Ubuntu Wiki

• Launchpad Entry: foundations-lucid-update-manager-debian-improvements

• Created: 2009-11-17

• Contributors: MichaelVogt, SteveLangasek, LoicMinier

• Packages affected: update-manager

Status of new tree versus old tree

• New version is a clean refactoring with Debian/Ubuntu support
• Some Ubuntu-only fixes in the old tree did not make it to the new tree -- need merging
• Upgrades aren't handled by this tool; need to package Ubuntu's do-release-upgrade in a new source package
• Auto upgrade testing not handled by the tool, needs to go into a seperate
  • source tree
• New tree needs lot of QA in Ubuntu, but has been lightly tested
  • We should get a update-manager2 package in universe or in a PPA
• Pretty much complete in terms of frontends

Regressions/Bugs in new tree

• needs to run a user again (not root, backend specific)
• easier backend support (PK, aptdaemon)
• usability fixes, e.g. button naming and error messages

Futuristic stuff

• PackageKit backend

Reasons for the new tree

• Easier to maintain (cleaner)

• More interest / distros => more maintainers / shared maintenance

• Backend/Distro-agnostic, permits new backends such as PackageKit

Work items

Not a replacement for update-manager-1 in lucid; more of a lucid+1 target

1. package update-manager-2 into universe
2. split out release-upgrader from update-manager-1
3. split out auto-ugprade tester from update-manager-1
4. work on backends for update-manager-2 so that it no longer needs root
5. provide meta-release mechanism
6. QA