Ubuntu

Where is: "dapper-updates" software channel?

Asked by John F. Morse

Attempting to upgrade a fully-updated spare Ubuntu 6.06 box to 8.04.

References to "Make sure the "dapper-updates" software channel is enabled" are found on several pages, such as:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading#head-e48a0e69b52e605383bbfc727322f8d0ce0f7d99-2

I remember a long time ago, around 10/2006, there was an offer to upgrade this version to 6.10, but I didn't want this particular 6.06 LTS install upgraded.

I have looked in System > Administration > Software Properties which opens a window titled "Software Preferences" and I have clicked the Add button, and selected "Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates" checked the Universe and the Multiverse boxes, then clicked the Add button. When closing the window, I am informed "The channel information is out-of-date" so I click the Reload button. I have also preformed this same sequence within Synaptic. Neither seemed to add any new repository.

Retiurning to Update Manager and clicking Check button, does not provide the offer to upgrade to 8.04.

Here is the sources.list from the 6.06 LTS computer:

deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-updates main restricted

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'universe'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security
## team.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe main restricted multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe

Is there a missing source URL?

Did my previous rejection perminently break a future upgrade to the next LTS?

Would "apt-get dist-upgrade" work, and if this is the route, then what is the repository URL(s)?

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Albert Damen (albrt) said : 		#1

The sources.list above looks correct. It does contain the right lines for dapper-updates.
How did you start the update-manager? To get the LTS upgrade, you need to start update-manager from the command line. Starting it from the menu will not give you the LTS upgrade option.

To start update-manager for the LTS upgrade you can press Alt-F2 and type gksu "update-manager -d".

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John F. Morse (logia) said : 		#2

I tried that yesterday (<Alt><F2> and also runnung it from gterm. All it appeared to do was to run the Update Manager, which did not provide the 8.04 option. I didn't try it from a TTY console though, thinking the graphical upgrade available announcement wouldn't be possible.

I tried it again today with the same undesired result. Then, just for curiosity, I typed it in exactly as you provided -- with the quotes. Voila! (Big red spot on my forehead from a slap!)

Since quotes are often used to represent or show a command inside of enclosing text, I had simply ignored them. They generally cause confusion when a new user is provided with some CLI command.

May I suggest the instructions on the referenced Web page(s) include a short warning to use the quotes? The page does show the quotes, but habit leads one to not use them due to confusion.

Then there is the sentence-ending period outside of a quote. This is correct for British English, but not for American English, where periods and commas always go inside the closing quote. Since the Internet is global, some caveat should be included to use the quotes in this command.

I always try to rearrange a sentence to eliminate any ambiguity or punctuation differences, usually by adding something after the command so the ending period isn't taken as part of a command. The above would then become:

"... press Alt-F2 and type gksu "update-manager -d" (be sure to use the quotes as shown).

Even better is to put each command on a line by itself. THat should eliminate all confusion.

Furthermore, I see the gksu(1) man page is rather cryptic, hiding this required info in a note at the bottom:

    gksu [ options ] <command>
    ...
    Note that <command> and all its arguments should be passed as
    one single argument to gksu just like one would to when using su.

The upgrade is downloading now, slowly, since it appears there is still a big-time traffic jam upstream. ;-)

Thanks for your help Albert, and have a great day.