[kwlug-disc] ubuntu: why do newer kernel packages sometimes get held back on upgrade?

[unsolicited]

unsolicited wrote, On 07/01/2010 10:29 AM:
> Lori Paniak wrote, On 07/01/2010 10:12 AM:
>> On Thu, 2010-07-01 at 08:51 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>>> (normally, i'd ask this on the ubuntu users mailing list but i'm
>>> getting kind of weirded out by how so many people there don't seem to
>>> understand questions.)
>>>
>>>   when i do a normal apt-get update/upgrade combo, why is it that
>>> three kernel-related packages sometimes get held back?  as i read it,
>>> i can, if i want, run:
>>>
>>>   $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
>>>
>>> to pull them in.  is that the recommended way?  thanks.
>>>
>>> rday
>>>
>>
>> Can you give us some more info about your current distro (9.10, 10.04,
>> 10.10)?  Do you have backports enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list?
>>
>> Often updates will be held back if a dependency is not available (yet).
>> I've seen this in ubuntu pre-release testing installs.  Running aptitude
>> and selecting the packages in question, you can scroll through and look
>> at the dependency list and see what is holding things up.  Usually the
>> situation clears itself up in a day or so when the required package hits
>> the repo.
> 
> Bob, can you post your sources.list?
> 
> Last time I ran into this, debian, the twit had installed one version, 
> added some unstable, installed some downloaded source instead of from 
> repository, and upgraded to testing. And debian had bumped up a version 
> in the meantime. It was a mess.
> 
> Ubuntu is different, non-free, backport, etc., vs stable / testing / 
> unstable, but similar could be part of the problem.
> 
> Things like apt-cache show or apt-cache showpkg may give you a clue. 
> OTOH, aptitude may well show you the same in a more user friendly manner.
> 
> A little more extreme, comment out or take out non-free, etc., long 
> enough to see just which one is causing you grief - either is bringing 
> in a newer version than the others, or, you're already at a higher 
> version than is available in the repository. (The latter is what caused 
> most of the grief, above.)

Oh, and, IRC tends to be very good for help in things like this. My 
guess is that a technically better level of people stand by to lend a 
hand. http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community/chat