Blank Install Updates Window

[DenW]

Hi Jerry:  I have not touched my Language settings since the original install3.4/update3.6 so my default language is English (US)/English - other options for English Aust/Canada etc are grayed out. It tells me I can install language extras but I used "Remind me later" for now.  My keyboard is set to Asus laptop using English(US) layout.
As an update on my experience with Updates, this morning I unSuspended and waited for CPU/ram to settle down (around 5%/400MB) then launched Install Updates from Menu.  Towards the end of fetching and checking I noticed the CPU was quite busy around 50-60% but ram only 500MB.  Anyway I had the same situation of being offered Blank Updates but unfortunately forgot to check /tmp before I cancelled and tried again.  As previously this produced the desired result of seeing updates offered - I then did check /tmp and saw the updates.txt file there (together with the other updates files).  Update then worked fine as expected.  Cannot think of anything else to offer you as to why this might be happening - the only thing else that I did not shut down was the xfce4-weather-plugin on the panel.  I will check /tmp next time I draw a Blank (if I remember!) and post again here.
I would like to solve this puzzle but as long as the updates arrive OK it is a minor problem - if you get offered Blank updates just hit the Update Now button and all is well - you can check the resulting log file for what was installed if interested.

[Valtam]

Folks, I have been looking into this but first I need those having this issue to try something.

1. Open /usr/scripts folder as Administrator.
2. Right click on updates-gui and select 'Create backup copy'.
3. Right click on updates-gui (not the backup) and select 'Open with Leafpad'.
4. With this part be very careful!

Copy and paste the following replacing all of the existing text:

https://justpaste.it/1d6ct

5. Then run Menu, Favorites, Install Updates at least 5 - 10 times in a row. Cancel updates each time! Do not proceed with updates. This is for testing only.

Please let me know asap if the list now appears each time. It should look like this (very plain looking):



I'm going to leave this here for now and not move it to bugs as we're not getting widespread messages about this.

This has given me some impetus to move Install Updates from Zenity to Yad. Initial tests show Yad to be way more flexible and it's part of our overall plan to move off Zenity and make Yad more dominant.

[DenW]

Hi Jerry:  I did a regular update yesterday and it showed updates in window, so I proceeded without problem.  No more updates are yet available so I must wait until I get another Blank update window before carrying out your requested changes, otherwise any test of your script would not prove that it solves the problem (I just thought that repeating the update process immediately for me has twice resulted in the update window populating correctly at the second attempt anyway so am not sure if using your script a second time would prove anything either).  However when I do change the script as soon as I experience a Blank update window I will leave it like that indefinitely for testing purposes.  Presumably I can safely do actual updates then thru terminal or Synaptic - you suggest we do not use your script for actual updating.
I do not do bash scripting myself but see that generally Yad is considered superior to Zenity - but I leave it to the "experts" to reach the right solution.
Thanks for your consideration in pursuing this puzzle.

[ralphy]

I do not believe there is a problem with the current script from what I've seen. I think that the issue in this case was caused by a temp file not being removed properly or by the inability to write a new file for the HTML output. Generally, a reboot should have solved such issue since /temp clears on reboot.

The created files should have read and write permissions only by the user who's executing the Updates. It was written as such to prevent other users/processes from writing something into the created temp files as updates are executed, so users don't end up executing and installing something other than the listed updates.

The easiest way to see what happens when checking for updates is to open /tmp in Thunar, run Updates and watch it create temp files with the correct permissions for the user, as well as the removal of those files after updates exits out either when updates are installed or canceled before installation.

[Valtam]

I'm experiencing this myself now. The only way I can get it to work each time, is to remove the html from the code.

[ralphy]

That's interesting Jerry. Chances are there is an update that causing the issue perhaps? I have not debug it myself but I'm not experiencing the issue- maybe because I have not installed the latest updates





Worth debugging I guess.

[ralphy]

Well, see if you can debug it on your install since you mentioned that you're also experiencing the issue.

I installed updates (few at a time) up until the latest lite-manual and lite-tweaks which I'm guessing were pushed no more than a couple hours ago, yet I cannot reproduce the issue
I did restart the computer too...

[Valtam]

I was looking through the Zenity deps to see if one of those had contributed to the issue.
Whats strange is that this only affects some. I'd like to resolve this in case it goes global. I can send you my Yad fork of Install Updates if you want to have a play, improve it. Would not hurt to have an alternative sitting in the background, ready to go.

[DenW]

Jerry/Ralphy:  This morning I did regular Install Updates and got another Blank window.  So I carefully did change to script as per Jerry's post, but I find it does not execute properly for me - I get a brief flash of first update window then nothing.  Checking the /tmp file there were a lot of strange files/folders as expected which I deleted.  After generating a new Jerry script I tried again but with the same result.  So I reinstalled the regular updates.gui file and ran Install Updates again while watching the/tmp file as suggested by Ralphy.  Everything worked just fine this time, as experienced before by me on second attempt (as Blank window counts as first attempt) - installed updates and all /tmp updates files were deleted by the program correctly at end of the update process.  I ran another Install Updates and got correct UptoDate response.

In future I will open /tmp in Thunar before I run Install Updates to see what is different about the /tmp files when I get a Blank updates window.

If I can make any other useful contribution please let me know - I am retired so time is not an issue for me.  I have used Linux for some time but am a tinkerer rather than scripter.

[bonnevie]

Thanks for your work on this, Jerry.  Very happy with the results.