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[SOLVED] gnome-software unable to get list of updates

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creektivity
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[SOLVED] gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#1 Post by creektivity »

I'm running Debian stable (buster), gnome-software version 3.30.6-5.

When I open the app, click on the "Updates" tab, then click on the refresh arrow, an error message always pops up that says "Unable to get list of updates" (with no other information). Meanwhile, in the middle of the screen, it says "Looking for new updates... (This could take a while)" and then it changes to "Software is up to date" (even though the original pop-up error message did not indicate any resolution).

I checked whether upgrades are (automatically) being applied using

Code: Select all

grep "upgrade" /var/log/dpkg.log
and there were a bunch of upgrades in the past month so it seems that they are.

So gnome-software automatic updates seem to be working in the background even though the error is popping up, but I would like to be sure there isn't some problem as indicated by the error.
Last edited by creektivity on 2020-03-01 14:16, edited 1 time in total.

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Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#2 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

Please post the full output of

Code: Select all

# apt update
deadbang

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creektivity
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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#3 Post by creektivity »

Code: Select all

$ apt update
Reading package lists... Done
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
W: Problem unlinking the file /var/cache/apt/pkgcache.bin - RemoveCaches (13: Permission denied)
W: Problem unlinking the file /var/cache/apt/srcpkgcache.bin - RemoveCaches (13: Permission denied)

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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#4 Post by arzgi »

# at the beginning of a command means it must be run as root or with sudo.

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creektivity
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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#5 Post by creektivity »

Sorry, I obviously don't know much about this!

Code: Select all

# apt update
Hit:1 http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates InRelease
Hit:2 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian buster InRelease
Hit:3 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian buster-updates InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
W: http://security.debian.org/debian-security/dists/buster/updates/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file is not readable by user '_apt' executing apt-key.
W: http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file is not readable by user '_apt' executing apt-key.
W: http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/buster-updates/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file is not readable by user '_apt' executing apt-key.

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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#6 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

creektivity wrote:

Code: Select all

W: http://security.debian.org/debian-security/dists/buster/updates/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file is not readable by user '_apt' executing apt-key.
W: http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file is not readable by user '_apt' executing apt-key.
W: http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/buster-updates/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file is not readable by user '_apt' executing apt-key.
Try

Code: Select all

# chown root:root /etc/apt/trusted.gpg
# chmod 644 /etc/apt/trusted.gpg
# apt update
Does it work now?
deadbang

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creektivity
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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#7 Post by creektivity »

I tried what you recommended (see immediately below) but when I opened gnome-software afterwards and checked for updates I still got the original error ("Unable to get list of updates").

Code: Select all

# chown root:root /etc/apt/trusted.gpg
# chmod 644 /etc/apt/trusted.gpg
# ls -l /etc/apt/trusted.gpg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 32 May 13  2019 /etc/apt/trusted.gpg
# apt update
Get:1 http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates InRelease [65.4 kB]
Hit:2 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian buster InRelease   
Hit:3 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian buster-updates InRelease
Fetched 65.4 kB in 1s (71.6 kB/s)    
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
W: http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file has an unsupported filetype.
W: http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/buster-updates/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file has an unsupported filetype.
W: http://security.debian.org/debian-security/dists/buster/updates/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file has an unsupported filetype.

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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#8 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

creektivity wrote:

Code: Select all

W: http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file has an unsupported filetype.
W: http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/buster-updates/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file has an unsupported filetype.
W: http://security.debian.org/debian-security/dists/buster/updates/InRelease: The key(s) in the keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg are ignored as the file has an unsupported filetype.
Dear me, what have you done to that?

Code: Select all

file /etc/apt/trusted.gpg
deadbang

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creektivity
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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#9 Post by creektivity »

I haven't done anything to that file (or really anything else except what's in this post, for that matter).

Code: Select all

# file /etc/apt/trusted.gpg
/etc/apt/trusted.gpg: GPG keybox database version 1, created-at Tue May 14 03:31:52 2019, last-maintained Tue May 14 03:31:52 2019

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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#10 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

Code: Select all

# mv /etc/apt/trusted.gpg{,.bak}
# apt-key update
deadbang

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creektivity
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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#11 Post by creektivity »

Code: Select all

# mv /etc/apt/trusted.gpg{,.bak}
# apt-key update
Warning: 'apt-key update' is deprecated and should not be used anymore!
Note: In your distribution this command is a no-op and can therefore be removed safely.

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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#12 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

Oops, sorry.

But does 'apt update' work now that trusted.gpg has been moved?
deadbang

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creektivity
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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#13 Post by creektivity »

That worked and now when I check for updates on gnome-software I do not get an error. But do I not need /etc/apt/trusted.gpg?

Code: Select all

# apt update
Hit:1 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian buster InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates InRelease
Get:3 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian buster-updates InRelease [49.3 kB]
Fetched 49.3 kB in 1s (48.4 kB/s)   
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.

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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#14 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

creektivity wrote:But do I not need /etc/apt/trusted.gpg?
I think that's for non-Debian repositories and you don't seem to have any of those. Debian's GPG keys are supplied by the debian-archive-keyring package and stored under /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/.
deadbang

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Re: gnome-software unable to get list of updates

#15 Post by creektivity »

I only install from Debian repositories, so I think I'm good.

Thank you so much for your time and help!

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