Update works but no logs - Desktop Widget reports 'never updated'

[Peejay]

For a while I've noticed that the Desktop Widget on a Core2Duo laptop of mine (now running 64bit 3.8 ) has been showing 'never updated' for the update status even though I've performed several updates, including the upgrade to 3.8 (but the problem precedes that).
I saw that the updates script for the widget looks for update dates in the history.log in /var/log/apt/ so had a look at that.
I found that no log existed for updates after 24 November 2017 and that the last entry for that date showed an Update Start Date but not an Update End Date.
No later update has been logged here, but is in LLUpdates.log

So I then did another update to see what happened. It went through the usual prompts without any problem but once it started the package downloads it just disappeared from view altogether - no window, no status icon - but apt processes were clearly active in the Task Manager. When update was completed the LLUpdates.log appeared and seemed to be all in order.

However, history.log remained unchanged and the Desktop Widget still reports 'never updated'.

I'd be grateful for any pointers on how to fix this, which looks to be more of an apt issue rather than anything to do with the widget.

Thank you

[trinidad]

Reboot after updates finish whether a kernel changes or not. I'll switch systems and post the right ~/.*rc file for you so you can check it.

TC

[trinidad]

Here you go: ~/username/.conky/widget

# Linux Lite Conky Widget
# Licence - GPLv2 Sharing is Caring
# Jerry Bezencon - Linux Lite 2016

# Gap between borders of screen and text
# Same thing as passing -x at command line
gap_x 25
gap_y 65

# Use Xft?
use_xft yes

# Xft font when Xft is enabled
#xftfont Bitstream Vera Sans Monoize=8
xftfont Terminusize=10

# Text alpha when using Xft
xftalpha 0.8

# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 1.0

# This is the number of times Conky will update before quitting.
# Set to zero to run forever.
total_run_times 0

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
#own_window_colour grey
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_argb_value 255
own_window_type normal
own_window_class conky-semi
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager

# Use a background image
background yes

# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes

# Minimum size of text area
minimum_size 300 200

# Maximum width of widget
maximum_width 250

# Draw shades?
draw_shades yes

# Draw outlines?
draw_outline no

# Draw borders around text
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders yes

# Stippled borders?
#stippled_borders 8

# border margins
#border_margin 4

# border width
#border_width 1

# Default colors and also border colors
default_color white
color2 9fee62 # System is up to date
color3 ff4343 # Red - Final reminder to install Updates
color4 eaE11c # Yellow - Reminder to install Updates

default_shade_color black
default_outline_color white

# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
alignment bottom_right

# Subtract file system buffers from used memory?
no_buffers yes

# Set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase no

# Number of cpu samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
cpu_avg_samples 2

# Number of net samples to average
# Set to 1 to disable averaging
#net_avg_samples 2

# Force UTF8? note that UTF8 support required XFT
override_utf8_locale yes

# Width and thickness of ${hr 2} bar separator
default_bar_size 150 5

# Lua rounded corners requirements
lua_load ~/.conky/draw_bg.lua
lua_draw_hook_pre draw_bg
imlib_cache_size 0

# Distance of text from edge of widget
border_outer_margin 10

TEXT
${image ~/.conky/logo.png -p 0,90}
###INFO###
${alignc}${font AvantGardeLTMedium:boldize=15}${color Tan1}${exec cat /etc/llver}${font}
${color}
${alignc}${color}${time %A, }${time %e %B %Y}
${color}
${color slate grey}${hr 2}

###SYSTEM###
${alignc}${font AvantGardeLTMedium:boldize=10}${color Tan1}System Information${font}
${color}
${color}CPU Usage: ${alignr}$cpu%
${color}Memory Total: ${color}${alignr}${memmax}
${color}Memory Used: ${color}${alignr}${mem}
${color}Logged in as: ${alignr}${color}$USER
${color}
${color slate grey}${hr 2}

###UPDATES###
${alignc}${font AvantGardeLTMedium:boldize=10}${color Tan1}Updates Status${font}
${color}
${alignc}${execpi 300 ~/.conky/updates}

If you've done any modifications to this and know your way around conky be advised that there are subtle syntax differences between Debian and LL in this file. You cannot necessarily paste .conkyrcs from other distros.

TC

[Peejay]

Thank you, Trinidad.
I can confirm that the file is as the original. I haven't amended it at all and it has not been corrupted in any way.
I see that at the end of the widget file it makes a call to ~/.conky/updates and in turn that checks on the hisory.log in /var/log/apt/

The last entry in my history.log is for 24 November 2017, with no end date entry.

But Updates are happening and always produce a LLUpdates.log.

After 24 November 2017 I have LLUpdates.log files for
24/12/2017
26/12/2017
04/01/2018
09/01/2018
22/01/2018
06/02/2018
12/02/2018

In this sequence is the upgrade to 3.8, but it doesn't show in the history.log for apt.

The only other thing I've noticed is that when it's happening the update process disappears totally from the desktop. There is no Gui, no terminal output, no icon in the status bar, but apt processes do show up in Task Manager and I can tell updates are happening from the disk activity. I should say that the disk is a SSD but this was a new installation on to it, not cloned from the old disk.

Thank you for your help so far, much appreciated. I hope this extra information helps give the context  better but of course if you need something different I'll be happy to generate/supply it for you.

[firenice03]

May want to try..
Menu > System > Lite Tweaks
Click the checkbox next to Package Repair.. Then run - enter password if prompted.. Rerun updates..


If I recall I had a similar awhile back and I believe this corrected...

[Peejay]

Thank you for that suggestion, firenice03, I'd forgotten that tweak was available.
Unfortunately it's not made any difference to the history.log or to the Desktop Widget. I also cleaned out the older kernel files recommended for autoremove and the package cache, to no effect.

It's irritating and a bit worrying rather than an operational problem but I would like to resolve it if possible. So I have two further queries:
1. could it be related to the fact that the update process now becomes invisible apart from the disk activity light once it's downloaded the package updates and until it produces the llupdates.log for inspection - or is this an intended change in behaviour?
2. would it be worth deleting the history.log or is this likely to cause further problems?

Thanks very much for the help already given and I'm hoping for further inspiration!

Kind regards

[firenice03]

Looks like back in January you had update issues with owncloud.. Did that get resolved?
Wonder if something may be keeping updates from completing..


Try in terminal

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Enter password when prompted..
Any errors?


If none, try logging out then back in.. Does widget update?

[Peejay]

Thank you firenice03. I ran the terminal command you gave and it went through the whole routine with no errors but when I logged back in the widget display was still the same. I also did a cold reboot but with the same result.

The history.log was unchanged, still showing the last entry as 24 November 2017, and an incomplete one.

I have copied the last entry just to show you what I mean. It just looks as though it has never completed properly and that log-writing for apt has been prevented ever since. The actual update process continues to work fine, though, as your latest test demonstrates.

You are correct that I had a problem with an owncloud client but Jerry's suggestion seemed to deal with that completely. Whether this problem is a relic of the original installation I can't be clear, but perhaps it could be. I'll see what else I can find out about the owncloud client problems but meantime here is the history.log portion for 2017-11-24

Start-Date: 2017-11-24  13:04:23
Commandline: apt-get dist-upgrade -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confdef -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold -y
Requested-By: philip (1000)
Install: linux-image-4.4.0-102-generic:amd64 (4.4.0-102.125, automatic), linux-headers-4.4.0-102:amd64 (4.4.0-102.125, automatic), libllvm5.0:amd64 (1:5.0-3~16.04.1, automatic), libllvm5.0:i386 (1:5.0-3~16.04.1, automatic), linux-image-extra-4.4.0-102-generic:amd64 (4.4.0-102.125, automatic), linux-headers-4.4.0-102-generic:amd64 (4.4.0-102.125, automatic)
Upgrade: libgles2-mesa:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), linux-headers-generic:amd64 (4.4.0.101.106, 4.4.0.102.107), linux-libc-dev:amd64 (4.4.0-101.124, 4.4.0-102.125), libraw15:amd64 (0.17.1-1, 0.17.1-1ubuntu0.1), linux-image-generic:amd64 (4.4.0.101.106, 4.4.0.102.107), libglapi-mesa:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libglapi-mesa:i386 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), python-tk:amd64 (2.7.11-2, 2.7.12-1~16.04), libxatracker2:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libegl1-mesa:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), boot-sav:amd64 (4ppa64, 4ppa65), python:amd64 (2.7.11-1, 2.7.12-1~16.04), python-gdbm:amd64 (2.7.11-2, 2.7.12-1~16.04), libgbm1:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libpython-stdlib:amd64 (2.7.11-1, 2.7.12-1~16.04), boot-sav-extra:amd64 (4ppa64, 4ppa65), chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra:amd64 (62.0.3202.89-0ubuntu0.16.04.1315, 62.0.3202.94-0ubuntu0.16.04.1317), libwayland-egl1-mesa:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libdb5.3:amd64 (5.3.28-11, 5.3.28-11ubuntu0.1), libdb5.3:i386 (5.3.28-11, 5.3.28-11ubuntu0.1), libosmesa6:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libosmesa6:i386 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libgl1-mesa-glx:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), mesa-vdpau-drivers:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), linux-generic:amd64 (4.4.0.101.106, 4.4.0.102.107), python-minimal:amd64 (2.7.11-1, 2.7.12-1~16.04), boot-repair:amd64 (4ppa64, 4ppa65)

[Valtam]

What is the output of each of these commands:

Code:

ls -la ~/.conky

Code:

ls -la /var/log/apt

Code:

ls -la /var/log

[Peejay]

Thank you, Jerry. Here are the 3 outputs you requested:

Code:

philip@silver-laptop:~$ ls -la ~/.conky
total 36
drwxr-xr-x  2 philip philip  4096 Feb 13 17:38 .
drwxr-xr-x 34 philip philip  4096 Feb 18 20:10 ..
-rwxr-xr-x  1 philip philip  1492 Aug 23 17:32 draw_bg.lua
-rwxr-xr-x  1 philip philip 10562 Aug 23 17:32 logo.png
-rwxr-xr-x  1 philip philip    40 Aug 23 17:32 start
-rwxr-xr-x  1 philip philip  3213 Aug 23 17:32 updates
-rw-rw-r--  1 philip philip  2965 Feb 12 23:14 widget
philip@silver-laptop:~$


philip@silver-laptop:~$ ls -la /var/log/apt
total 424
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root     4096 Dec 28 16:52 .
drwxrwxr-x 14 root syslog   4096 Feb 18 20:10 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    47752 Feb 16 00:40 history.log
-rw-r-----  1 root adm    364947 Feb 16 00:40 term.log
philip@silver-laptop:~$


philip@silver-laptop:~$ ls -la /var/log
total 14316
drwxrwxr-x 14 root   syslog      4096 Feb 18 20:10 .
drwxr-xr-x 11 root   root        4096 Feb  6 19:26 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root        8653 Feb 16 00:28 alternatives.log
drwxr-xr-x  2 root   root        4096 Dec 28 16:52 apt
-rw-r-----  1 syslog adm       362476 Feb 18 20:12 auth.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 boot
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root          97 Feb 18 20:10 boot.log
drwxr-xr-x  4 root   root        4096 Sep  7 20:23 boot-sav
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 bootstrap.log
-rw-------  1 root   utmp        4224 Feb 12 22:49 btmp
drwxr-xr-x  2 root   root        4096 Dec 28 16:52 ConsoleKit
drwxr-xr-x  2 root   lpadmin     4096 Jan  4 12:13 cups
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 daemon.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 debug
drwxr-xr-x  2 root   root        4096 Apr 26  2016 dist-upgrade
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 dmesg
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root      716625 Feb 16 00:41 dpkg.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root       32096 Dec 29 21:01 faillog
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root        3154 Aug 23 19:33 fontconfig.log
drwxr-xr-x  2 root   root        4096 Mar 29  2017 fsck
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root        2107 Feb 18 20:10 gpu-manager.log
drwxr-xr-x  3 root   root        4096 Apr 30  2016 hp
drwxr-xr-x  2 root   root        4096 Dec 28 16:52 installer
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 kern.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root      292876 Dec 29 21:01 lastlog
drwxr-xr-x  2 root   root        4096 Dec 28 16:52 lightdm
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root        1000 Feb 12 22:31 lite-software.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root       22836 Feb 16 00:31 llupdates.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 lpr.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 mail.err
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 mail.info
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 mail.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 mail.warn
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 messages
drwxr-xr-x  2 ntp    ntp         4096 Apr  8  2016 ntpstats
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root        2038 Nov 28 01:13 pm-powersave.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root        7388 Nov 28 01:13 pm-suspend.log
drwxr-x---  3 root   adm         4096 Dec 28 16:52 samba
-rw-r-----  1 syslog adm     12164177 Feb 18 20:15 syslog
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root        7562 Feb 18 20:11 trim.log
-rw-r-----  1 syslog adm      1003763 Feb 18 20:15 ufw.log
drwxr-xr-x  2 root   root        4096 Feb 29  2016 upstart
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root           0 Mar 29  2017 user.log
-rw-rw-r--  1 root   utmp      149760 Feb 18 20:11 wtmp
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root       18567 Feb 18 20:10 Xorg.0.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root       19121 Feb 18 18:11 Xorg.0.log.old
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root       19602 Nov  8 11:52 Xorg.1.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root       19604 Nov  8 09:50 Xorg.1.log.old
philip@silver-laptop:~$

Hope this helps, and thank you for your attention.