13

I have a package being kept back whilst trying to upgrade:

$ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  mesa-opencl-icd:i386
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 1 not to upgrade.

After I run apt list --upgradable I see:

"There are 2 additional versions. Please use the '-a' switch to see them."

So I run apt list --upgradable -a and I see:

Listing... Done
mesa-opencl-icd/focal-updates,focal-security 21.2.6-0ubuntu0.1~20.04.2 i386 [upgradable from: 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.3~20.04.5]
mesa-opencl-icd/now 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.3~20.04.5 i386 [installed,upgradable to: 21.2.6-0ubuntu0.1~20.04.2]
mesa-opencl-icd/focal 20.0.4-2ubuntu1 i386

After searching I see various methods of attempting to fix this, but they involve sudo apt-get dist-upgrade and I believe that can cause problems. Also sudo apt-get install <list of packages kept back> but I dont want to forcefully install something that my system is preventing me from installing.

I'd prefer to find out why this is happening and fix the problem with dependencies or conflicts.

I'm on Xubuntu 20.04.4 LTS

Could someone advise on how to best fix this particular problem?

Edit, no luck after sudo apt dist-upgrade

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  libclang-common-12-dev
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following packages have been kept back:
  mesa-opencl-icd:i386
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 1 not to upgrade.

$ sudo apt autoremove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree

Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED
  libclang-common-12-dev
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 1 to remove and 1 not to upgrade.
After this operation, 65.6 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 301137 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing libclang-common-12-dev (1:12.0.0-3ubuntu1~20.04.5) ...


$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree

Reading state information... Done
2 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.


$ apt list --upgradable
Listing... Done
mesa-opencl-icd/focal-updates,focal-security 21.2.6-0ubuntu0.1~20.04.2 i386 [upgradable from: 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.3~20.04.5]
rsync/focal-updates,focal-security 3.1.3-8ubuntu0.3 amd64 [upgradable from: 3.1.3-8ubuntu0.2]


$ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree

Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  mesa-opencl-icd:i386
The following packages will be upgraded:
  rsync
1 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 1 not to upgrade.
1 standard security update
Need to get 318 kB of archives.
After this operation, 4,096 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 rsync amd64 3.1.3-8ubuntu0.3 [318 kB]
Fetched 318 kB in 0s (2,728 kB/s)
(Reading database ... 300703 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../rsync_3.1.3-8ubuntu0.3_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking rsync (3.1.3-8ubuntu0.3) over (3.1.3-8ubuntu0.2) ...
Setting up rsync (3.1.3-8ubuntu0.3) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (245.4-4ubuntu3.15) ...


$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/libretro/stable/ubuntu focal InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree

Reading state information... Done
1 package can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see it.


$ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree

Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  mesa-opencl-icd:i386
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 1 not to upgrade.


$ sudo apt dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree

Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  mesa-opencl-icd:i386
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 1 not to upgrade.
Johnny5ive
  • 369
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    You shouldn't use dist-upgrade all the time, but this would be an appropriate time to use it. See: https://askubuntu.com/q/81585 – Nmath Mar 28 '22 at 20:53
  • I tried it, multiple times... but still no joy. I updated the OP – Johnny5ive Apr 01 '22 at 20:09
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    try this sudo apt-get install aptitude -y ; sudo aptitude safe-upgrade – lnee Apr 01 '22 at 20:14
  • Yes, it fixed it, now: 0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade. Thank you. – Johnny5ive Apr 01 '22 at 20:22
  • Your sources seem incomplete: focal-updates and focal-security are missing. Check apt-cache policy on the kept-back packages before jumping to a force-install solution; there might be a good reason the packages are kept back. – user535733 Aug 03 '22 at 12:24

3 Answers3

23

This solved the problem for me:

sudo apt-get install aptitude 
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
Zanna
  • 70,465
Atif Ali
  • 565
22

On my system, I had multiple kept-back packages as well. In my case, the packages were not updated (sudo apt-get dist-upgrade) since the updates were phased updates.

Phased updates are a safety feature: They are not introduced to all users at the same time; only some users receive them at the beginning to report potential issues (see this answer for more information).

You can check if your kept-back PackageA contains a phased update by running apt-cache policy PackageA. Phased updates are indicated in the "Version table" by a phased percentage.

Niklas
  • 467
  • Note that the phased upgrades progress page seems to be nonfunctional. You have to use apt-cache policy <package_names> to see the phasing progres of the packages. --- If you really-really need to override the phasing (not recommended) you can upgrade the packages explicitly. For example: sudo apt dist-upgrade <package_names> – pabouk - Ukraine stay strong Oct 19 '22 at 09:23
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    Okay... IMHO if Ubuntu is doing phased updates they should not count or show those updates by default. I had no idea this was now a thing and I couldn't understand why everything I tried seemed to be ignored without any shred of feedback. Either you hide the phased updates, only showing them when an explicit option is used (thus making sure whoever sees them knows what's happening) or give a damn clear error message "packages are held back because are phased. Wait for your turn" or something. This is confusing as hell from an end user perspective. – Bakuriu Dec 16 '22 at 22:21
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    I agree with @Bakuriu, and I wish nala, being a more modern take, could figure this out and keep even further in front of apt and friends. – thoni56 Jan 30 '23 at 21:22
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    Phased updates causing sigsegv in Gnome Shell on Ubuntu 22.04. Forcing the packages to upgrade with dist-upgrade resolved it. The way these phased updates are implemented is beyond moronic. I wasted 30 minutes searching for a fix for this. – Fibbs Jul 30 '23 at 00:01
0

You may try to use your existing tools already installed. For me worked:

sudo apt full-upgrade
znotdead
  • 1
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