- This topic has 47 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated Apr 21-11:50 pm by BobC.
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BobC
Yes, PPC, you are correct that I was not aware that the package implemented was made from the code we were testing and tweaking…
Next time I get a chance I will do a full reload and upgrade to see what the current design is.
I admit that I am too cheap to spend 30 mb of memory to know how many updates are available, but still want to know the answer, and still want to be occasionally reminded in case I want to update everything.
Ok, I loaded a test partition and tested things out. The menu based antiX-Updater worked fine.
I still like the conky “Updates Available” rather than spending memory for the taskbar indicator just because I’m cheap on memory. The problem is that I also think the conky should be consistent between the X-windows based versions, and with aptitude required and space so tight on the base ISO, I just don’t see it getting added. An intermediary script called by the conky that could alternately run apt-get or aptitude depending on whether aptitude is installed or not could resolve that issue if it was run a few times a day, even on slower hardware.
But anyway, the big problem has been resolved as I see it, and what I’m tweaking likely isn’t wanted by anyone but cheapskates like me…
christophe
Still… If you post a step-by-step, some users will like what you’ve designed, and build it & use it on their setup, I’m sure. (Or even use it as a base.) It sounds pretty cool.
confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019
ModdIt
bob c wrote: what I’m tweaking likely isn’t wanted by anyone but cheapskates like me…
I still like the conky “Updates Available” rather than spending memory for the taskbar indicator just because I’m cheap on memory. The problem is that I also think the conky should be consistent between the X-windows based versions, and with aptitude required and space so tight on the base ISO, I just don’t see it getting added. An intermediary script called by the conky that could alternately run apt-get or aptitude depending on whether aptitude is installed or not could resolve that issue if it was run a few times a day, even on slower hardware.
Agree with christophe, but with the reservation that some users may never see conky due windows opened from start.
My personal choice is the lightest version, synapse indicator says do updates :-).
For many users brain is not sufficient, they are busy with school work and play..Anonymous
BobC, I like what you have to say about RAM consumption. This is exactly why I have been working in antiX with fluxbox for years. It is an important argument for antiX that it not only handles old computers excellently and is economical in ram consumption with the variety of software.
Now I am the type who executes the update command when an OS is restarted. Therefore the display of possible updates on the desktop does not really affect me.
Your ideas in this thread made me, together with my friend Sector11, perfect the code for the display in the Conky.
BobC and christophe, you do it already for the simple user 😉 It’s a nice gimmick.The change of the code should attract the attention of the user by flashing to available updates. Once he has done the update, the display will change to a fixed “0 Updates” display after the set time of 600 seconds.
${alignc}${if_match ${execpi 600 aptitude search "~U" | wc -l | tail}==0}${execpi 600 aptitude search "~U" | wc -l | tail} Updates\ ${else}${color red}${blink ${execpi 600 aptitude search "~U" | wc -l | tail}${color} Updates}${color}\ ${endif}
From my example to sid it becomes clear: since weeks the system udisks2 back, because the new version with nosystemd is currently not available
This means that Conky will continue to display “1 Update” flashing even after the system has been updated.Have fun
Male, I like your conky view and aptitude (because it checks for updates so quickly).
I am trying to use that in combination with apt-notifier and cron to have it check every 10 minutes to see if updates are available, and if yes, start apt-notifier so it appears in the tray as well as on the conky, and if none, then kill apt-notifier to save memory and tray space when no updates are available.
I am thinking that with that on my screen when updates are available, I shouldn’t need to be nagged…
anticapitalista
Why check every 10 minutes?
Debian updates their repos, if I remember correctly, every 6 hours.Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
That is correct.
I’m responding to my Conky part of the question.
Regardless of the update_interval 1 of the Conky, the user would continue to see the available update packets blinking for 6 hours (21600) after the update is done.
Therefore I think the 10 minutes suggested by christophe are a good average.As BobC says, this can of course be annoying.
What is nice about Conky is that everyone can live out “his” taste.
Ergo, if you turn off the flashing command.... ${else}${color red}${execpi 600 aptitude search "~U" | wc -l | tail}${color} Updates${color}\ ...and if you don’t like red, you can take the paint off…
anti, Are there scheduled times for those updates? aptitude only takes about a second to decide there are no updates. Is it really not a correct answer? apt-get takes a minute or two to look at all the repos. If it will take a minute or two to get the correct answer, I would only check a few times a day depending on the system speed, not every 10 minutes.
Male, I don’t understand why the user would see the flashing for 6 hours after the updates were done?
What I did so far:
Tried the stock antiX version with dist-upgrade (then I had updater in antix-goodies)
Added the aptitude and conky code from Male. Ran it manually and it says 0 updates available.
Installed the apt-notifier. Looks like I need to reboot afterwards. It’s not running. Ran it manually, now it appeared, but says 106 updates available. Not sure if that was from running apt-get update or from installing apt-notifier and its dependencies. I think I will install a few of them just to see if the numbers change.
PS: Looked at synaptic… found that I hadn’t run the dist-upgrade on this machine. I see that both the notifier and conky now show 1 less package to upgrade
PSS: will reboot to look at memory used… Answer was 131.5 used before and 175.6 after apt-notifier, so it needed 44.1 mb additional
I think I will try my idea to see if I can get it to run apt-notifier only when there are updates available. I’m not sure anyone else would want that, but it seems reasonable to me.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by BobC.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by BobC.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by BobC.
Brian Masinick
I do appreciate the diversity of ideas and choices regarding scripts versus alias shortcuts, commands versus graphical buttons.
I’d like to highlight something that I have done for decades. I happen to have a system that has many distributions installed. In the past I have owned as many as three systems ( one time I had one desktop and two laptops).
My practice, especially when using so many distributions, was to simply update the system as soon as I started it. When I had many computers, the oldest one didn’t get used as often, so if it was a week or a month since the previous usage, I would run the update and upgrade right away.
Also, since I came from a background that predated widespread GUI use, I certainly had a good collection of scripts, tools and shortcuts (alias commands) to use.
As the GUI became more prevalent, I definitely used it, but I would also compare various methods of performing various tasks. Frankly I had some scripts available that I could use to back up my system, wipe it clean, reinstall a daily or nightly build, run one or two commands to mount and retrieve my tools, then run another command to restore my system. At work I had three workstations so I could be reading Email or maintaining, developing or testing code while the test system was being updated.
There are plenty of benefits to GUI and commands. While performing the work above, I’d use BOTH.
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Brian MasinickMale, I don’t understand why the user would see the flashing for 6 hours after the updates were done?
Because conky would give this command to aptitude and execute it every 6 hours
...${execpi 21600 aptitude search "...
Therefore the compromise with the 10 minutes
...${execpi 600 aptitude search "...male, sorry I misunderstood. I agree that I wouldn’t want a wrong number on the screen blinking red at me for 6 hours even after updating. I actually prefer the whole phrase “XXX Updates Available” to blink in Red myself. I tend to not notice things that I want to notice. As a matter of fact, I wish that apt-notifier icon in the tray would be impossible not to notice as well.
I will try my ideas this weekend. I do this for fun and because I like to, just to see if I can make it better. Its not that critical for me, just fun to add “free” icing on the cake.
I do think that the new apt-notifier and update features added by anti are as good as the other distros, and leave no cause for complaints.
I actually prefer the whole phrase “XXX Updates Available” to blink in Red myself.
then remove the ${color} here
... ${else}${color red}${execpi 600 aptitude search "~U" | wc -l | tail} Updates Available${color}\ .....| wc -l | tail}${color} Updates${color}\ ..| wc -l | tail} Updates Available${color}\ ...I do think that the new apt-notifier and update features added by anti are as good as the other distros, and leave no cause for complaints.
+1
Sorry, I’ve been real busy at work lately…
So, for low resource systems, I took male’s idea of using aptitude (which needs to be installed), and hooked it to anti’s apt-notifier (which also needs to be installed), tweaked the startup to run a checker from cron (which needs to be running) instead of running the notifier all the time, and then my script notices if there are new updates available within 15 minutes of them being posted, and if any fires up the apt-notifier in the tray to let the user know, and uses 44 mb of memory from then until they run the upgrades, and after they are up to date again, within 15 minutes the checker sees that no updates are needed and kills the tray icon saving the 44 mb of memory again.
Let me know if anyone tries it or has any problems with it.
I found a bug (it was adding another cron job after each boot), so I fixed it. I also changed it to just check hourly instead of 4 times per hour, since it looks like it is just checking what aptitude had found most recently, which I think is just being updated daily anyway. The network load to do the check was only 1000 bytes, which tells me it must not be doing much on the servers, and explains why it runs so quickly.
Here is the fixed code
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