[Bug 2008212] Please test proposed package

Thu Mar 9 18:38:51 UTC 2023

Hello FM33, or anyone else affected,

Accepted update-notifier into focal-proposed. The package will build now
and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-
notifier/3.192.30.17 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed
repository.

Please help us by testing this new package.  See
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how
to enable and use -proposed.  Your feedback will aid us getting this
update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug,
mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been
performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-
focal to verification-done-focal. If it does not fix the bug for you,
please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-
failed-focal. In either case, without details of your testing we will
not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification .  Thank you in
advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s)
fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in
-proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

** Changed in: update-notifier (Ubuntu Bionic)
       Status: Confirmed => Fix Committed

** Tags added: verification-needed-bionic

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2008212

Title:
  Update notifier keeps popping up even when there is nothing to do

Status in update-notifier package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in update-notifier source package in Xenial:
  Fix Committed
Status in update-notifier source package in Bionic:
  Fix Committed
Status in update-notifier source package in Focal:
  Fix Committed
Status in update-notifier source package in Jammy:
  Fix Committed

Bug description:
  [ Impact ]

  Update-notifier will trigger unnecessarily on systems where phased
  updates are considered in the Update Manager GUI but not considered in
  apt itself (for LTSs, Focal or earlier). If only the phased updates
  are available to a system, the dialog box will pop up, but it says
  that the system is up to date.

  This happens because a recent SRU unintentionally broke the logic that
  treated this situations in the code. To avoid showing those packages,
  update-notifier needs access to the system apt Cache, but global side-
  effects of the apt + apt_pkg module interaction ended up providing the
  wrong Cache to verify phasing.

  The fix for this is to isolate the esm Cache creation, restoring the
  default apt_pkg configuration after the instance is created,
  guaranteeing that any other Cache calls have access to the system
  data.

  [ Test Plan ]

  Besides testing the bugfix, it is important to test the functionality
  which changed this code in the first place, which was implemented to
  keep visibility to esm updates.

  To reproduce the bug:
  - Start a Focal machine
  - Run `apt update`, verify which packages updates are phased (using apt show, for instance, will show a Phased-Update-Percentage metadata key)
  - If there is no phased update happening, downgrade a package and fake phasing by editing the /var/lib/apt/lists file
  - Install universe packages which have a esm-apps update (ansible is a good candidate)
  - Run `/usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check --human-readable` and see the esm-apps update(s) listed.
  - Run `/usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check -p` and see the phased packages are listed.

  To verify the fix:
  - Install a version which contains this patch
  - Run `/usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check --human-readable` and see the esm-apps update(s) listed.
  - Run `/usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check -p` and see the phased packages are not listed.

  [ Where problems could occur ]

  If the function implemented for the fix has any flaw, then esm-apps
  updates will not show anymore, as they depend on the esm Cache. It is
  important to verify the esm-apps updates are exactly the same after
  the fix is applied, as described in the test plan above.

  Any other call to any apt Cache functionality outside of this specific
  function should use the system defaults, which are restored by erasing
  the configuration and letting apt_pkg initialize it again, assuming
  safety.

  The only known caveat is that the new function should be the only way
  to access the esm-cache; future instances should only be creating
  using the function, and never directly.

  [ Original Description ]

  Dialog "System is up to date" keeps popping up several times per
  session, even when there is no updates available and no reboot is
  required. Started a few weeks ago.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
  Package: update-notifier 3.192.30.16
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.15.0-60.66~20.04.1-generic 5.15.78
  Uname: Linux 5.15.0-60-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.25
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
  CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
  Date: Thu Feb 23 10:09:59 2023
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-10-24 (851 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
  ProcEnviron:
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
   LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: update-notifier
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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