PackageKit always seems to be running...

After upgrading to 13.2, it seems when I go to check for system updates it always gives me an error message that PackageKit is running and wants to me to either shut it down or not…

Mind you, this isn’t for a few minutes upon boot…it is always.

I am also not seeing notifications anymore for software updates appear as a popup notification…probably tied into this…

I appreciate the auto check for updates but don’t like it to hang for hours on end…

Any ideas perhaps?

Thanks,

K

Well, I don’t use GNOME, but packagekitd should shut itself down after 15 seconds of inactivitity with the openSUSE defaults.

Do you have PackageKit-branding-openSUSE installed? The upstream branding do not set such a timeout.
Or edit /etc/PackageKit/PackageKit.conf manually, and add the following line if it doesn’t exist:

ShutdownTimeout=15

I have whatever package came with the upgrade.

I will try to add that line to .conf and hope it fixes it :wink:

Thanks! !

K

Well, both packages “come with the upgrade”, as both packages are part of openSUSE.
Have a look in YaST->Software Management which one is installed, and install PackageKit-branding-openSUSE instead if necessary (this should automatically remove PackageKit-branding-upstream).

I will try to add that line to .conf and hope it fixes it :wink:

Installing PackageKit-branding-openSUSE will do the same though, so you should rather do that (unless this is not possible for some reason).

If it doesn’t help, you must have a different problem, something must keep packagekitd busy then.
In earlier versions at least packagekitd could (and would) get stuck if one of the repos were not reachable, so try to run “sudo zypper ref” and see whether you get an error message.

Looks like I have the PackageKit-branding-openSUSE installed.

I ran the zypper ref. Other than the typical error saying PackageKit is blocking zypper, after telling it to quit PackageKit it proceeds to tell me all my repos are up to date. No errors.

K

Looks like that line is already in that file.

K

Yes, as I said, PackageKit-branding-openSUSE does have that line.

Well, I only see two possibilities then:

  • you are running/using a program that builds upon PackageKit (like gnome-software), in this case packagekitd will be started of course.
  • PackageKit is busy building its initial cache. This can take a while, you should let it finish and then it shouldn’t bother you any more.

I tried logging into GNOME meanwhile, and cannot reproduce your problem. So there shouldn’t be a problem with the default update settings.

Hmm…Any other thoughts on how to get to the root of why I am not receiving update notifications and that Packagekit is constantly running?

If it is building a cache, isn’t weeks a bit long to be building a cache…

Thanks.

K

Yes, it is. It shouln’t take that long.
But if you interrupt it (by killing it, logging out, turn off your computer), it has to start from scratch again.

Try to run “pkcon refresh” or “pkcon get-updates”. Does this give an error message? Does this finish/show available updates?

both come back no errors and no updates available…

K

Well, maybe there really are no updates?
What does this say:

sudo zypper up

And what are your repos?

zypper lr -d
PEAKCOMP:~ # zypper up
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...


The following package update will NOT be installed:
  MozillaFirefox 


Nothing to do.
PEAKCOMP:~ # zypper lr -d
#  | Alias                     | Name                               | Enabled | Refresh | Priority | Type   | URI                                                                    | Service
---+---------------------------+------------------------------------+---------+---------+----------+--------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------
 1 | ftp.gwdg.de-suse          | Packman Repository                 | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/packman/suse/openSUSE_13.2/               |        
 2 | openSUSE_13.2             | Mozilla Beta SUSE 13.2             | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/mozilla:/beta/openSUSE_13.2/ |        
 3 | repo-debug                | openSUSE-13.2-Debug                | No      | Yes     |   99     | NONE   | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/distribution/13.2/repo/oss/         |        
 4 | repo-debug-update         | openSUSE-13.2-Update-Debug         | No      | Yes     |   99     | NONE   | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/update/13.2/                        |        
 5 | repo-debug-update-non-oss | openSUSE-13.2-Update-Debug-Non-Oss | No      | Yes     |   99     | NONE   | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/update/13.2-non-oss/                |        
 6 | repo-non-oss              | openSUSE-13.2-Non-Oss              | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | yast2  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.2/repo/non-oss/           |        
 7 | repo-oss                  | openSUSE-13.2-Oss                  | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | yast2  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.2/repo/oss/               |        
 8 | repo-source               | openSUSE-13.2-Source               | No      | Yes     |   99     | NONE   | http://download.opensuse.org/source/distribution/13.2/repo/oss/        |        
 9 | repo-update               | openSUSE-13.2-Update               | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/update/13.2/                              |        
10 | repo-update-non-oss       | openSUSE-13.2-Update-Non-Oss       | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/update/13.2-non-oss/                    

See?
There are no updates, except for MozillaFirefox (from the mozilla:beta repository probably), but by default packages are not switched to versions from other repos automatically.
If you want to install that other version, use YaST->Software Management’s “Versions” tab.

And I don’t see any message about packagekitd running here. Did you omit that, did you kill it before, or has it shut down by itself now as it should?

I killed it earlier today.

But pkcon would have started it again.
Did you kill it before or after running that?

Before. Like 10 am this morning.

Well, I do not know which time zone you live in, so 10 am in the morning does not tell me anything… :wink:

But if you killed it before running pkcon, it seems to behave like it should now I’d say. Of course if your desktop’s updater checks for updates it will again be running for a while and block YaST/zypper, but it should quit after doing its work. In GNOME, updates are downloaded automatically though even if you did not tell it to install them yet (at least that was the case in 13.1), so that work might take longer in the case of updates.
It was possible (and necessary) to disable that automatic downloading of updates in dconf-editor in 13.1, but I do not find that option any more in 13.2. No idea whether this is not done any more or it just cannot be turned off.

If you do not want to use PackageKit, you can uninstall it of course, it cannot block then. But you won’t be notified of updates any more of course.

I will keep an eye on it. Thanks for the input.

Ken

Running openSUSE 13.2 KDE here, so I can’t comment about the GNOME version. I disabled Apper by going into the settings and changing “Check for new updates” from Daily to Never. That solved my problems for the most part, but things were still getting locked up sometimes, for a little while. I noticed in /etc/PackageKit/PackageKit.conf the line ShutdownTimeout=15.

That seemed like the best solution for me. I ran:

# zypper remove PackageKit

These packages were removed: apper, PackageKit, PackageKit-backend-zypp, PackageKit-branding-openSUSE

Well, Apper has a bug in that it checks for updates on every login, regardless of its settings.

You can disable the “Apper monitor” service in “Configure Desktop”->“Startup and Shutdown”->“Service Management”, then it should not look for updates at all any more (and you would still be able to use Apper manually).

This is totally irrelevant for GNOME though.

As mentioned, GNOME did have some update related settings (check interval, whether to automatically download and/or install them, …) in dconf-editor, but I cannot seem to find them any more in 13.2.