[solved - maybe] New installation problems

[doctordruidphd]

Hello,
I have been using debian/gnome for some time, but decided to give kubuntu/kde4 a try. I installed from the live CD, and everything seemed to work OK. Shortly thereafter, it did an automatic software update, and that seems to have broken several things. This is kubuntu 8.1.

1. I am no longer getting automatic software updates. ALT-F2 and typing "update_notifier" produces no results. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling update-notifier-kde, but again, nothing. There is no icon in the system try for it. Fixable?

2. A lot of the "handbooks" seem to be missing. When I click on help, then handbook, either nothing happens, or I get a message saying the handbook is missing. When I bring up the help application, the only thing in the search index box is Unix Manuals, nothing for the other apps.

3. As I recall (and I might be wrong), OOo 3 came with kubuntu; but it has reverted back to OOo 2.1. When I tried reinstalling OOo 3, the screens are all messed up and it crashes. Fixable?

4. I use an external sound card to connect to radio equipment (Signalink USB). The device was not plugged in when I installed. When I plug it in, it works fine, but now every time I start the system, I get a message saying the codec doesn't work -- of course it doesn't, the unit isn't plugged in. The message comes from "phonon". I will be plugging and unplugging this device often; any way to stop this message, or is phonon something I really don't need?

Thanks for any help. Searching didn't produce useful results, other than things I have already tried.

[claydoh]

Re: New installation problems

1)There shouldn't be an icon unless there are updates available, however i did locate a bug report that is similar
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubun...pt/+bug/299360
I also do not have the command 'update_notifier' either (is it for gnome,maybe?) the correct Kubuntu command would be

kdesuo adept updater

2) Possibly you are seeing some missing that are kde3-related, this is a known issue due to different locations of the two versions iirc. When i open helpcenter I get quite a lot of entries, I don't know what could be missing or wrong on your install, though I have seen others with the same issue.

3) Both Ubuntu and Kubuntu currently have OOo 2, though there are repos available for 3.0

[doctordruidphd]

Re: New installation problems

Thank You for your reply.

Code:
kdesudo adept updater

worked. Is there a way to tell if this is running in the background? Not sure what name it would go by.

Hope there is a fix somewhere for the missing documentation.

OK, understand the OOo issue.

I also understand that phonon may be required for multimedia to work. I can't find the configuration dialog for it, though.

[JohanLingen]

Re: New installation problems

Is there a way to tell if this is running in the background? Not sure what name it would go by.

ps aux | grep adept

It should show adept_notifier

[doctordruidphd]

Re: New installation problems

ps aux | grep adept

It should show adept_notifier

Nope, it's not there. There is a knotify in the process list, but I'm not sure what this is notifying of...

[sithlord48]

Re: New installation problems

adept_notifier should be there. knotify is not it at all

[doctordruidphd]

Re: New installation problems

OK, at this point I have determined that neither update-notifier-kde nor adept_notifier are running.
I have tried reinstalling adept and update-notifier-kde, with no effect. I really don't know what "applet" means, in terms of how they should be started or run. How do these programs normally start, and where should I look for the problem with one or both of them? Should they be in system settings>autostart?
Thanks again to all who can help.

PS the problem with the phonon error message is solved -- I found its configuration screen under system settings>sound.

But I would like to be able to get automatic updates...

PPS nothing appears in system settings>services for either of these. The packages are installed, but they are not running.

-----------------------------------
Further research:
looking at the bug mentioned in claydoh's post, I find that the apt script in /etc/cron.daily is marked executable. However, I manually ran 'apt-get update', and lo! the update notifier icon appeared, and there were updates available. I wonder in anacron and/or cron just plain are not running? How to tell?

[claydoh]

Re: New installation problems

my notifications work, and I don't have it listed either

jake@jake-laptop:~$ ps aux | grep adept
jake   25420 0.0 0.0  3268  816 pts/2  S+  22:10  0:00 grep adept
root   27777 0.0 0.4 34744 4700 ?    S  Jan05  0:00 kdeinit4: kio_file [kdeinit] file local:/tmp/ksocket-root/klauncherT27768.slave-socket local:/tmp/ksocket-root/adeptM27753.slave-socket
jake@jake-laptop:~$
[/quote]
So it has to be something else, I'd think

[sithlord48]

Re: New installation problems

you can see it on my install if you hit ctrl+esc (default) for the system monitor i can see adept_notifier in the list ran by my user name

[doctordruidphd]

Re: New installation problems

Believe me, it's not there.
The problem is behaving exactly as described in this bug report:
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubun...pt/+bug/299360

except that the executable flags are set in everything in /etc/cron.daily, including the apt script.

Manually running 'apt-get update' brings up the notifier icon. Something is broken in the cron/anacron/script sequence of events. The scripts all appear to be the same as in my debian system, and it does work there.

I should add one other thing: when I first set the system up, the adept_notifier icon was there. That's how I knew about the huge update. Over 200 packages - I'm not surprised something bumped something else. But since then, the adept notifier has not worked. So that is broken, too. If I manually do 'sudo adept updater', that works, too. And the automatic update is turned on in software-properties-kde.

[JohanLingen]

Re: New installation problems

I also have adept_notifier running, but I'm still on Hardy with KDE3.5.

The link you gave also stated that someone didn't have apt_watch_backend installed. Do you have that package installed?

If you suspect cron, did you check whether the cron system service is automatically started?

I am not sure whether

dpkg --reconfigure adept_notifier

could bring you something, or maybe for another related package.

--edit--
put code element in right position

[Isix]

Re: New installation problems

Hi doctordruidphd

You said:

PS the problem with the phonon error message is solved -- I found its configuration screen under system settings>sound.

I get that same error from "phonon" --- what exactly did you do in SYSTEM SETTINGS>>SOUND. In my case I see there the a list --- should I just make the one with "front speakers" the first priority?

Regards,
Isix

[dibl]

Re: New installation problems

kdesudo adept_notifier

returns "command not found", as does

man adept_notifier

.

Looking at running daemons shows "knotify" and "knotify4". I learned this about knotify. You may be looking for things that don't exist in KDE 4.2 .....

There haven't been many updates for 8.10 recently -- not much last week, a small one yesterday morning, and nothing since then. I'm not sure there is anything wrong with your system.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: New installation problems

I have tried some things; it still isn't working, but here is what I found...

First, the easy part, regarding phonon.
Applications>system>system settings>Sound>device preference
I moved the ALI5451 (what my system has internally) to the top.
That stopped the phonon error on bootup. I have done something else that has hosed my system sounds, but I will look into that later.

Now, as for system updates... Short story= not fixed, not working.
Long story:

cron is running.
adept_notifier is not running, nor is update-notifier-kde.
I have not yet tried apt_watch_backend, as it appears to be written for gnome, and I have found that many gnome apps are none too friendly to kde. Has anyone else tried it with kubuntu?

I tried the following:
dpkg-query -s adept

Package: adept
Status: install ok installed
<stuff snipped out>
Conflicts: adept-common (<< 3.0~alpha5), adept-installer (<< 3.0~alpha5), adept-manager (<< 3.0~alpha5), adept-updater (<< 3.0~alpha5)
Description: package management suite for KDE
Adept Manager is a graphical user interface for package management. It also
provides a specialised UI for system updates.
<more stuff snipped out>

OK, so there are conflicts. I did an apt-get purge adept, and apt-get purge update-notifier-kde,
then reinstalled both of them. Now, update-notifier-kde is running, but still no adept_notifier.

I then tried the following:
sudo apt-get install adept-notifier
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package adept-notifier is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package adept-notifier has no installation candidate

I also tried the same thing with "adept_notifier", but it says no such package. Whereis says there is no adept-notifier or adept_notifier.

So we have a problem. Something wants adept-notifier, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere.

Suggestions?

Note further research -- the kubuntu system I installed on a pen drive DOES have update-notifier present. It evidently got whacked when I did the software upgrade after installing the system on the hard drive. So I need to know how to reinstall it, given that apt-get won't pick up a version compatible with the version of adept it is installing. This is dragging on and on, I know, but it may be an issue with the packages and/or repository, and if so, it needs fixing.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: New installation problems

I have no idea how or why, but I did a manual "sudo adept updater" today, it did its thing, and now the problem with no update-notifier, along with the problem of firefox continuing to run when shutdown, have gone away. Solved? Well, it works, who knows why, just hope it continues to work.