Bug 409120

Summary: Updating through discover does not show errors or changelogs
Product: [Applications] Discover Reporter: David <david.cortes.rivera>
Component: UpdatesAssignee: Dan Leinir Turthra Jensen <leinir>
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME    
Severity: major CC: aleixpol, nate
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 5.14.5   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Debian testing   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description David 2019-06-24 09:07:36 UTC
I'm not entirely sure how to reproduce it, but oftentimes Discover will fail without any error hints or messages while doing software upgrades.

I have a suspicion this happens in Debian when the upgrade would show a readme with changes or options (which are configured to show when the upgrade changes some behavior in the software in important ways).

After canceling the update (through the button "cancel" in Discover), the packages no longer show in the list of software to be updated however, so I guess it ends up succeeding, although I'm wondering what would happen when the update message requires the user to make a choice (such as choosing the login screen backend).
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2021-04-07 16:44:46 UTC
Does the same thing happen if, instead of Discover, you do `pkcon update` on the command line? If so, then this is a bug in the aptcc packagekit plugin (which Discover uses) rather than in Discover itself. It would be similar to this bug in the openSUSE zypp PackageKit plugin: https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1163737
Comment 2 David 2021-04-07 16:48:05 UTC
Sorry, I don't have any way to test it because I wouldn't know when an update will prompt me, and I reeeally don't want to use discover for any serious updates of the kind that would prompt me about something like changelogs or replacing a configuration file.

I also think a better alternative would be to use aptitude and show all the choices and changelogs to the user just in case.
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2021-04-07 16:54:47 UTC
I'm not asking you to use Discover, but rather `pkcon`. If you're not comfortable using that, then you shouldn't use Discover either, since it uses PackageKit.

> I also think a better alternative would be to use aptitude and show all the
> choices and changelogs to the user just in case.
Sure, go ahead, if that's what you would prefer. However in Discover-land, we need to work with the sources of information we have available, which currently come from PackageKit, which gets it from the aptcc plugin. As you can see, by being distro-neutral, we expose ourselves to the situation where features that work when using the native package manager don't work when using PackageKit (and hence Discover).

It would be theoretically possible for someone who write a dedicated Apt backend to Discover that doesn't go through PackageKit, which might offer a superior user experience by bypassing all these PackageKit issues. However this would be a ton of work, and would require that whoever did it to basically re-implement half of PackageKit but in a way that only worked for one distro family. So far nobody has stepped up to do that because it's so much easier to just use PackageKit.

Ultimately, distros that want to offer a better user experience need to step up and do the work to better-integrate their package management systems with standard GUI software updater apps.
Comment 4 Bug Janitor Service 2021-04-22 04:33:15 UTC
Dear Bug Submitter,

This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
15 days. Please provide the requested information as soon as
possible and set the bug status as REPORTED. Due to regular bug
tracker maintenance, if the bug is still in NEEDSINFO status with
no change in 30 days the bug will be closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

If you have already provided the requested information, please
mark the bug as REPORTED so that the KDE team knows that the bug is
ready to be confirmed.

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!
Comment 5 Bug Janitor Service 2021-05-07 04:33:34 UTC
This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
30 days. The bug is now closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!