Idea #7837: Show package manager icon when analyzing, not just downloading

Written by hunt.topher the 29 Apr 08 at 15:38. Category: System.
Related to: Nothing/Others. Status: New

Description

One of Hardy's many great new features is that a greyed-out icon appears whenever a package manager is downloading files. However, when Ubuntu periodically checks for updates, it doesn't need to just download files; it then has to reload the package database, check for packages needing updates, etc. and while all of this is happening, the hard drive is grinding away, performance is slowed, and users are left clueless as to why Ubuntu slows down for this time - especially if no updates are found, so the process just dies silently.

I think it would be great if the package manager status bar icon were displayed both when a packman is downloading files, AND when a packman is then processing those files - so that users feel more in-tune with what is happening on their system. This would make Ubuntu's functionality a little more transparent to everyday users who are confused by Ubuntu's periodic sluggishness.

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Comments

qaaq wrote on the 30 Apr 08 at 01:23

This is already done on Hardy. The package manager icon appears grayed out when the repositories are being refreshed, then either vanishes or lights up orange depending on whether or not there are updates.

andruk wrote on the 30 Apr 08 at 02:56

It would be nice to display a little notification (libnotify?) when it starts to do this for the first time after install. This would let new users know what's going on and why their system, which has been working great, is now sluggish as heck (for a bit).

Obviously, we don't want to annoy users, so simply show it the first time it updates itself.

hunt.topher wrote on the 1 May 08 at 18:39

Qaaq: I'm using Hardy, are you sure this feature is part of it? What I'm talking about is when some package-manager-related process is crunching away at the hard drive during the update-check process, and performance slows and the user ahs no clue why.

cheesehead wrote on the 28 Sep 08 at 00:26

The described behavior seems like a bug - an unanticipated effect of downloading the updates. If it remains a problem, consider filing a bug against update-notifier...it would be a pretty easy patch to change the nice level of this background process.

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