Package Update Indicator <SOLVED>

[Rick B.]

I have installed Debian 10 MATE and the package-update-indicator, which I have also added to startup programs in System > Preferences > Personal > Startup Applications. I have available updates but the indicator program is not notifying me of the updates. Do I need to install any other programs for this to work? Thanks.

[ruwolf]

Do you have correctly set preferences of it?

[Rick B.]

Yes, I set the Preferences for "Refresh Cache Always". I then rebooted and waited a while. Then a red indicator came up and Voila, it now works. Thank you!

[Rick B.]

Not Solved. Worked for a while but no longer works. I have Debian 10 MATE installed with all updates posted.. All areas are configured the same as before but I still receive no indication when upates are available. I have to check manually every time and update manually. I have /usr/bin/gpk-update-viewer in Update Preferences as the command for installing updates. Any ideas?

[stevepusser]

Have you looked at any other Mate distros to see what they use to notify the users of updates, such as Ubuntu Mate?

[Rick B.]

I have occasionally used Ubuntu MATE and MX Linux MATE. I have also been using Linux Mint MATE pretty much full-time since 2012. When updates are available in Ubuntu MATE it automatically shows in the bottom panel. I think this may be the same way for other flavors of Ubuntu. MX Linux MATE and Linux Mint MATE both have an indicator in the top panel which works well and changes appearance when updates are available. Linux Mint uses a package called "mintupdate" which seems to be proprietary. I have read on the web of this problem with showing available updates in Debian. How does anyone configure Debian to allow the user to know when updates are available?

[arzgi]

Not mentioned in the thread, I use an old school method, subscribed to debian-security-announce mailing list.

https://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/

[Rick B.]

To: arzgi, So what is that old school method?

[cuckooflew]

Not mentioned in the thread, I use an old school method, subscribed to debian-security-announce mailing list.

https://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/

That is the method, subscribe to the list, check your e-mail, they send announcements about all updates and upgrades.

[stevepusser]

There is no MX Linux MATE, as it ships with only an XFCE desktop, (and now a fluxbox variant on the same ISO)

MX Updater, package name apt-notifier, should be desktop-agnostic, though. It's a homebrewed applet.

Code: Select all

$ apt show apt-notifier
Package: apt-notifier
Version: 20.03.01mx19+1
Maintainer: Steve (Stevo) Pusser <maintainer@mepiscommunity.org>
Installed-Size: 664 kB
Depends: anacron, apt, bash (>= 3.2-4), gtkdialog, policykit-1-gnome | lxpolkit | polkit-1-auth-agent, python-pyqt5, synaptic, xdotool, xfce4-terminal | x-terminal-emulator, yad (>= 0.26), unattended-upgrades
...
APT-Sources: http://la.mxrepo.com/mx/repo buster/main amd64 Packages
Description: tray applet to notify of system and application updates


Debian doesn't have gtkdialog, though...

and why am I the maintainer? I only provided the template for the debianization--the maintainer is supposed to replace my info with their own name! I'm off to fix that!

[Deb-fan]

Probably a permissions issue, likely need sudo-etc (enter passwd) to mess around with this thing. Would look into what's used by people doing the unattended upgrades(never had an interest in that.) How they're running scripts-etc to authorize it w/o entering passwd. Another possible means to this end, though use with caution obviously, might be adding it to a file in /etc/sudoers.d Would add ie: /usr/bin/nameofprog or nameofcommand someone wants to allow user to run without password required. That's assuming this app-progs located in /bin vs /sbin in which case just use the correct path to it, to use it w/o passwd needed.

Of course could be misconfig elsewhere too. Either way the above junk is still good to know/learn about. Personally tend doing all such things manually in term, comes to things like upgrade of course want to see what's to be done in case there's issues but setup correctly even unattended upgrades should be harmless.

[Rick B.]

To: stevepusser, One can add any desktop they want to a Debian or Ubuntu based distro, including MX Linux. So saying there is NO MX Linux MATE is incorrect.

[sunrat]

To: stevepusser, One can add any desktop they want to a Debian or Ubuntu based distro, including MX Linux. So saying there is NO MX Linux MATE is incorrect.

WTF are you talking about? You can install anything you want on any Linux. What Steve is saying is that the only official releases are Xfce or Fluxbox (with Xfce). Just because you can install it doesn't make it an official release.
Steve is an MX developer by the way.

[trinidad]

WTF are you talking about?

Good question!

Just because you can install it doesn't make it an official release

Just because you can install things that are not in an officaul release doesn't mean they're going to work right system-wide. On the same subject using MATE on Debian stable is about like taking two steps back away from the door that you're struggling to get through. Ever hear the expression: "You can't get there from here" ? Well... you might get there but... you might not know where you are when you do.

TC

[stevepusser]

Not to mention that we have users show up on the MX forum asking about something that works on MX, but not for them, and never think to mention at the start that they are using some other user's unofficial, modified MX respin, as if that could make a difference...