[Wolves] Jenette - was UKUUG Summer Technical Conference; shameless bribery]

[Adam Sweet]

>From: JENETTE PALMER <jenette.palmer at btinternet.com>
>To: Wolverhampton Linux User Group <wolves at mailman.lug.org.uk>
>Sent: Wednesday, 8 July, 2009 17:59:27
>Subject: Re: [Wolves] [Fwd: [lugmaster] UKUUG Summer Technical Conference; shameless bribery]
>
>
>Hello Dave 
>
>Can you tell me what this means please so that I might beable in someway to make my update manager work or pass it to Dick Turpin for me 

Hi Jenette

Try to reply in the same conversation as it keeps the subject line and helps people understand what the topic of the email is. If you reply to any old email, then your stuff gets lost in a different conversation and people reading the emails according to subject line won't see what you've written.

To be honest, I'm not sure how you would end up with that problem, but unless things don't work as expected, I wouldn't worry too much, I don't have that package (libxcb-shape0) installed myself. If you wanted to try to fix that error you could try the following.

Open a terminal using the menus by clicking Applications > Accessories > Terminal. A Terminal window is what most people refer to as a 'console' or the 'command line'. In that window, type the following and hit enter each command, you'll be asked to enter your password on the first one:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --reinstall libxcb-shape0

Or open Synaptic using System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. Click the Reload button to get a list of the newest packages and then search for libxcb-shape0. When you find it, right-click it and select Mark for Reinstallation. Then click the Apply button. That should reinstall the program and all of it's associated files, which the screenshot you sent suggests it can't find.

I think the secondary issue was that you can't update to a newer version of Ubuntu. If I remember correctly, you're using a Dell machine which Ubuntu was pre-installed on. I've bought Dell machines in the past but I've always installed Ubuntu myself, so I don't know what changes Dell make to the version of Ubuntu they install for you. They may well stop it from upgrading in this way, or they may make you install your software from their servers which means you get what they give you, or they might have done none of those things.

I remember after installing 8.04 myself, it didn't tell me a newer version of Ubuntu was released because 8.04 was what they call a long term support release and LTS releases by default are only set to offer upgrades to new LTS releases. LTS releases are 2 years apart, the idea is that they are for IT departments who don't want to reinstall 500 machines every 6 months or people like Dell who don't want to build a new version of Ubuntu for their machines every 6 months. This way they have a supported version of Ubuntu for up to 3 years. So have a look at the following:

Click the System menu, then Administration, then Software Sources. When the window opens, click Updates. At the bottom there it should ask you which release upgrades to offer you. The choice are never, normal releases or Long term support releases only. If you have anything other than normal releases, then you won't get offered any Ubuntu release upgrades at least until April 2010. If it says never, then you will never be offered an upgrade. Pick what you want.

My advice at this point would be to leave it as it is if it works. Since you have weird problems with software packages as in your screenshot, I would avoid any upgrades until that is fixed, since the upgrade process depends heavily on the internal database of what is installed and what isn't. The upgrade process works out all of the software you have and what is provided by upgrade, then works out all the changes it needs to make. If your package system is a bit broken, I'd leave well enough alone.

If you still have a Dell warranty, then perhaps they can help you solve the problem over the phone. What model is it by the way?

Regards,

Adam