Q4OS Forum

Durhammer

Member

Registered: 2025-01-28

Posts: 230

Update Manager question

Hi Q4OS-ers,

I'm running a customized JWM environment (and a customized TDE environment, for that matter) and have had to log in to TDE to check and get updates. I think I've seen that the Update Manager is "q4os-pkui" so if I just have JWM fire that up, will it hang out there in the background and check for updates and notify me if there are some?

Follow-up question is, if one just periodically starts q4os-pkui, will it do all this update checking and managing magic, or is there some other configuration that needs to be done?  Thanks!

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,090

Website

Re: Update Manager question

Q4os-pkui is a user level daemon that starts on session startup. It should start within JWM as well, just verify it:
$ pidof q4os-pkui

So you don't need to run it periodically. As soon as update is available, it shows icon in systemtray, since you have any xdg compatible one running.

Durhammer

Member

Registered: 2025-01-28

Posts: 230

Re: Update Manager question

Thanks, @q4osteam! Alas, no, it does NOT automagically start when JWM is started (unless I add it to .jwmrc). I can/will do that, and just hope it lets me know when I have updates available (I did today, and logged into TDE to run the updates -- wish I'd checked about this before!).

So there's nothing else I need to do except to have that app fired up automatically?

Durhammer

Member

Registered: 2025-01-28

Posts: 230

Re: Update Manager question

Also, while I have your attention do you have any ideas about this topic?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,090

Website

Re: Update Manager question

Q4os-pkui is located in the XDG compatible startup folder "/etc/xdg/autostart/q4os-pkui.desktop". If it doesn't start within JWM, you need to put a script in your JWM startup. In any case, don't run more than one instance at a time.

Durhammer

Member

Registered: 2025-01-28

Posts: 230

Re: Update Manager question

Thanks, @q4osteam. I did check into that. Is there a command somewhere that initiates the XDG autostart stuff? I'm now wondering if I got rid of that to avoid starting a lot of things I did NOT want started. The command to fire up q4os-pkui is now in my .jwmrc and is working.

As for what I was wondering about above, I have both a Q4OS_KDE_Startup script file and a Q4OS_TDE_Startup script file in a personal folder, and while there is  a corresponding .desktop file for the KDE startup in ~/.config/autostart, there's not a corresponding one for TDE. Maybe that's why changes I made to the latter startup script were not being run. Do either of these autostart desktop files get invoked when logging into the JWM environment?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,090

Website

Re: Update Manager question

Is there a command somewhere that initiates the XDG autostart stuff?

It depends and it's fire up by desktop environment implementation, mostly hardcoded in DE.

Startup script file in a personal folder, and while there is  a corresponding .desktop file for the KDE startup in ~/.config/autostart, there's not a corresponding one for TDE. Maybe that's why changes I made to the latter startup script were not being run. Do either of these autostart desktop files get invoked when logging into the JWM environment?

Most likely no.

Durhammer

Member

Registered: 2025-01-28

Posts: 230

Re: Update Manager question

Well, at least I have q4os-pkui running in the background. What I need to verify it's working is to have some update to trigger it. Thoughts on how to do that?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,090

Website

Re: Update Manager question

Downgrading some package and running "apt update" would do the job.

Durhammer

Member

Registered: 2025-01-28

Posts: 230

Re: Update Manager question

Okay, there's obviously something that's missing. I have q4os-pkui started up and running in the JWM environment, and there's mo evidence in the tint2 systray or taskbar of the update manager.

I then log out and log in to TDE, and after a while, there indeed is an update manager icon in the taskbar (or systray). If I click or hover or whatever it is, it says there's one update available.

I once again log out of TDE and back into JWM knowing there is one update available, but while .... AHA! NEVERMIND -- I JUST got the dunst notification that there is "1 software update available. (2m 27s old)"

Icon in systray is barely visible but it's there and says the same thing when I hover over.

Partial confirmation! I say "partial" bcz if I click on the Update Manager "icon" it checks the internet connection, lists updates, asks me if I want to continue, and I click the Yes button, and it then shows "downloading packages" and then "running Synaptic" and then it just stops and another notification message pops up saying there is 1 software update available.

So no, NOT "nevermind"!  This is just a loop. It never actually updates anything. What now?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,090

Website

Re: Update Manager question

... and then "running Synaptic" and then it just stops and another notification message pops up saying there is 1 software update available.

You probably configured Updater to use Synaptic package manager. This works on Trinity and Plasma desktops and probably other XDG compatible desktops, but it may fail under JWM. So we can consider this may be Q4OS bug that we will investigate and fix.

You can see what happens, if you run in terminal:
$ /opt/program_files/q4os-update-manager/bin/updatemgr.exu
and post back the output.

Reconfigure Updater:
$ /opt/program_files/q4os-update-manager/bin/um_config.exu
Disable Synaptic support and login again. It should now work.

Durhammer

Member

Registered: 2025-01-28

Posts: 230

Re: Update Manager question

Yeah, it seems to have croaked on authentication:

$ /opt/program_files/q4os-update-manager/bin/updatemgr.exu
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR com.ubuntu.pkexec.synaptic ====
Authentication is required to run the Synaptic Package Manager
Authenticating as: Durhammer,,, (xxx)
Password: 
polkit-agent-helper-1: error response to PolicyKit daemon: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: No session for cookie
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ====
Error executing command as another user: Not authorized

This incident has been reported.

And thanks, I did un-check the use of Synaptic Package Manager and fired up the updater again (wish its icon could be seen in the systray, though!) and it ran to completion. No more annoying notification of "you've got mail...uh...updates"!

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,090

Website

Re: Update Manager question

Starting Synaptic requires the Policykit agent to be running in the background. If you install and run the Polkit agent, Updater will also start working in Synaptic mode. All in all, we are adding this issue to our bug list.

Durhammer

Member

Registered: 2025-01-28

Posts: 230

Re: Update Manager question

Thanks @q4osteam. But ummm....

$ sudo ps_mem | grep polk
  4.6 MiB + 276.5 KiB =   4.8 MiB	polkitd

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,090

Website

Re: Update Manager question

What if you put in terminal ?
$ synaptic-pkexec

Durhammer

Member

Registered: 2025-01-28

Posts: 230

Re: Update Manager question

What if you put in terminal ?
$ synaptic-pkexec

I'm usually halfway decent at understanding your suggestions, but not sure about this'n. Please explain? Oh, you mean this? Ooops!

$ synaptic-pkexec
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR com.ubuntu.pkexec.synaptic ====
Authentication is required to run the Synaptic Package Manager
Authenticating as: Durhammer,,, (xxx)
Password: 
polkit-agent-helper-1: error response to PolicyKit daemon: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: No session for cookie
==== AUTHENTICATION FAILED ====
Error executing command as another user: Not authorized

This incident has been reported.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,090

Website

Re: Update Manager question

Now we see that Synaptic cannot be started properly from a JWM session, which seems to be a bug outside of Q4OS.

Durhammer

Member

Registered: 2025-01-28

Posts: 230

Re: Update Manager question

Thanks, @q4osteam.

I also noticed that while I had a "Synaptic" menu entry in my System categories, it would not start. I copied the desktop entry to .local/share/applications and modified the command from synaptic-pkexec to sudo synaptic (I also changed the name to distinguish it when looking at the menu). It WORKS, but only if a previous use of sudo hasn't yet timed out. Can't seem to find a way to have it prompt on startup if needed. Couldn't try gksudo, but found lxqt-sudo and while it works as does vanilla sudo, it does NOT prompt if prior sudo use has timed out. Oh well!