Public bug reported:
Situation
===============
As more-or-less usual, my attempt to upgrade from 16.04 to 18.04 failed
with "Could not calculate upgrade" error (well, one even more confusing
and less google-able, as translated to my national language). Also, as
usual, I found myself confused, without any pointers what to do next. I
tried a few times, tried googling, to no success.
It took me switching to LANG=C (to see more googlish error messages) and
about 20 minutes of scanning various forums until I found suggestion to
check /var/log/dist-upgrade
There I found some rather cryptic remark about unresolvable cyclic
dependency which may be caused by held packages, which nevertheless
inspired me to look for a way to find held packages.
A few more minutes of googling and I found out about
apt-mark showhold
which nicely listed my few held packages (nvidia-304 and some related, IIRC
results of driver problems I resolved 2 years ago).
I removed those packages and now my upgrade is progressing. But whole
experience was very unpleasant.
Suggested changes (tiny changes but with large impact)
======================================================
1. Whenever do-release-upgrade fails, it should suggest checking out
/var/log/dist-upgrade.
Simply, instead of finishing with
"Could not calculate the upgrade.
Unresolvable error happened."
finish with
"Could not calculate the upgrade.
Unresolvable error happened.
Technical logs of failed upgrade can be found in /var/log/dist-upgrade"
This very sentence would save me at least 2 hours.
2. In case upgrade calculation fails due to held or unofficial packages, either
list problematic
packages, or suggest commands which will list them. For example, my very
case would be resolved
in a minute if installer printed something like:
Note: upgrade calculation could be caused by held packages:
nvidia-304 nvidia-304-dev nvidia-current-updates
(consider removing those packages temporarily to resolve the problem)
or
Note: upgrade calculation could be caused by held packages
(use apt-mark showhold to list such packages on your system, and
consider removing them temporarily to resolve the problem)
** Affects: ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: usability
** Description changed:
Situation
===============
As more-or-less usual, my attempt to upgrade from 16.04 to 18.04 failed
with "Could not calculate upgrade" error (well, one even more confusing
and less google-able, as translated to my national language). Also, as
usual, I found myself confused, without any pointers what to do next. I
- tried a few times, tried
+ tried a few times, tried googling, to no success.
It took me switching to LANG=C (to see more googlish error messages) and
about 20 minutes of scanning various forums until I found suggestion to
check /var/log/dist-upgrade
There I found some rather cryptic remark about unresolvable cyclic
dependency which may be caused by held packages, which nevertheless
inspired me to look for a way to find held packages.
A few more minutes of googling and I found out about
- apt-mark showhold
- which nicely listed my few held packages (nvidia-304 and some related, IIRC
results of driver problems I resolved 2 years ago).
+ apt-mark showhold
+ which nicely listed my few held packages (nvidia-304 and some related, IIRC
results of driver problems I resolved 2 years ago).
I removed those packages and now my upgrade is progressing. But whole
experience was very unpleasant.
-
Suggested changes (tiny changes but with large impact)
======================================================
1. Whenever do-release-upgrade fails, it should suggest checking out
/var/log/dist-upgrade.
- Simply, instead of finishing with
- "Could not calculate the upgrade.
- Unresolvable error happened."
- finish with
- "Could not calculate the upgrade.
- Unresolvable error happened.
- Technical logs of failed upgrade can be found in /var/log/dist-upgrade"
+ Simply, instead of finishing with
+ "Could not calculate the upgrade.
+ Unresolvable error happened."
+ finish with
+ "Could not calculate the upgrade.
+ Unresolvable error happened.
+ Technical logs of failed upgrade can be found in /var/log/dist-upgrade"
- This very sentence would save me at least 2 hours.
+ This very sentence would save me at least 2 hours.
2. In case upgrade calculation fails due to held or unofficial packages,
either list problematic
- packages, or suggest commands which will list them. For example, my very
case would be resolved
- in a minute if installer printed something like:
-
- Note: upgrade calculation could be caused by held packages:
- nvidia-304 nvidia-304-dev nvidia-current-updates
- (consider removing those packages temporarily to resolve the problem)
+ packages, or suggest commands which will list them. For example, my very
case would be resolved
+ in a minute if installer printed something like:
- or
+ Note: upgrade calculation could be caused by held packages:
+ nvidia-304 nvidia-304-dev nvidia-current-updates
+ (consider removing those packages temporarily to resolve the problem)
- Note: upgrade calculation could be caused by held packages
- (use apt-mark showhold to list such packages on your system, and
- consider removing them temporarily to resolve the problem)
+ or
+
+ Note: upgrade calculation could be caused by held packages
+ (use apt-mark showhold to list such packages on your system, and
+ consider removing them temporarily to resolve the problem)
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1771387
Title:
Could not calculate upgrade should suggest log location
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