Mark All Upgrades in Synaptic on Linux Mint 17

Linerd September 15, 2014 17

I've written before how to restore the Mark All Upgrades button to Synaptic in Linux Mint. Things have changed in the latest version: Linux Mint 17 Qiana. The previous technique no longer works because the Mint team is providing their own version of Synaptic rather than using the package from the Ubuntu repositories. The following will show how to restore the Mark All Upgrades button to Synaptic in Linux Mint 17.

Edit: 16-Sep-2014

It turns out that the Mark All Upgrades button was disappearing from the toolbar after a reboot, even though it remained on the Edit menu. We'll have to use a portion of the old tutorial to prevent that.

Open a terminal window and enter the following:

echo /usr/share/synaptic/gtkbuilder/window_main.ui | sudo tee -a /etc/linuxmint/adjustments/05-synaptic.preserve

This will create a file that prevents Linux Mint from over-writing the Synaptic menu.

End Edit

Downgrade Synaptic

Open the Synaptic Package Manager and search by name to find the synaptic package. At the time of this writing, it's currently at version 0.81.2-4. Highlight synaptic and go to the menu to select Package -> Force Version... In the dialog pop-up, select the version from trusty-updates and then click Force Version.

This will tell Synaptic to downgrade the package. Click the Apply button to downgrade Synaptic. Immediately after applying the downgrade you may notice that the synaptic package is showing that there is an available upgrade. You don't want this upgrade to happen, so make sure the synaptic package is highlighted, then go to the menu and click Package -> Lock Version.

Close the Synaptic Package Manager now and reopen it. You should now see that the Mark All Upgrades button has been restored.

Fixing apt-get and mintUpdate

If you only update your system using Synaptic, the instructions above will have you covered. But if you happen to use apt-get, then it will override the settings in Synaptic and update the synaptic package to the one from the Mint repository as you can see in the following screen shots.

mintUpdate will also show the package, but it won't actually upgrade it. It will be annoying though because the update indicator in the system tray will always show updates available.

You can fix this by setting a hold on the package with apt. Open a terminal window and enter the following command:

sudo apt-mark hold synaptic

You can use any of the following 3 commands to verify the hold status.

sudo apt-mark showhold

dpkg --get-selections synaptic

dpkg -l synaptic

Now you can upgrade with apt-get or mintUpdate without upgrading Synaptic.

So there you have it. You now have Mark All Upgrades in Synaptic and can now do full system updates of Linux Mint 17 Qiana using the Synaptic Package Manager.

17 Comments

Sniper
April 13, 2015 (10:38 PM) #

Nice and solid tut, thanks for it. Works greatly on Mint 17.1 Rebecca. I suspect only (was too lazy to try this out) that latest version 0.81.2-4 is also good to go with this trick. I've compared the source packages (especially the gtk, and debian folders) from mint, ubuntu and debian-sid and found out that they leaved the gtk/gtkbuilder/window_main.ui file untouched (it has the Mark All Upgrades... button). So I don't know really what they've done to remove it and its functionality, since I couldn't found anything in the patches, nor in the rules buildscript, showing that they played dirty somehow with the compiling process. So, I'm curious about how they managed to do that trick...? Has anyone a clue about this?

Reply
- Linerd
  April 13, 2015 (11:18 PM) #
  
  I've been assuming they do something at compile time to remove the button, but I haven't dug into the source to really see. (Honestly, not sure I would understand the source enough to tell anyway.) I'm just glad I was able to restore the button to Synaptic, as this is really the only complaint I have about a fresh Linux Mint installation.
  
  Reply
Wolfman
March 8, 2015 (9:49 AM) #

Thanks for the tut, shame that Mint doesn't just use the normal version of Synaptic as I find the Mint updater annoying and use either the terminal or Synaptic to install my software!. I downloaded a .deb package from http://pkgs.org/ but when I tried to remove Synaptic via the terminal, I was told that it was going to remove most of Mint OS with it!. This is a first try for me with Linux Mint 17 and apart from the episode with Synaptic, I must say that it is a nice looking OS.

Reply
Meneldur
January 27, 2015 (4:40 PM) #

Clear and concise. Worked as a charm.

Reply
Ken Starks
October 27, 2014 (10:51 AM) #

I'm a little late to the game here, but why isn't anyone talking about why this problem exists in the first place? Seems to me that "freedom" is being taken off the table. Maybe the Mint team was tired of helping people fix broken packages. Maybe cows will fly some day...regardless of the reason, it looks like those of us who prefer to work our updates via synaptic are being shown the door. We'll probably be taking our hat off the hook and accept that offer. This smacks of some of the elitist mentality Gnome took toward their users. We know what's best for you.

Reply
JCH2
September 16, 2014 (1:47 PM) #

This was a bad idea. I have a number of addition PPAs for packages beyond the software repository that now will not update / upgrade. Please provide instructions to reverse this process. Attempting to do so through Synaptic has failed.

Reply
- Linerd
  September 16, 2014 (2:04 PM) #
  
  Go into Synaptic, search for the synaptic package, highlight it and go to the menu and select Package -> Unlock Version. Then make sure synaptic is marked for upgrade and apply. You will need to close Synaptic and restart it after that to see the changes.
  
  To remove the apt hold:
  
  sudo apt-mark unhold synaptic
  
  Finally, update your package list, either with a refresh in Synaptic or on the command line with:
  
  sudo apt-get update
  
  At this point, everything should be back to the way it was.
  
  Reply
  - JCH2
    September 16, 2014 (4:36 PM) #
    
    When attempting the first step of applying synaptic upgrade, the following error occures:
    
    E: base-files: unable to install `/etc/lsb-release.dpkg-new' as `/etc/lsb-release': Operation not permitted
    
    Is there something I have overlooked or messed up that needs additional correction?
    
    Reply
    - Linerd
      September 16, 2014 (4:44 PM) #
      
      Not that it should matter, but are you doing the upgrade from within Synaptic or with apt-get? Perhaps try with apt-get. Assuming you have done all the steps from my previous comment, close Synaptic and try:
      
      sudo apt-get update
      sudo apt-get upgrade
      
      If you get prompted about changing a configuration file, choose to install the package maintainer's version.
      
      A change in your lsb-release file may have happened during the Synaptic downgrade and that may be what has broken your PPA's. The other option may be to stay with the downgraded Synaptic and just manually correct your lsb-release entries so that the PPA's will work for you again.
      
      Reply
    - Linerd
      September 16, 2014 (4:58 PM) #
      
      What is the result of
      
      lsb_release -a
      
      Reply
    - Linerd
      September 16, 2014 (5:00 PM) #
      
      May need to unhold the package with apt before the upgrade.
      
      Reply
      - JCH2
        September 16, 2014 (7:28 PM) #
        
        I ran the terminal "update/upgrade" and the following is what was received. I only follow about half of what it says
        
        *** lsb-release (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ? I
        dpkg: warning: base-files: failed to link '/etc/lsb-release' to '/etc/lsb-release.dpkg-old': Operation not permitted
        Installing new version of config file /etc/lsb-release ...
        dpkg: error processing package base-files (--configure):
        unable to install `/etc/lsb-release.dpkg-new' as `/etc/lsb-release': Operation not permitted
        Processing triggers for mintsystem (7.9.3) ...
        [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/etc/lsb-release'
        Processing triggers for plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text (0.8.8-0ubuntu17) ...
        update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
        Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.103ubuntu4.2) ...
        update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic
        Warning: No support for locale: en_US.utf8
        Errors were encountered while processing:
        base-files
        E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
        
        lsb_release -a returns the following
        
        No LSB modules are available.
        Distributor ID: Ubuntu
        Description: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
        Release: 17
        Codename: qiana
        
        I'll check back later and see what you think. I have only been on Linux full time for about 6 months; I'm learning but not up to snuff yet.
      - Linerd
        September 16, 2014 (9:19 PM) #
        
        My lsb_release -a gives:
        
        No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: LinuxMint Description: Linux Mint 17 Qiana Release: 17 Codename: qiana
        
        I'm able to upgrade/downgrade the synaptic package without getting into the lsb-release issue...
        
        I see I have some more updates available on my system, one of them being apt. I wonder if one of the other updates is breaking this for you. I see a message in your listing about generating a boot image. It looks like you are getting a kernel update, which will happen with this method. The Mint team tends to hold back kernel updates for fear that they will break something, (priority 4 & 5 in the update manager.
        Try upgrading just the synaptic package.
        
        sudo apt-get update
        sudo apt-get install synaptic
        
        If you get the question about lsb-release, hit Y to accept the package maintainer's version.
        
        If that all goes through OK, try opening the update manager, refresh packages and see what comes up.
      - JCH2
        September 17, 2014 (6:55 AM) #
        
        Oh yes! Those last instructions appear to have worked... I think.
        
        Linerd, thanks so much for taking so much time to help rescue a relative newbie. It is greatly appreciated.
Albin
September 16, 2014 (9:47 AM) #

Thanks. Beyond the button, the Mint 17 version of Synaptic has crippled the ability to update Firefox (to version 32) and probably other software. After doing this forced downgrade I can get FF32.

(Probably the new Rebecca Mint 17.1 "point release" will include current Firefox, but I want to find out how that works and how well before installing it.)

Reply
- Linerd
  September 16, 2014 (10:40 AM) #
  
  Thanks for you comment. I didn't know about the Firefox issue. I'm glad to know it helped you out with that as well.
  
  Reply
- Henrik
  September 16, 2014 (2:02 PM) #
  
  I am running Mint 17 and Firefox 32 without doing anything that running mintUpdate. And the same goes for my 30+ colleagues also running Mint 17. Nothing wrong with mintUpdate
  
  Reply

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Mark All Upgrades in Synaptic on Linux Mint 17

Edit: 16-Sep-2014

End Edit

Downgrade Synaptic

Fixing apt-get and mintUpdate

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17 Comments

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Edit: 16-Sep-2014

End Edit

Downgrade Synaptic

Fixing apt-get and mintUpdate

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