Score:0

apt-get holds back upgrading from 20.04.1 to 20.04.2

in flag

On a Ubuntu server

sudo apt-get upgrade holds some packages (7) back from upgrading, so the system remains a 20.04.1.

With sudo apt upgrade all packages are installed and the system is now a 20.04.2.

Could you explain this behaior to me?

One problem is that with 20.04.2 I loose the abillity to scroll-up/down in the tty, which was different on the older kernel.

So the second question is how to get tty scrolling back (Shift PageUp/Down) within 20.04.2?

Thx a lot for any helpful advise!

Score:2
in flag

The issue is a subtle one. sudo apt-get upgrade and sudo apt upgrade differ slightly in semantics. The plain 'apt' is designed to be human-friendly, and so it takes some actions not explicitly instructed to it: the notable one here is that it will install new packages. apt-get upgrade doesn't: it will only upgrade packages that are already installed. The equivalent for scripts would be apt-get safe-upgrade.

In other words, packages that are held back by sudo apt-get upgrade but not by sudo apt upgrade probably added new dependencies, which must be installed.

As for the scrollback problem, user535733 is incorrect: it is a kernel change. More details can be found in this LWN article's comment section: in short, the ability to scroll back in a console is a mess for the kernel, and it was removed due to a perceived lack of need. Without interested maintainers, kernel features tend to be removed: if you need it, I would suggest tweaking the login shell to one that supports scrollback, or else being willing to commit time and/or money to reintroducing the feature.

user535733 avatar
cn flag
Good spot on the scrollback. The comment you refer to has been removed.
Calum McConnell avatar
in flag
user535733: I only spotted it because I was pissed when I was no longer able to use it.
onemorequestion avatar
in flag
Staying with the 20.04.1 kernel version is another option if this feature is needed with all the drawbacks of older kernels. Do you use a login shell which can scrollback? Which? I tried tmux and screen the first time. But they have other problems. Normal history scrollback is not able out of the box. THX.
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