Ubuntu

Update problems | Packages have been kept back

Asked by coffeepixel

After I upgraded to 22.04, every (sudo apt) update I do through the terminal returns that some packages were kept back.

Why is this happening?

The last update returned the following:

The following packages have been kept back:
  fonts-opensymbol libreoffice-base-core libreoffice-calc libreoffice-common libreoffice-core libreoffice-draw libreoffice-gnome
  libreoffice-gtk3 libreoffice-help-common libreoffice-help-en-gb libreoffice-help-en-us libreoffice-help-pt libreoffice-help-pt-br
  libreoffice-impress libreoffice-l10n-en-gb libreoffice-l10n-en-za libreoffice-l10n-pt libreoffice-l10n-pt-br libreoffice-math
  libreoffice-ogltrans libreoffice-pdfimport libreoffice-style-breeze libreoffice-style-colibre libreoffice-style-elementary
  libreoffice-style-yaru libreoffice-writer libuno-cppu3 libuno-cppuhelpergcc3-3 libuno-purpenvhelpergcc3-3 libuno-sal3
  libuno-salhelpergcc3-3 python3-uno uno-libs-private ure
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 34 not upgraded.

Do I really have to keep manually installing all the packages that are kept back?

It seems to have no end.

This never happened before upgrading to 22.04

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Manfred Hampl
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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#1

For diagnostic purposes please provide the output of the following commands

uname -a
lsb_release -crid
apt policy libreoffice-core

What you see probably is the result of "phased updates", see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PhasedUpdates
Just be patient. You will most probably get the update within the coming few days.

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

Packages can be held back if the package versions they depend on are not yet available. When the deps are met then the packages will install as expected.

Revision history for this message
coffeepixel (coffeepixel) said : 		#3

The output:

➜ ~ uname -a
Linux 635674554 5.15.0-48-generic #54-Ubuntu SMP Fri Aug 26 13:26:29 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

➜ ~ lsb_release -crid
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
Release: 22.04
Codename: jammy

➜ ~ apt policy libreoffice-core
libreoffice-core:
  Installed: 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1
  Candidate: 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 500 (phased 50%)
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:7.3.2-0ubuntu2 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages

_________

And today I had this output:

➜ ~ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease [114 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease [99,8 kB]
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease [110 kB]
Fetched 324 kB in 2s (166 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
11 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

➜ ~ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  evolution-data-server evolution-data-server-common libcamel-1.2-63 libebackend-1.2-10 libebook-1.2-20 libebook-contacts-1.2-3 libecal-2.0-1
  libedata-book-1.2-26 libedata-cal-2.0-1 libedataserver-1.2-26 libedataserverui-1.2-3
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 11 not upgraded.

Revision history for this message
Best Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#4

"apt policy libreoffice-core
libreoffice-core:
...
 *** 1:7.3.6-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 500 (phased 50%)"

That is what I meant.
Nowadays (full roll-out started after Ubuntu focal) package updates are not made available to everybody at the same time, but in a staggered mode.

Immediately after publishing a package update, only 10% of the systems running Ubuntu are offered the package (selection is based on a number calculated locally, among others taking into account the contents of /etc/machine-id).
If there are no error reports, then after 6 hours the next batch of 10% is eligible for the new update and so on. After 2 days and 6 hours all systems are offered the update.

Apparently you already have installed the update for the libreoffice packages, but it seems that now the same story is valid for evolution-data-server and its related binary packages (check with "apt policy evolution-data-server").
The page https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/phased-updates.html does not yet show this, but that page is updated only every few hours.

Remark: There is an option for apt to force installation of the update, even if your system is not yet in the group that is already selected for the update ("sudo apt -o APT::Get::Always-Include-Phased-Updates=true upgrade") but it is recommended not to use that unless really necessary.

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#5

Update:
https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/phased-updates.html
has been updated and shows evolution at 20% now.

Revision history for this message
coffeepixel (coffeepixel) said : 		#6

Thanks Manfred Hampl, that solved my question.

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Kiril Isakov (kirisakow) said : 		#7

I am running `sudo apt upgrade -y ; sudo apt full-upgrade -y ; sudo apt autoremove -y ; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y` and even all this is not enough to resolve the issue. Related: https://askubuntu.com/questions/216371/apt-get-dist-upgrade-doesnt-fix-the-following-packages-have-been-kept-back

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#8

@Kiril Isakov:
Don't piggyback on somebody else's question that has already been marked as "solved", but create a question document of your own.