[PLUG] Strange update manager behavior

[Richard C. Steffens]

On 02/16/2013 10:53 AM, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> I ran the update manager.  It did not request a password,

This is the new normal in 12.04. A password is still required to install 
something new, but not to update.

> and it proceeded
> to download over 200M of data.  It hung up about 80% of the way through the
> install process.  I had to shut down to get out of the lock.  On restarting
> I ran the update manager again.  It said that I needed to run a partial
> upgrade as the previous upgrade did not complete.  When I started the
> partial upgrade it seemed like it was going to upgrade, not just an update.
>   (I am running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and do not want to upgrade 'till 3 years
> from now.)  So I canceled it.  Next, I started the update manager again,
> and it said my system was up-to-date.
>
> In the auth log I see COMMAND=/usr/bin/update-manager --dist-upgrade.  I
> did not enter that command.  I cannot decipher other logs.
>
> Any clues as to what happened, what the damage might be, and what needs to
> be changed to prevent a recurrence?

A similar thing happened to me on 10.04 this week. I am stuck in a 
situation where X did not fully load. I dropped into a terminal 
(<CTRL><<ALT><F1>) and logged in. I misread a line that told me I could 
upgrade to 12.04 and told it to go ahead. It started downloading all 
manner of stuff. Took a long time, too. When if finally surfaced again 
it was clearer that it wanted upgrade my 10.04 installation to 12.04, 
and could take a couple of hours or more to do so. I declined, and it 
spent another several minutes undoing itself from whatever it had done 
to get ready for the upgrade.

So, no, I don't have any clues as to what any damage might be. It also 
doesn't make sense for it to be doing an upgrade, unless somehow it was 
trying to take you from 12.04 to 12.10. And, no. I don't know how to 
prevent a recurrence.


-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens