Question for Expert Kubuntuers [did I just make up a word?]

[theAdmiral71]

Hello, Folks:

I'm just working on getting settled back into Kubuntu after a couple of years on the mother distro of Debian (Gnome). I have upgraded some of my system but there are a few straggling upgrade packages that I don't really know how to handle. Here is the konsole screen reading:

 [FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]john@john-s5-1204:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade --fix-missing [/COLOR]
[sudo] password for john:  
Reading package lists... Done 
Building dependency tree        
Reading state information... Done 
Calculating upgrade... Done 
The following packages have been kept back: 
  libkf5filemetadata-bin libkf5filemetadata-data libkf5filemetadata3 linux-generic 
  linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic 
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded. 
john@john-s5-1204:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade 
Reading package lists... Done 
Building dependency tree        
Reading state information... Done 
Calculating upgrade... Done 
The following packages have been kept back: 
  libkf5filemetadata-bin libkf5filemetadata-data libkf5filemetadata3 linux-generic 
  linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic 
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded. 
john@john-s5-1204:~$[/FONT]

My question is: how would an expert, such as maybe yourself, handle the remaining packages? It does appear that part of this remaining list is a kernel upgrade, and I have only purposed to do one of those in the past, and my memory of that is somewhat rusty. Any other kernel upgrade that I have done was a part of a distro upgrade, and that went off quite easily without a hitch.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

theAdmiral71

[theAdmiral71]

Wow, where is my easy button? To perform a kernel update to 4.1.2, click the following link:

http://www.yourownlinux.com/2015/07/...-in-linux.html

[ronw]

I would start with doing an apt-get dist-upgrade instead of just an upgrade.

Regarding the kernel, I haven't used that PPA, but adding a PPA to your sources is usually better than downloading specific debs. Adding the PPA will get you ongoing updates.

[theAdmiral71]

What ppa should I add to upgrade to the latest stable kernel version next time with dist-upgrade? And, how do I go about adding it?

Many thanks in advance for your assistance.

[Teunis]

Go have a look at the edgers ppa

Apt and Muon will handle the rest.

[vinnywright]

What ppa should I add to upgrade to the latest stable kernel version next time with dist-upgrade? And, how do I go about adding it?

Many thanks in advance for your assistance.

I dont know if I would add the mainline kernel PPA to my sources list ,,,,, the newest kernels are not always fully compatible with a older release ,,,,,If I wanted to try a newer kernel I would do it just like your link described.


as far as updates/upgrades go I always do it in a terminal with

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

VINNY

[theAdmiral71]

Thank you, Vinny. I was thinking along your same idea. But, even though I have updated the kernel to the latest stable release, I am still getting a terminal reading that some packages are kept back, as follows:

 [FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]john@john-s5-1204:~$ uname -r [/COLOR]
4.1.2-040102-generic 
john@john-s5-1204:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade 
[sudo] password for john:  
Reading package lists... Done 
Building dependency tree        
Reading state information... Done 
Calculating upgrade... Done 
The following packages have been kept back: 
  linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic 
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded. 
john@john-s5-1204:~$
[/FONT]

How do I get this OS to not tell me that I still have these packages pending---I don't need them right now, and it seems to me that the OS should recognize that I do not need them right now, that my kernel is updated as far as it can be, and that the OS telling me that these packages are kept back is senseless and almost redundant.

[theAdmiral71]

Check this out. I just performed this in terminal.

 [FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]john@john-s5-1204:~$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade [/COLOR]
Reading package lists... Done 
Building dependency tree        
Reading state information... Done 
Calculating upgrade... Done 
The following NEW packages will be installed: 
  linux-headers-3.19.0-22 linux-headers-3.19.0-22-generic 
  linux-image-3.19.0-22-generic linux-image-extra-3.19.0-22-generic 
The following packages will be upgraded: 
  linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic 
3 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. 
Need to get 65.4 MB of archives. 
After this operation, 289 MB of additional disk space will be used. 
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n 
Abort. 
john@john-s5-1204:~$
[/FONT]

Now it wants to revert me back a couple of versions. How do I go about fixing this problem?

[vinnywright]

let it go through to fix the "held back "error ,,,,,,you will still boot the newest kenel by default and can remove the redundant ones later .

after it goes thrugh we can see how meney and what ver. kernels you have ,,,then straiten it out.

VINNY

[theAdmiral71]

Good advice, Vinny. Thanks! I went ahead and did a dist-upgrade to install the version 3.19.x. Rebooted. Did a dist-upgrade again and the system saw that I had 4.1.2, so it told me to apt-get autoremove. Did that. Rebooted. And still on kernel version 4.1.2. Thank you for assisting me!

[vinnywright]

Good advice, Vinny. Thanks! I went ahead and did a dist-upgrade to install the version 3.19.x. Rebooted. Did a dist-upgrade again and the system saw that I had 4.1.2, so it told me to apt-get autoremove. Did that. Rebooted. And still on kernel version 4.1.2. Thank you for assisting me!

cool ,,,,,,now lets see what "autoremove left you with ,,,,as far as kernels go.

do

ls /boot

and lets see.

VINNY

[theAdmiral71]

cool ,,,,,,now lets see what "autoremove left you with ,,,,as far as kernels go.

do

ls /boot

and lets see.

VINNY

[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]john@john-s5-1204:~$ ls /boot [/COLOR]
abi-3.19.0-22-generic            memtest86+.bin 
abi-4.1.2-040102-generic         memtest86+.elf 
config-3.19.0-22-generic         memtest86+_multiboot.bin 
config-4.1.2-040102-generic      System.map-3.19.0-22-generic 
[COLOR=#5454ff][B]grub[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]                             System.map-4.1.2-040102-generic [/COLOR]
initrd.img-3.19.0-22-generic     vmlinuz-3.19.0-22-generic 
initrd.img-4.1.2-040102-generic  vmlinuz-4.1.2-040102-generic 
[COLOR=#5454ff][B]lost+found[/B][/COLOR]
john@john-s5-1204:~$ [/FONT][COLOR=#000000]uname -r[/COLOR]
[FONT=monospace]4.1.2-040102-generic 
john@john-s5-1204:~$ [/FONT]

I think next time I upgrade my kernel I am just going to stick with dist-upgrade instead of using the web site I mentioned much earlier in this thread. Seems to me that there may be a chance that the latest stable version may be, in one instance or another, too advanced for one package or another on my machine. It also seems to me that Ubuntu would be taking care of safeguarding what we download by providing the suitable packages in the repos. Would you concur?

theadmiral71

[Qqmike]

The issue is solved, of course, I'm just looking in. Can't help but notice that the vmlinuz 3.19.0-22 remains, after it was installed, if I'm reading this right. I wonder what was cleaned out or removed. Will be curious to see what Vinny makes of this.

[vinnywright]

[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]john@john-s5-1204:~$ ls /boot [/COLOR]
abi-3.19.0-22-generic            memtest86+.bin 
abi-4.1.2-040102-generic         memtest86+.elf 
config-3.19.0-22-generic         memtest86+_multiboot.bin 
config-4.1.2-040102-generic      System.map-3.19.0-22-generic 
[COLOR=#5454ff][B]grub[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]                             System.map-4.1.2-040102-generic [/COLOR]
initrd.img-3.19.0-22-generic     vmlinuz-3.19.0-22-generic 
initrd.img-4.1.2-040102-generic  vmlinuz-4.1.2-040102-generic 
[COLOR=#5454ff][B]lost+found[/B][/COLOR]
john@john-s5-1204:~$ [/FONT][COLOR=#000000]uname -r[/COLOR]
[FONT=monospace]4.1.2-040102-generic 
john@john-s5-1204:~$ [/FONT]

I think next time I upgrade my kernel I am just going to stick with dist-upgrade instead of using the web site I mentioned much earlier in this thread. Seems to me that there may be a chance that the latest stable version may be, in one instance or another, too advanced for one package or another on my machine. It also seems to me that Ubuntu would be taking care of safeguarding what we download by providing the suitable packages in the repos. Would you concur?

theadmiral71

yes I would concur,,,,,,,,that is why I suggested NOT adding the PPA

the "autoremove" in apt-get will USUALLY leave you with your newest 2 kernels and in this case did ,,,,,,,,,

the quandary is now ,,,,,,to still have 2 after removing the 4.1.2 one ,,,,you should keep 2 around for a backup if one stops booting .

now the choices as I see it @now are,,,,

1) boot the 3.19.0 kernel and test untill your satisfied that it works ,,,,then remove the 4.1.2 and hope for the best untill you get a new one in a dist-upgrade
2)make grub default to the 3.19.0 kernel and keep the 4.1.2 for backup untill you get a new one
3)"apt search linux-image" and install the the next lowest #kernel you find (under 3.19.0-22 , maby 3.19.0-21 or so) then remove the 4.1.2 one

what would you like to do 1,,,2,,,or3

I think the easiest is 1 maby an extra key stroke or 2 at the grub menu and you could just do that untill you get a new kernel then remove the 4.1.2 even

O @Qqmike I suspect he had other kernels as well that were lower ver.# and that is what got removed

VINNY

[theAdmiral71]

Actually, I think I will keep using kernel version 4.1.2 because I am not expecting any problems with it, although I am not ruling out the possibility that problems will occur because of 4.1.2. In other words, keeping the current version in "test" phase, and my mind open to the possibility that I will have to revert to version 3.19.0 in the future.

===EDIT===
It has been some days now, but my desktop environment crashed and I went back to Debian 8 for need of a computer to help me get some things done. I thought I should mention this because the crash may be attributable to the fact that I upgraded the kernel to 4.1.2 in Kubuntu. This upgrade may have been too advanced for the rest of the system as a whole. I would not recommend upgrading your system to kernel 4.1.2 for at least a few months and not unless due research is given to the effort. If anybody wants/needs to upgrade their kernel I would suggest trying to see if you can meet your needs with v. 3.19.

I might be wrong about this, because I did a search for a fix to the environment crash, and there was material out on the Net about it. But, I would have felt more secure about my system had I just upgraded the kernel to v. 3.19, and I doubt I would have had any trouble with the environment crash had I stuck with that (v. 3.19) instead of upgrading to v. 4.1.2. I suppose I got a little aggressive with the OS, and I had to learn the lesson of technically "taking it easy".