
Err:10 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/openshot.developers/ppa/ubuntu noble Release
  404  Not Found [IP: 2620:2d:4000:1::81 443]
Hit:11 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports InRelease
Hit:12 https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla InRelease
Reading package lists...
W: https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu/dists/noble/InRelease: Signature by key 0AB215679C571D1C8325275B9BDB3D89CE49EC21 uses weak algorithm (rsa1024)
W: https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/thunderbird-next/ubuntu/dists/noble/InRelease: Signature by key 0AB215679C571D1C8325275B9BDB3D89CE49EC21 uses weak algorithm (rsa1024)
E: The repository 'https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/openshot.developers/ppa/ubuntu noble Release' does not have a Release file.
W: https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/openshot.developers/libopenshot-daily/ubuntu/dists/noble/InRelease: Signature by key FBA0C227099A5360635E3D9152165BD6B9BA26FA uses weak algorithm (rsa1024)
[...]

I disabled the PPAs, and retriggered the graphic update sequence. Obviously, the OpenShot and Thunderbird updates were missing, but the window with the updates list was filled with the packages. The progress bar during sources list update, also worked properly.
I stopped the graphic update sequence, then re-enabled the PPAs and returned to the CLI for the update:

Code:

[...]The following packages have been kept back:
  inxi zenity zenity-common
The following packages will be upgraded:
  cloud-init ghostscript gir1.2-vte-2.91 google-chrome-stable libgs-common libgs10 libgs10-common libmysqlclient21 libndp0 libopenshot25 libtiff6 libtiff6:i386 libvte-2.91-0
  libvte-2.91-common linux-firmware openshot-qt openshot-qt-doc python3-openshot thunderbird
19 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
---
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable/main amd64 google-chrome-stable amd64 126.0.6478.114-1 [109 MB]
Get:2 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/openshot.developers/libopenshot-daily/ubuntu noble/main amd64 libopenshot25 amd64 0.3.2+dfsg2+1189+202406082047+daily~ubuntu24.04.1 [548 kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 libvte-2.91-common amd64 0.76.0-1ubuntu0.1 [13.5 kB]                                   
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 libvte-2.91-0 amd64 0.76.0-1ubuntu0.1 [230 kB]                                         
Get:5 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 gir1.2-vte-2.91 amd64 0.76.0-1ubuntu0.1 [11.5 kB] 
Get:6 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 ghostscript amd64 10.02.1~dfsg1-0ubuntu7.1 [43.4 kB]
Get:7 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main i386 libtiff6 i386 4.5.1+git230720-4ubuntu2.1 [209 kB]
Get:8 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/openshot.developers/libopenshot-daily/ubuntu noble/main amd64 python3-openshot amd64 0.3.2+dfsg2+1189+202406082047+daily~ubuntu24.04.1 [580 kB]
Get:9 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 libtiff6 amd64 4.5.1+git230720-4ubuntu2.1 [199 kB]     
Get:10 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 libgs10-common all 10.02.1~dfsg1-0ubuntu7.1 [488 kB]
Get:11 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 libgs10 amd64 10.02.1~dfsg1-0ubuntu7.1 [3,897 kB]       
Get:12 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 libgs-common all 10.02.1~dfsg1-0ubuntu7.1 [174 kB]
Get:13 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 libmysqlclient21 amd64 8.0.37-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 [1,254 kB]
Get:14 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 libndp0 amd64 1.8-1fakesync1ubuntu0.24.04.1 [12.7 kB]       
Get:15 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 linux-firmware amd64 20240318.git3b128b60-0ubuntu2.1 [476 MB]
Get:16 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/openshot.developers/libopenshot-daily/ubuntu noble/main amd64 openshot-qt all 3.1.1+dfsg2+1681+202406091902~ubuntu24.04.1 [78.9 MB]
Get:17 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 cloud-init all 24.1.3-0ubuntu3.3 [598 kB]                                                                               
Get:18 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/openshot.developers/libopenshot-daily/ubuntu noble/main amd64 openshot-qt-doc all 3.1.1+dfsg2+1681+202406091902~ubuntu24.04.1 [6,825 kB]             
Get:19 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu noble/main amd64 thunderbird amd64 1:115.12.0+build3-0ubuntu0.24.04.1~mt1 [67.0 MB]                                           
Fetched 746 MB in 1min 54s (6,558 kB/s)       
[...]

The updates went ok, including the PPAs with the RSA security warning.

My conclusions:

1. Download servers. Given the fact that the download servers are different from user to user (I have custom download servers, chosen considering the speed test best time), I belive that Trinidad found the answer:

[...] Maybe a slow or ISP regulation fettered mirror might cause the rm iteration to remove temp file prematurely? It's not broken for me. [...]
TC

2. The update break sequence due to PPA RSA1024 issue.
After successfully updating both OpenShot and Thunderbird, which triggered the RSA1024 security warning, I guess that this is a good choice.
Nevertheless, this applies only to some of the PPAs. Some might lack the appropriate version for the current OS release and those will still break the update, even if triggered from the CLI.

Best regards, Șerban.

[waynebob]

Had some updates on spare machine so ran it. Still a blank window, left it sit for 15 minutes and still blank.I am with Shaw cable and not too bad for speed.The progress window shows what is being updated while it is running and the LL updates log shows what was updated.I don't know if this issue with the blank updates window was there from the install or after some updates.Oh well, no big deal just another of life's mysteries.Thanks for a great operating system and all the help.

[Şerban S.]

Had some updates on spare machine so ran it. Still a blank window, left it sit for 15 minutes and still blank.I am with Shaw cable and not too bad for speed.The progress window shows what is being updated while it is running and the LL updates log shows what was updated.I don't know if this issue with the blank updates window was there from the install or after some updates.Oh well, no big deal just another of life's mysteries.Thanks for a great operating system and all the help.

I've been thinking a lot about this weird outcome.
The only situation I encountered, was while I was programming. The problem resides in a gap that might appear on some systems that are built "on a shoe string", so to speak. If the resources are too low compared to the current workload, the video especially when it has shared RAM, will max the GPU.
What I suggest is start System Monitoring Center and watch the GPU load while using the graphic update tool.
I suspect that either the video driver is working poor or the amount of RAM assigned to the video is a little too low.
In applications that make intensive use of video, like showing a graphic control that is dynamically populated and constantly changes, the video load is quite high.
Since after each change a "Control.Refresh" event is triggered in order to show the content appropriately. The type of control might be different, depending on a certain situation. Can be Window, ListBox, ComboBox, TreeView, etc.
The "Refresh" event is actually a method (procedure, function) that redraws the Control that invokes "Refresh".
In our case, the Edit Control is redrawn each time a new element is added while parsing the updates list.
It is possible that the GPU is overloaded and in this case, the Control.Refresh gets significantly delayed or might even be skipped.
This leads to the blank window. In fact, it is the Edit Control that is entirely missing.

Have you noticed any artifacts on the screen from time to time? This is a good way to narrow the possibilities.
Beyond that, it's too difficult to get to a sound explanation, thus, to find a solution.

In case the problem is the video, the only approach is to enter the MB Firmware (BIOS, UEFI) and change the video memory setting, if available. If it is available, and has a fixed value, that means that the amount of RAM is too low for another setting. A RAM upgrade will unlock the settings, if this upgrade is possible.
I forgot the type of machine you have, but you can go on the path

Code:

inxi -c 0 -ACdGMNSz

The result will tell you all you need to know in order to see if anything is doable.

Best regards, Șerban.