Sure did! Twice then, and again just now. Output as before.
Edit: I just noticed there is a ‘muon-updater’ ‘1.3.1-0ubuntu2 update manager for KDE’ listed in Synaptic. Could this be the one to go for?
Rich
What’s the output from:
update-notifier
?
then
ps aux | grep -i update
All I got from update-notifier was a dropbox dialog opening! Then it sat doing nothing - didn’t return to the ~ $ position!
ps aux | grep -i update returned this -
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $ ps aux | grep -i update
richard 7110 0.0 0.0 4648 820 pts/2 R+ 14:07 0:00 grep --color=auto -i update
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $ update-notifier This was a second effort at it, this time it just sat doing nothing but a dropbox icon in the taskbar told me dropbox was now updated
Whoa … that’s f**ked up :o
just as a test that ps works the same in Mint … open gedit, and whilst gedit is open run:
ps aux | grep [g]edit
what is returned ?
You might be on to something here! Running gedit in terminal will open gedit but returns this -
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $ gedit
(gedit:7578): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_file: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:7578): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_position: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:7578): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_line: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:7578): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: :1:0: Unknown value ‘GTK_SHADOW_NONE’ for enum type ‘GtkShadowType’
(gedit:7578): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_file: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:7578): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_position: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:7578): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_line: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:7578): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: :1:0: Unknown value ‘GTK_SHADOW_NONE’ for enum type ‘GtkShadowType’
(gedit:7578): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_file: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:7578): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_position: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:7578): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_line: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:7578): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: :1:0: Unknown value ‘GTK_SHADOW_NONE’ for enum type ‘GtkShadowType’
** (gedit:7578): WARNING **: Could not load theme icon gtk-home: Icon ‘gtk-home’ not present in theme
and the cursor hangs…
opening gedit via launcher, then running code, returns
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $ ps aux | grep [g]edit
richard 7714 3.8 0.9 95908 20184 ? Sl 15:24 0:00 /usr/bin/gedit
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $
OK, I think I see what you’re doing here
running the command will start the application, but it won’t return you to a prompt because that terminal is still running that app … it will only return to a prompt if you detach from the app … closing the terminal will also terminate the app.
(sorry I should have been clearer with my request )
Open a terminal and run:
update-notifier &
now it should have returned you to a prompt … so now what’s the output from:
ps aux | grep [u]pdate
?
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $ update-notifier &
[1] 8911
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $ ps aux | grep [u]pdate
richard 8911 1.2 0.5 53344 12140 pts/0 Sl 19:44 0:00 update-notifier
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $
No need to apologise Mark - I’m grateful for all your help with this! Is this any clearer?
And does the ‘&’ after a command allow the app to run and free the terminal for other uses?
And does the '&' after a command allow the app to run and free the terminal for other uses?
Yes, if you want to launch something from terminal and keep it running, use the & afterward so it’ll continue after the terminal is closed.
Thanks for that. I’m still new to terminal but find it a very powerful tool. I take the safe option of copying and pasting commands and stick more to general stuff (like finding system info etc) to practice with it. Any issues, such as this updater one, I slavishly follow instructions from my betters!
SEE [EDIT 2] BELOW
OK it appears to run okay … we just need to figure out why it’s not autostarting.
As I don’t use KDE, is there anything in it’s settings/control panel that allows you to set something to autostart at bootup ?
Meanwhile I’ll look around the interweb.
[EDIT]
Can you post the contents of:
gedit /etc/xdg/autostart/update-notifier.desktop
[EDIT 2]
Let’s try the Muon Update Manager (as you suggested earlier) as it seems specifically for KDE.
(we can always come back to update-manager if necessary)
First uninstall update-manager and update-notifier:
sudo apt-get remove --purge update-manager update-notifier
now install the KDE/Muon equivalents:
sudo apt-get install muon-updater muon-notifier
Now see if you can find the “Muon Update Manager” in “System” settings or the menu somewhere.
Does it appear to work ?
What’s the output from:
ps aux | grep [u]pdate
?
As I don’t use KDE, is there anything in it’s settings/control panel that allows you to set something to autostart at bootup ?
Yes! System Settings/Startup and Shutdown/Autostart/Add Programs. A dialog box appears and you make the selection from there - not as intuitive as it might be, but it has done the trick. A simple solution as it turns out! :-[
I restarted and update-notifier immediately informed me my system was up-to-date. I will also try your suggestions as per edit 2 (it will be good practice)! But for now …
This is the output you requested - er… ???
When I try to copy the contents of the gedit file, it won’t let me, the text disappears and copy/paste is greyed out! How can I retrieve the info and post it here?
Also, when I action gedit in terminal I’m still getting this error message - though gedit does start and populate.
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $ gedit /etc/xdg/autostart/update-notifier.desktop
(gedit:6512): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_file: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:6512): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_position: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:6512): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_line: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:6512): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: :1:0: Unknown value ‘GTK_SHADOW_NONE’ for enum type ‘GtkShadowType’
(gedit:6512): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_file: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:6512): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_position: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:6512): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_line: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:6512): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: :1:0: Unknown value ‘GTK_SHADOW_NONE’ for enum type ‘GtkShadowType’
(gedit:6512): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_file: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:6512): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_position: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:6512): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_css_section_get_end_line: assertion `section != NULL’ failed
(gedit:6512): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: :1:0: Unknown value ‘GTK_SHADOW_NONE’ for enum type ‘GtkShadowType’
** (gedit:6512): WARNING **: Could not load theme icon gtk-home: Icon ‘gtk-home’ not present in theme
Is gedit not configured correctly, do you think? Also, is there a way to configure the updater to check say, every few days rather than on every boot-up?
ps aux | grep [u]pdate returns this -
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $ ps aux | grep [u]pdate
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $
Thanks again for all the time you’ve spent on this, it’s been a great help.
Rich
Sorry I thought you were on KDE for a sec there :-[
So I take it you’ve used System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Autostart > Add Programs
to added
/usr/bin/update-notifier
to the autostart list ?
If so it still doesn’t appear to be running … can you confirm you added update-notifier and not update-manager to autostart … then REBOOT, and post the output from:
ps aux | grep [u]pdate
again
I’m not really worried about those gedit warnings … it’s a GNOME application (so not in its native environment) and those are all Gtk themeing errors so even thought they say so they’re not critical (or even a problem) 
That’s what the OP says ???
Anyway, what’s with the square brackets? Why not just grep “update” (without quotes)?
Try yourself…
WITHOUT gedit running, run:
ps aux | grep gedit
and
ps aux | grep [g]edit
Now do the same WITH gedit running.
You’ll see that without the square brackets you’ll still get output even when gedit isn’t running … because it’s finding the actual terminal search
@Rich J
OK so you are running KDE … ignore me, I just had a stupid moment there
For the time being we’ll stick with update-manager … still follow the instructions in my last posting please.
(We’ll try Muon later if we can’t get update-notifier to start)
Will have a play tonight!
Every day is a school day 
My mistake too Mark! Yes, I’m on KDE but I thought you were referring to update-manager not update-notifier!
Ok, here’s where I’m at. I’ve disabled update-manager from startup and enabled update-notifier in startup.
Ran the code and here are the results -
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $ ps aux | grep [u]pdate
richard 3080 0.3 0.5 53392 12228 ? Sl 16:10 0:00 /usr/bin/update-notifier
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $
Thanks for the heads-up re the gedit warnings - I’ll just ignore them for now. As I previously stated, the default editor in KDE is Kate but there are so many instructions that use ‘gedit’ that it is easier to install and use gedit than constantly amend the text.
If all is now in order, how may I instruct update-notifier to check periodically, rather than every time on boot?
Regards
Rich
Update-notifier DOESN’T check each boot … and it should only dispaly update manager when updates are available.
If update-manager is getting displayed at each bootup, you must have added update-manager to autostart :o
There’s a big difference betwsween update-NOTIFIER (which should be autostarted) and update-MANAGER (which shouldn’t)
If you’ve ONLY added update-notifier to autostart, and update-manager displays each boot (with no updates), then something is wrong.
Right! Now all is clear! I’ve completely removed update-manager from autostart and added update-notifier instead. Ditto icons from the taskbar. I’ll leave everything well alone for a few days and see if notifier pops up when updates become available. Both pc and lappy now report ‘this system is up-to-date’.
Cheers
Rich
Hi Mark!
Update-notifier has still not worked - updates were still sitting waiting when I manually fired up update manager. So…
As per your instructions in post #50 edit 2, I removed update-notifer and update-manager and replaced them with the muon equivalents. This seems to have been successful as muon-notifier immediately popped up on restart.
code from ps aux | grep [u]pdate returns
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $ ps aux | grep [u]pdate
root 14390 0.1 0.3 15172 7688 ? S 08:17 0:00 /usr/bin/python /usr/share/apt-xapian-index/update-apt-xapian-index-dbus
richard@Richard-Ei-306-Home ~ $
This suggests to me it is now working correctly? Perhaps, as you thought, it may be a particular quirk and a modification specific to KDE? I’ll continue to monitor it without user intervention and post back in a few days with further info.
Rich
Cheers for letting me know … at least I know what to suggest if ever asked again 
You live and learn eh :o