Introduction

Update-manager provides two services - the ability to upgrade packages within a release, and the ability to upgrade a release of Ubuntu to the next one. When looking at bug reports it is important to keep this in mind and identify whether it is a problem with a package upgrade or a release upgrade.

How to file

When filing a bug report regarding a problem with a distribution or release upgrade at a minimimum you should add every file in '/var/log/dist-upgrade/', there should be at least 3, as separate attachments. You should also tag your distribution upgrade bug with the release you are moving from and to - for example 'feisty2gutsy'.

Bug Tags

The previously described tags are specific to the [:UpdateManager] application, if you need more general tags please visit [:Bugs/Tags] page.

Debugging Procedures

For a distribution upgrade in '/var/log/dist-upgrade/' there are three log files that are helpful in debugging the issue:

1. 'main.log'
   • contains the version of release upgrade and the lsb-release (version of Ubuntu)
   • contains information on how '/etc/apt/sources.list' was handled and updated
   • contains log information regarding the free space calculation
   • contains an overview of the whole process
   • may contain python back traces
2. 'apt.log'
   • contains a dump of the package problem resolver
   • it is useful when update-manager says it can not upgrade
   • it is also useful for identifying 3rd party repositories that are problematic
   • it usually reveals information about incorrect dependencies
3. 'term.log'
   • is a subset of '/var/log/apt/term.log'
   • errors can be found by looking for the string 'dpkg: error'

How to Triage

Help with triaging bugs for update-manager is very welcome. It accumulated a lot of reports over time. Some are bugs in update-manager, but some are bugs in packages where update-manager is just the messenger. To find out what exactly is the problem, we always need the log files in /var/log/dist-upgrade/*. Most of the time they provide enough information to know what went wrong. If they are missing, it is recommended to ask for them with a phrase like:

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Could you please add the log files from '/var/log/dist-upgrade/' to this bugreport as attachments to your bug report? Thanks in advance.

If the log shows that the problem is a error from dpkg when processing a package, then please reassign the bug to the package that failed during the upgrade. Also add the relevant lines from when the package failed (found in term.log) as a comment to the bug.

How to Forward

Forwarding of update-manager bugs upstream is not necessary as update-manager is only used by Ubuntu and there is not a traditional upstream.

Known bugs

Description of known issues, how to recognise them and stock responses/actions.

Open

Closed

Non-bugs

• When running a development release of Ubuntu you will frequently receive messages when trying to run update-manager that it could not calculate the upgrade. This is expected and happens due to the amount of changes occuring in the repository.
• Occasionally update-manager will indicate that it received a 403 message when trying to retrieve a package. If this message occurs when trying to retrieve a package from archive.ubuntu.com or security.ubuntu.com this can be due to a regression in a package that was available there and was subsequently removed. If this message is received when trying to retrieve a package from a mirror it is probably an issue with that mirror.
• The distribution upgrade will warn the user if there is not enough free space on any parition (e.g. '/boot') on their system. The space must be freed and the upgrade restarted.

Also see

• DebuggingProcedures

CategoryBugSquad CategoryDebugging