[SOLVED] No update notification in Fedora 16

[byron]

Hi!

I have installed Fedora 16 GNOME in December and I'm quiet happy with it, works fine and fast. The only thing that bothers me is the complete lack of any update notifications. I'm very busy and sometimes I forget to start yumex to update my packages (today I did it and there were 150 mb of delta-rpms waiting).

I thought it is a PackageKit issue (I hate PackageKit since my experience with openSUSE), that is why I got rid of all packages I could (including gnome-packagekit), without removing dependancies. The installation and configuration of yum-updatesd does not result in any positive change.

After I thoroughly searched the web for solutions I post my problem here.

Thank you in advance!

[PabloTwo]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

I don't particularly care for automatic update checking myself, but...

Have you checked that your yum-updatesd.service is enabled and running?

su
systemctl status yum-updatesd.service

And have you checked your /etc/yum/yum-updatesd.conf file to see if it's configured to be active there?

[byron]

Thank you for your reply!

The service is active. As for the conf file - I think that should be ok:

[main]
# how often to check for new updates (in seconds)
run_interval = 86400
# how often to allow checking on request (in seconds)
updaterefresh = 600

# how to send notifications (valid: dbus, email, syslog)
emit_via = dbus
# should we listen via dbus to give out update information/check for
# new updates
dbus_listener = yes

# automatically install updates
do_update = no
# automatically download updates
do_download = no
# automatically download deps of updates
do_download_deps = no

[PabloTwo]

Well, sorry. Maybe it's just another "Gnome 3" issue, or possibly something not going right with dbus.
Perhaps someone with similar experience to yours can shed more light on this for you.

[byron]

I'm really frustrated, because, in my experience with PackageKit under openSUSE for 2 years I haven't seen update notification as well, so I thought in Fedora it would work better. And this yum-updatesd not-working is enigma...

[cazo]

I do have PackageKit, and do get update notifications (just got this one a few minutes ago):

I have "Software Update Preferences" (part of gnome-packagekit) set to "Check for updates: Daily" & "Automatically install: Nothing".

I had the same settings in Fedora 15, and don't recall getting the notifications, so I added 'Software Update' (aka 'gpk-update-viewer' to the dash as a 'favorite'). This notification was one of the reasons I switched to Fedora 16 (new install) after seeing it (I had tried Fedora 16 out in a VirtualBox install).

[mschwendt]

There's been some good info in the following (old) thread, albeit also some misinformation that has been corrected: http://lists.fedoraproject.org/piper...ad.html#100383

It's necessary to read most/all of it (especially this -> http://lists.fedoraproject.org/piper...ay/100468.html ) and e.g. to do some exercizes with the gsettings tool while not running Yum/Yumex manually. You can also play with the settings and turn on updates at login or very frequent updates as a check.

[byron]

Thank you all!

I continue not seeing the problem, but I'll give PackageKit once again a shot. So I installed it, set to check daily and install nothing automatically. And in dconf I found the option to force the update check after login. Hopefully this time it will work. Maybe in the next few days I will know is it works and report.

Good evening!

[byron]

PackageKit still does not notify me for the updates. I do not have a clue what is wrong. Any ideas?

[cazo]

Was this a new install, or an upgrade?

Here's a list of all PackageKit rpms I have installed

PackageKit-0.6.21-2.fc16.x86_64.rpm
PackageKit-command-not-found-0.6.21-2.fc16.x86_64.rpm
PackageKit-device-rebind-0.6.21-2.fc16.x86_64.rpm
PackageKit-glib-0.6.21-2.fc16.x86_64.rpm
PackageKit-gstreamer-plugin-0.6.21-2.fc16.x86_64.rpm
PackageKit-gtk-module-0.6.21-2.fc16.x86_64.rpm
PackageKit-gtk3-module-0.6.21-2.fc16.x86_64.rpm
PackageKit-yum-0.6.21-2.fc16.x86_64.rpm
PackageKit-yum-plugin-0.6.21-2.fc16.x86_64.rpm
gnome-packagekit-3.2.1-1.fc16.x86_64.rpm

And attached is the output of

gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates

for you to compare. It's from a 'new install' in VirtualBox (from a few months ago), and it just got an update notification (like the one I posted earlier).

I'm not sure if it will help, but I hope we can get it figured out.

[byron]

Hello cazo!

Thanks for your message. It was fresh install in December. I have the same packages without command-not-found. Also I have packagekit-cron and -browser-plugin.

My gsettings output:

org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates active true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates auto-download-updates false
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates auto-update-type 'none'
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates banned-firmware '*/intel-ucode/*'
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates connection-use-mobile false
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates connection-use-wifi true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates enable-check-firmware true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates force-get-updates-login true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates frequency-get-updates 86400
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates frequency-get-upgrades 604800
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates frequency-refresh-cache 86400
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates frequency-updates-notification 604800
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates ignored-devices ''
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates install-root '/'
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates last-updates-notification uint64 1324167284
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates media-repo-filenames 'media.repo,.discinfo'
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates notify-distro-upgrades true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates notify-update-complete false
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates notify-update-complete-restart true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates notify-update-not-battery false
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates notify-update-started true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates priority 300
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates session-startup-timeout 360
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates update-battery false


As problematic I interpret only the setting last-updates-notification. Maybe changing this value would make the difference? Do you think so?


[EDIT] I try the following: installed PackageKit packages:

PackageKit.i686 0.6.21-2.fc16 @updates
PackageKit-browser-plugin.i686 0.6.21-2.fc16 @updates
PackageKit-command-not-found.i686 0.6.21-2.fc16 @updates
PackageKit-cron.i686 0.6.21-2.fc16 @updates
PackageKit-device-rebind.i686 0.6.21-2.fc16 @updates
PackageKit-glib.i686 0.6.21-2.fc16 @updates
PackageKit-gstreamer-plugin.i686 0.6.21-2.fc16 @updates
PackageKit-gtk-module.i686 0.6.21-2.fc16 @updates
PackageKit-gtk3-module.i686 0.6.21-2.fc16 @updates
PackageKit-yum.i686 0.6.21-2.fc16 @updates
PackageKit-yum-plugin.i686 0.6.21-2.fc16 @updates
gnome-packagekit.i686 3.2.1-1.fc16 @fedora

and gsettings output:

org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates active true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates auto-download-updates false
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates auto-update-type 'none'
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates banned-firmware '*/intel-ucode/*'
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates connection-use-mobile false
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates connection-use-wifi true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates enable-check-firmware true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates force-get-updates-login true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates frequency-get-updates 86400
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates frequency-get-upgrades 604800
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates frequency-refresh-cache 86400
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates frequency-updates-notification 86400
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates ignored-devices ''
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates install-root '/'
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates last-updates-notification uint64 0
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates media-repo-filenames 'media.repo,.discinfo'
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates notify-distro-upgrades true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates notify-update-complete false
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates notify-update-complete-restart true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates notify-update-not-battery false
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates notify-update-started true
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates priority 300
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates session-startup-timeout 360
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates update-battery false


Do you think that would do the job?

[cazo]

Those setting look ok (as far as I can tell), so they should work.

frequency-get-updates is 'How often to check for updates', so it could probably be set to something like 3600 (every hour) - at least while your testing. Right now, your's is set for every 24 hours.

frequency-updates-notification is 'How often to notify the user that non-critical updates are available' . You might want to temporarily set that one low too.

I forgot to ask: Which desktop are you using Gnome (regular 'shell' or 'fall-back') or KDE (I haven't used KDE in years, so probably can't help much), or something else? Regardless, do you know if 'gnome-settings-daemon' (and 'dbus') is(are) running?

Are you listed as 'available' or 'unavailable' and have 'notifications' turned on?

[byron]

Hi cazo!

I set as you suggested all values to 3600, also I'm using Gnome Shell (no fallback). Both daemons seem to be running, the notifications are on, but I'm listed as unavailable, which I changed minutes ago (I don't use Pidgin or Empathy, only skype). The icon tough doesn't change. Maybe because of the lack of Empathy. I think the most important is that the notifications are on. I hope I'll receive something in the next hours.

---------- Post added at 02:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:37 PM ----------

It worked! Thanks cazo!

The notification appeared, and I installed the updates. I'm glad because after 2 years openSUSE and 3 months Fedora PackageKit for first time notifies me. PackageKit is really slow. It would be great if there was alternative to it.

---------- Post added at 03:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:44 PM ----------

I started the following thread:

Package management alternatives


Participation is welcome!