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I have fairly recent (~3-4 weeks) Kubuntu installation (clean, not an upgrade).

Today I discovered that attempting to upgrade the system reports 50 packages that have been kept back:

user@machine:~$ sudo apt update 
Hit:1 https://swupdate.openvpn.net/community/openvpn3/repos jammy InRelease
Hit:2 http://ro.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease                                                     
Hit:3 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease
Hit:4 http://ro.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease
Hit:5 http://ro.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
50 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

user@machine:~$ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  kde-config-sddm kde-config-updates kde-style-oxygen-qt5 kinfocenter ksystemstats kwin-common kwin-data kwin-x11 layer-shell-qt libcolorcorrect5 libkf5sysguard-data libkfontinst5 libkfontinstui5 libksgrd9
  libksysguardformatter1 libksysguardsensorfaces1 libksysguardsensors1 libksysguardsystemstats1 libkwaylandserver5 libkwineffects13 libkwinglutils13 libkwinxrenderutils13 libkworkspace5-5 liblayershellqtinterface5
  libnotificationmanager1 liboxygenstyle5-5 liboxygenstyleconfig5-5 libplasma-geolocation-interface5 libprocesscore9 libprocessui9 libtaskmanager6 libweather-ion7 milou oxygen-sounds php8.1-cli php8.1-common php8.1-opcache
  php8.1-readline plasma-desktop plasma-desktop-data plasma-discover plasma-discover-backend-fwupd plasma-discover-backend-snap plasma-discover-common plasma-nm plasma-pa plasma-workspace qml-module-org-kde-ksysguard
  systemsettings xdg-desktop-portal-kde
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 50 not upgraded.

I have received the packages have been kept back message two times since the OS was installed, but it listed one or two packages and I solved the issue with:

sudo apt upgrade package1 package2 ...

However, this time there seems to be a dependency error:

user@machine:~$ sudo apt upgrade systemsettings
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 plasma-workspace : Depends: libkworkspace5-5 (= 4:5.24.4-0ubuntu1) but 4:5.24.6-0ubuntu0.1 is to be installed
E: Broken packages

What I have tried:

  • apt update
  • apt install -f
  • apt clean
  • rm /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb && rm -R /var/cache/apt/archives/partial
  • apt upgrade --fix-missing
  • apt upgrade --fix-broken
  • apt --fix-broken install

... and probably one or two more.

What is the cause of it and how can I do to fix this issue?

Later edit #1:

Output of policy for plasma-workspace:

apt-cache policy plasma-workspace
plasma-workspace:
  Installed: 4:5.24.4-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 4:5.24.6-0ubuntu0.1
  Version table:
     4:5.24.6-0ubuntu0.1 500 (phased 10%)
        500 http://ro.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/universe amd64 Packages
 *** 4:5.24.4-0ubuntu1 500
        500 http://ro.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Later edit #2:

As noted in the accepted answer, this delayed upgrade is intentional and normal - and two days after posting the question, all packages successfully upgraded on my system.

Silviu G
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  • 5
  • random apt incantations I like that and I agree with its meaning, though I have not quite applied them at random - I tried to see if they at least look like could help. Anyway, I have added the requested info to the question. – Silviu G Sep 05 '22 at 11:37

1 Answers1

4

See the line in your apt-cache policy output:

  Version table:
     4:5.24.6-0ubuntu0.1 500 (phased 10%)

Let's focus on that (phased 10%): That means the package is doing Phased Updates.

There is nothing wrong with your system. Nothing is broken.

Phased Updates occur over a week-or-so. Early adopters can report problems, permitting the developers to withdraw updates that cause unexpected problems. It prevents a broken upgrade from affecting millions of users. Broken upgrades are very rare, but have occurred in the past.

It's a safety feature. Don't try to defeat it. Let it work

If you ignore it today, the Phased Updates will complete automatically in a few days, your system will update/upgrade normally in a few days, and there will be no 'kept back' packages anymore.

  • Advanced users who want to test the upgrade and report problems can use apt -o APT::Get::Always-Include-Phased-Updates=true upgrade to upgrade immediately and skip phasing.
user535733
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