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Idea #17489: End-of-Life? Update manager should show EoL status and provide more info

Written by medigeek the 20 Jan 09 at 10:08. Related project: Update manager. Status: New
Rationale
Subject: When a release reaches End-of-Life, update manager should show EoL status and provide a link with working procedures and more information.

Severity: wishlist
Related to: Bug #1, update-manager, ubuntu documentation

Description:
Supposedly a release reaches its End-of-Life (EoL). In that case repositories simply disappear, just as they have with 7.04 Feisty, see: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/feisty/
The old releases archives and installation files are transferred to http://old-releases.ubuntu.com
Yet, a simple user, that has just installed the world of Internet. They have installed an Ubuntu release before and were using it offline, and the release is not supported anymore.
The update-manager prompts the user with the choice to upgrade to a newer release and, due to these changes, they can't.

Scenario:
- A granny has been using a computer with Ubuntu installed.
- The same granny recently decided to get connected to the internet, but she was using an Ubuntu distribution that has reached its EoL.
- She connects to the internet, says "OK, let's see some Internet-related applications".
- She discovers System > Administration > Update Manager. "Oh let's try it and see if there's anything new of games for my grandchildren"
- She checks for updates and notices the new release upgrade. "A new version of Ubuntu, how nice, let's download it then!"
- She can't upgrade because the repository or repositories are missing and cannot be found. The notification for new release upgrade is still available though. "Oh great, now what do I do?"

Problem:
This gives out a broken upgrade plan to the user who gets confused.
A normal desktop user does not read mailing lists or could be completely tech-agnostic, a person that doesn't know how to connect to the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and find a solution to their problems. I realise that these releases are unsupported and "are supposed to be broken" as many of you think - I'm *not* asking to support with security updates nor to provide new packages for old releases.

Tested and reproduced on:
Ubuntu 6.10 edgy (upgrade to 7.10 through update-manager)
Ubuntu 7.04 feisty (upgrade to 7.10 through update-manager)
Ubuntu 7.04 feisty (upgrade to 7.10 with alternate CD)

Note:
Upgrades with alternate CD *work* if you choose "No" to the question "Include latest updates from the Internet".
This step could be included in the documentation.

Expectations:
I simply wish that the users, who eventually end up using the internet on an old unsupported release, get notified about that. They should be given *at least* a link which they could simply click to find out more information.

125
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Solution #1: Update manager - show EoL status with link to upgrades help documentation
Written by medigeek the 20 Jan 09 at 10:08.
Solution steps:
1) There should be a way to check for the End-of-Life status from within the repository http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
The same way it gets the "Release" file, there should be a file that states that this current distribution is not supported and not available anymore.
There should also be a link explaining more information about it, for example for upgrades from unsupported 7.04 Feisty Fawn to the next supported release, 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GutsyUpgrades

This file for End-of-Life could be let's say an RSS feed, showing the supported releases a person could attempt to upgrade to, and the date when is their (of the supported releases) End-of-Life. An RSS Parser with update-manager would do the trick for the client application.

2) As it is now, the update manager shows "Your system is up-to-date". Once update-manager realises that the release it's being run on has a specific EoL tag or file in the archive mirrors, it should state that "Your system is outdated and not supported anymore" (with letters that can be easily noticed, e.g. red colour), along with the link in the help documentation about upgrading to the new release.

3) If the upgrade process involves changing a file's contents, such as the deb source repos in /etc/apt/sources.lists, then the update manager should attempt to do that on its own (with a Yes/No confirmation by the user). This step is a bit far-fetched, but (1) and (2) are of utmost importance.

4) There should be a link to the help documentation about the new release and how to upgrade, I mean it should refer to the latest supported or LTS release, for example: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardyUpgrades
In that link, there should be a section for end-of-life upgrades (as I mentioned in a note above), with enough information to at least attempt an upgrade, even on an unsupported release.

Propose your solution

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Comments
Primož Papič wrote on the 20 Jan 09 at 14:54
Sorry you lost me at the granny example.
I don't like all this let's get a computer for my granny and install Ubuntu on it. I think that's "torture". Poor granny doesn't know how to use computer let alone knows how to repair X server when it gets broken due to updates...

I get what your trying to say, but I just can't imagine that.
I personally like to be on a bleeding edge and I believe that most users do the same.
But still +1, for those that might be more conservative...

medigeek wrote on the 20 Jan 09 at 18:44
The point is that a service is provided, but cannot be used.
Would you rather prefer an example with a 12-year-old child? Either way, I wanted to point an extreme case, where common people aren't so "techie".

And my server wasn't broken, I tried upgrading from old releases using the alternate CD and everything was ok. Plus, nowadays exists "bullet proof X" or something like that, which makes it much more stable to fall to safe-mode settings and still get your desktop back.

Robster wrote on the 5 Feb 09 at 15:55
It would also be nice if the updates system could give the user a notification when the version they are using reaches end of life with options as to what actions they wish to take eg upgrade.

medigeek wrote on the 23 Feb 09 at 12:12
I have opened a wishlist bug for this:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/319146

mvo (Michael Vogt) said that update-manager has already the background support for end-of-life messages, we'll see how it goes.

Feel free to comment there! :)

GiveLove wrote on the 3 Feb 10 at 16:45
Yes!!!!

medigeek,

I understand exactly what you are suggesting. And it is exactly what I've been questioning in the Ubuntu forums as to whether this feature exists.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1394262

This is a very important idea to add to Ubuntu.

Primoz,
You've missed the whole point. Do you think it would be any less torture to put a non-computer literate granny on a Windows desktop OS? I think that would be way worse. Which is exactly the reason I'm in the process of trying to convert the friends and family I support to Ubuntu. As most of these people are unable to update and maintain their Windows OS and apps. It's far to complicated compared to Ubuntu Linux. And end up leaving themselves far more open to software exploits by not having a constantly updated OS and apps.

I think you have made a poor judgment by grouping everyone into what you like to do. I personally do not like bleeding edge, as I want a stable OS and apps that I do not have to constantly trawl the Ubuntu forums for fixes. Does that mean that everyone does as I do? No, of course not. Ubuntu is supposed to be an easy distribution to use. Not arcane and obfuscated.




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