mintUpdate 1.2 is out!

Post by **clem** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 1:42 pm

mintUpdate 1.2 comes with the following new features:

- multi-language (already supports English and French, to add more languages simply take /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/locale/fr_FR/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po, read the English and replace the French with your own language, then send me the file).

- multi-threaded (GUI is always responsive, looks faster, system tray icon blinks when busy..etc.)

- automatic refreshes (you can configure mintUpdate to check for updates every X minutes).

- columns sorting

- loads of bug fixes

You can get the deb for it here:

http://linuxmint.com/repository/daryna/ ... 2_i386.deb

It should be compatible with Cassandra and Celena.

And as usual, you're more than welcome to give us your comments and feedback on this.

Enjoy mintUpdate and if you haven't already done so, get rid of the Ubuntu Update Manager before it breaks your system or tells you to upgrade to Gutsy...

Clem

sourwire · Post by **sourwire** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 2:40 pm

Um.. I installed it, but can't find it in the applications menu. I also tried "mintupdate" from the terminal, but command's not found.

How exactly do I start mintUpdate?

Post by **clem** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 3:32 pm

It starts itself when you log in Gnome and goes in the system tray. You probably just need to log-out. If you want to start it manually you can open a terminal and type:

Code: Select all

/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/mintUpdate.py

Husse · Post by **Husse** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 4:51 pm

I find the text in "Settings" > "Auto-refresh" self contradictory and/or hard to understand
It says only refreshed in "tray mode" (which is not root mode)- then "These automatic refreshes only start once mintUpdate is in root mode"
And besides - isn't every 60 minutes good enough to be default and no need to have a "slide"?

Post by **clem** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 5:18 pm

The default value for the delay wasn't decided yet (I don't know what it will be in the stable version once in Daryna), but it's definitely something the user might want to configure. People who don't want APT to run in the background will set it to 0, others to 60, others to 20.... it all depends on your preferences.

The text is hard to understand because the internals of mintUpdate are complex. mintUpdate runs with user privileges when you log in Gnome. As soon as you click the systray it asks for your password and then runs in root mode. In root mode it's able to do apt-get update... (that's basically why it needs root permissions).

In order for the auto-refresh not to bother you while you're actually looking at the updates, the auto-refresh only refreshes when you've got mintUpdate minimized.

And because there's nothing new without an apt-get update, and you need root permissions for that.... auto-refresh only starts when in root-mode.

So in brief...

1. you log in... it's in systray in user mode.
2. you click the systray... it asks for your password and opens the GUI in root mode. From there on you're in root mode no matter what you do.
3. you can close the GUI (it minimizes to systray basically) or reopen it from systray.... when the timer for the autorefresh orders a refresh, it checks whether the GUI is open of closed... and if it's open it doesn't do anything.

I hope I was clear. It's hard to summarize all of this in the prefs window...

Clem

sourwire · Post by **sourwire** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 6:08 pm

clem wrote:It starts itself when you log in Gnome and goes in the system tray. You probably just need to log-out. If you want to start it manually you can open a terminal and type:
Code: Select all
/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/mintUpdate.py

Thank you, works like a charm with Xfce too.

Husse · Post by **Husse** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 6:37 pm

Let me see if I get this right

If you just leave it and do nothing after you've booted it won't check - only if you've opened it.
Because of apt-get update...
Well in that case why even bother with auto-refresh as it will just be sitting there untouched in most cases

Seems overkill to me

But I see the problem now....

Caraibes · Post by **Caraibes** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 6:38 pm

Sounds good... I am caressing the idea to wipe that slow openSUSE 10.3 install for Celena, that I enjoyed as a live-cd. But my main concern is the lack of option to upgrade from one release to another, without having to re-install with a cd.

-Would MintUpdate solve that ?

Post by **clem** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 6:41 pm

You can upgrade from one release to another, it's manual but possible.

mintUpdate only does package updates. We might design a tool in the future for release upgrades (mintUpgrade?) but it's not a priority as there's still a lot to do on the desktop and that takes precedence.

Clem

Post by **clem** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 5:27 am

FYI: I had a quick talk with Husse and he pointed out mintUpdate could and should automatically refresh itself in user-mode as well. Although it won't be able to perform apt-get update it should be able to rely on other programs to do so and pick up the latest package list without needing the user to bring mintUpdate in root mode.... in other words prepare for a 1.3 version.

Clem

Caraibes · Post by **Caraibes** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 6:50 am

clem wrote: We might design a tool in the future for release upgrades (mintUpgrade?)

That should be a great idea ! Here's why: if I set up a Mint box to a "regular" user who has no clue about maintaining his system, but is aware enough to know about newer versions of apps & software, I want him to be able to perform an upgrade in a couple of clicks... I think that should fit in within your Mint philosophy.
Of course, the geeks can have a separate /home partition, and re-install from the cd, or follow the guide posted somewhere in the forums to upgrade...
Thank you anyway for your insights !

AlsaPhil · Post by **AlsaPhil** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 7:22 am

good job this mintUpdate 1.2

@ Clem,
just one detail, sorry in French because of translation bug in the French version:

- onglets Préférences > Raffraichissement automatique.
- le texte introductif est tronqué. Je lis "raffraichir les mises Ã jour toutes les".
- impossible de savoir toutes les quoi? minutes, heures, journées.
- c'est un petit détail mais il n'est pas vain de le rectifier.
- Ã vérifier peut-être si dans les autres langues c'est la même chose.

thanks.

Stretch · Post by **Stretch** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 3:24 pm

What is the real difference between mintUpdate and the update-manager? Are the differences mostly cosmetic?

I thought the general idea was to avoid auto-checking for updates in order to keep noob installations stable.

Not criticisms... just curious

EDIT: just read the blog. It's a bit clearer now

Post by **clem** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:26 pm

Most security updates are safe and don't affect the stability of the system. Some are more risky. The difference between update-manager and mintUpdate is that mintUpdate classifies updates in 5 different groups, brings you more information about them and lets you decide what you want to have selected by default and visible. The update-manager basically incites you to click yes without reading anything and to apply all security updates, even those that could potentially break your system.

With mintUpdate you decide to take the risk, with update-manager the risk is not explained. That's the main difference. We all agree with the need for updates, what we want to avoid is uneducated updates.

Also, update-manager notifies of new Ubuntu releases and make users upgrade to them... if you're using Mint this can override a lot of Mint specific settings and in some case break your system. mintUpdate focuses only on packages updates.

Clem

Post by **clem** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 6:34 pm

It should work 100% under Ubuntu and so far (I'm looking at this with Boo on the dev list) it should work fine under KDE as well... so it should be no problem under Kubuntu. The only problem I see would be the absence of the lock icons from the KDE icon theme... which we'll fix in version 1.3.

Clem

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 2:27 am

well it worked with KDE once i put KDE into
/etc/xdg/autostart/mintUpdate.desktop
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;XFCE;KDE;

first observation: proxy...
I am behind a proxy ATM and mintUpdate can not get out.
apt-get is setup for proxy.
I setup the proxy in synaptic, mintUpdate... well I can not tell if it works.
can someone else check this.

edit: I have lock icons.

Post by **clem** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 4:45 am

Boo: It's using wget as well... I'll look into that.

Clem

jbaerbock · Post by **jbaerbock** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:04 pm

When I click on mark upgrades in synaptic it gives me 25MBs worth, so quite a few packages (Gimp etc...) and yet when I refresh mintUpdate manually it finds shows nothing to update. Any ideas why?

Sagasha · Post by **Sagasha** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 1:03 am

OK I got it started in KDE and it shows some 80 updates but when I click "Install" it doesn't do anything?

What I'm I doing wrong?

Thanks

merlwiz79 · Post by **merlwiz79** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 1:16 am

jbaerbock wrote:When I click on mark upgrades in synaptic it gives me 25MBs worth, so quite a few packages (Gimp etc...) and yet when I refresh mintUpdate manually it finds shows nothing to update. Any ideas why?

Ok after digging around I found that the list of updates are saved in 2 places.
The new updates are saved in /home/USERNAME/.linuxmint/mintUpdate/
The old list is in /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/tmp/
For some reason it reads the old list and not the new list.
I also moved the new list to the old list and it just puts back the old list.

Linux Mint Forums

mintUpdate 1.2 is out!

mintUpdate 1.2 is out!

Mintupdate in KDE