7

While running sudo do-release-upgrade, I got a message saying:

16 installed packages are no longer supported by Canonical. You can still get support from the community.

I know I probably shouldn't be worried, but how can I get a list of those packages before starting the upgrade?

The following is the complete output of do-release-upgrade before choosing continue: http://paste.ubuntu.com/12990830/

For better convenience, this is the most important part of it:

Calculating the changes

Do you want to start the upgrade? 


16 installed packages are no longer supported by Canonical. You can 
still get support from the community. 

61 packages are going to be removed. 204 new packages are going to be 
installed. 1617 packages are going to be upgraded. 

You have to download a total of 1,220 M. This download will take 
about 55 minutes with your connection. 

Installing the upgrade can take several hours. Once the download has 
finished, the process cannot be canceled. 

 Continue [yN]  Details [d]
8
  • Which ubuntu version are you using?
    – Wilf
    Oct 28, 2015 at 13:14
  • I'm upgrading from 15.04 to 15.10, does the version matter though?
    – Dan
    Oct 28, 2015 at 13:18
  • @Dan yes it does.
    – Tim
    Oct 28, 2015 at 16:03
  • During the upgrade process you should see a list of the unsupported packages.
    – A.B.
    Oct 28, 2015 at 16:06
  • 2
    I would say, use d for details.
    – A.B.
    Oct 28, 2015 at 16:36

3 Answers 3

7
  • The first option: Press D to see the details after starting sudo do-release-upgrade as you can see it in the output of the command in your question.

  • The second option: Use /var/log/dist-upgrade/main.log

    awk -F\' '/demoted/ {gsub(/ /,"\n",$2); print $2}' /var/log/dist-upgrade/main.log
    

    to see something like this

    dvipng
    gir1.2-vte-2.90
    gnome-icon-theme-symbolic
    libart2.0-cil
    libgconf2-4
    libgconf2.0-cil
    libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
    libgnome2.24-cil
    libvte-2.90-9
    monodoc-manual
    obex-data-server
    python-commandnotfound
    rhythmbox-mozilla
    
  • The third option: You can see a list of the installed community packages with this command

    aptitude search '~i ~suniverse' -F "%p"
    

    to see something like this

    adwaitaicon-theme-full
    aglfn
    aha                                                                           
    android-tools-adb                                                                  
    android-tools-fastboot
    anjuta
    anjuta-common
    apt-file
    […snip…]
    
2
  • If I'm not mistaken, the last one would be more accurate after the upgrade is complete, right?
    – Dan
    Oct 29, 2015 at 10:39
  • Yes, that's right.
    – A.B.
    Oct 29, 2015 at 10:41
4

When you drop out of the do-release-upgrade script, whether you select N or y, the log will be saved in /var/log/dist-upgrade/main.log.

Getting the list of unsupported packages is a matter of running the following command:

grep 'demoted' /var/log/dist-upgrade/main.log

you would get an output similar to:

2015-10-28 18:14:01,540 DEBUG demoted: 'gir1.2-vte-2.90 gnome-icon-theme gnome-icon-theme-symbolic gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-apps libpocketsphinx1 libsphinxbase1 libunityvoice1 libvte-2.90-9 libvte-2.90-common obex-data-server python-commandnotfound rhythmbox-mozilla sphinx-voxforge-hmm-en sphinx-voxforge-lm-en ubuntu-wallpapers-vivid unity-voice-service'
4

I believe the easiest and most direct way to do this is with this command (as of Ubuntu 20.04):

ubuntu-security-status --unavailable

This will give you an output like this:

1734 packages installed, of which:
  13 packages are no longer available for download
dvipng gir1.2-vte-2.90 gnome-icon-theme-symbolic libart2.0-cil 
 libgconf2-4 libgconf2.0-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil libgnome2.24-cil 
 libvte-2.90-9 monodoc-manual obex-data-server python-commandnotfound 
 rhythmbox-mozilla

Packages that are not available for download may be left over from a
previous release of Ubuntu, may have been installed directly from a
.deb file, or are from a source which has been disabled.

Run 'apt-cache show dvipng' to learn more about that package.
1
  • I feel this can be different from the original question (maybe a package has been removed from the new version, but it is still available in the repositories). But this is very interesting nonetheless!
    – Dan
    Aug 31, 2022 at 16:42

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .