Although I’ve installed all 100% of updates every time, and although I’ve not added some additional repositories recently, etc., the last time (and also today) when I wanted to install updates I’ve got this message: ‘Run a partial upgrade to install as many updates as possible’.
What could be cause of this, and should I run a partial upgrade?
I’ve gone ahead and upgraded and not had any problems. I don’t know why it’s happening on this update. Perhaps it has something to do with the new Debian version.
I have had that occur occasionally with several versions of Ubuntu Mate.
I just do the partial upgrade and then run Software Updater again.
And all the software is updated.
Could try the terminal upgrade; sometimes that provides clearer messages about what is held back and why:
# update the information about packages
sudo apt update
# upgrade the packages
sudo apt upgrade
Yeah… I try and remember to do this daily.
That message should be much more explicit, offering
Given the fact that it can list a number possible contexts which might cause the issue, it should also go further and be specific as to which context applies to the situation at hand.
Some may say, "Multiple failures during a multi-package install".
My suggestion is that the process should fail upon encountering the first failed package, and offer all details pertaining to that first failure, so that proper troubleshooting can be performed and proper resolution applied ... without the confusion of other packages having potentially modifies some conditions by their own installs.
At least have that as a selectable "first-error-abandon" option during updates.
For me, I feel Upgrades (as opposed to package updates) are a different beast and not sure how to deal with, because I don't know enough about the guts of the mechanisms for those upgrades to reasonably suggest a "roll-back" mechanism auto-applied when it fails.
Stepwise updates, abandon at first failure, do not proceed on "murky" foundation.
My 2 cents worth.
Hi, @griffin
I also had that "Not all updates can be installed / Run a partial upgrade, to install as many updates as possible" Software Updater window in two laptop computers running Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS ("Noble Numbat") and, in both cases, it happened around the date that Ubuntu MATE 24.04.3 (the third "point release" of Ubuntu MATE 24.04) got released.
My guess (but I may be wrong!) is that it's related to the libgl1-amber-dri package that appears as a held-back package in the Software Updater. As @stephematician has written, in this same discussion topic, running the "apt" commands may provide clearer messages about what is going on. And that's what happened to me: specifically I found that I the libgl1-amber-dri package was both a package being "held back" / "kept back" and a package in the "autoremove" list.
So, I ended up solving this particular case by running sudo apt update followed by sudo apt upgrade followed by sudo apt autoremove (usually, I avoid running sudo apt autoremove particularly in cases when it seems to me that it's going to remove too many things and/or things that I may need):
ricmarques@mylaptop:~$ sudo apt update
[sudo] password for ricmarques:
Hit:1 http://pt.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease
Hit:2 http://pt.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://pt.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports InRelease
(...)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
36 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
ricmarques@mylaptop:~$ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libgl1-amber-dri libglapi-mesa libllvm17t64 python3-netifaces
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
linux-headers-6.8.0-78 linux-headers-6.8.0-78-generic linux-image-6.8.0-78-generic linux-modules-6.8.0-78-generic
linux-modules-extra-6.8.0-78-generic linux-tools-6.8.0-78 linux-tools-6.8.0-78-generic
The following packages have been kept back:
libgl1-amber-dri
The following packages will be upgraded:
code element-desktop gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-4.1 gir1.2-webkit2-4.1 google-chrome-stable intel-media-va-driver
libjavascriptcoregtk-4.1-0 libldb2 libpoppler-cpp0t64 libpoppler-glib8t64 libpoppler134 libsmbclient0 libtiff6 libwbclient0
libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0 libxml2 linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic linux-libc-dev linux-tools-common
microsoft-edge-stable poppler-utils powermgmt-base python3-ldb python3-samba python3-software-properties samba-common
samba-common-bin samba-dsdb-modules samba-libs simple-scan smbclient software-properties-common software-properties-gtk
35 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
15 standard LTS security updates
Need to get 556 MB/788 MB of archives.
After this operation, 304 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
Get:1 http://pt.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/main amd64 powermgmt-base all 1.37ubuntu0.1 [7650 B]
Get:2 http://pt.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/universe amd64 intel-media-va-driver amd64 24.1.0+dfsg1-1ubuntu0.1 [3163 kB]
(...)
ricmarques@mylaptop:~$ sudo apt autoremove
[sudo] password for ricmarques:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
libgl1-amber-dri libglapi-mesa libllvm17t64 linux-headers-6.8.0-63 linux-headers-6.8.0-63-generic linux-image-6.8.0-63-generic
linux-modules-6.8.0-63-generic linux-modules-extra-6.8.0-63-generic linux-tools-6.8.0-63 linux-tools-6.8.0-63-generic
python3-netifaces
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 11 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 441 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
(Reading database ... 355378 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing libgl1-amber-dri:amd64 (21.3.9-0ubuntu2) ...
Removing libglapi-mesa:amd64 (24.2.8-1ubuntu1~24.04.1) ...
Removing libllvm17t64:amd64 (1:17.0.6-9ubuntu1) ...
Removing linux-headers-6.8.0-63-generic (6.8.0-63.66) ...
Removing linux-headers-6.8.0-63 (6.8.0-63.66) ...
Removing linux-image-6.8.0-63-generic (6.8.0-63.66) ...
/etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools:
update-initramfs: Deleting /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-63-generic
/etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub:
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.8.0-78-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-78-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.8.0-71-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-71-generic
Found memtest86+ 64bit EFI image: /memtest86+x64.efi
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Its output will be used to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.
Found Windows Boot Manager on /dev/nvme0n1p1@/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
done
Removing linux-modules-extra-6.8.0-63-generic (6.8.0-63.66) ...
Removing linux-modules-6.8.0-63-generic (6.8.0-63.66) ...
Removing linux-tools-6.8.0-63-generic (6.8.0-63.66) ...
Removing linux-tools-6.8.0-63 (6.8.0-63.66) ...
Removing python3-netifaces:amd64 (0.11.0-2build3) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.39-0ubuntu8.5) ...
I’ve done this a few days when I’ve got this message for the first time, but still I kept getting the same partial update messages afterwards. But last time when after running ‘sudo apt update’ and ‘sudo apt upgrade’ I’ve also run the ‘sudo apt autoremove’ command, and after that I’ve got a ‘normal’ update notification. So, hopefully the problem is solved.
I’m glad you’ve got your problem resolved!
One more thing I would like to suggest for the future is to sometimes run the command ‘sudo apt autoclean’ - as the said command removes the updates from the list that can’t be updated anymore
I also prefer to use the command sudo apt autoremove –purge as it also helps to keep things a bit more tidy but I’d suggest more care if you opt for purging as it sometimes may mess up some old settings somewhere if your system has a lot of old things stacked up
Here is a short article that explains what the commands do:
I second the use of autoremove --purge; but with care. I've never encountered a situation where it has broken anything.
There's also the --dry-run option as a way to preview what it'll do (without the risk that pressing 'Y' at a prompt performs the operation).