Quoting Peter Ross (petrosssit@gmail.com):
Hi all,
answered the question myself: Do not use the GUI;-)
"apt-get clean; apt-get update; apt-get upgrade" worked.
Sad, a bit, that "novice users" still need the command line, it seems.
Reasons it is best to avoid relying on dependency-laden graphical tools to do system upgrades include the strong possibility that the updates to that tool's dependencies may make it misbehave or crash. You said you eventually 'realized it does not do the "apt-get update" behind the scenes', which reminds me of another reason: Graphical tools in many cases give markedly less diagnostic and operational information to the user, when they run, than do their console equivalents. Also, in some other cases (not a relevant concern in this case, I think), I have found that the X-based tool suppressed stderr completely, while running the equivalent console tool showed exactly what the problem was, automatically, because stderr went to the console by default. The best very advice to novices, IMO, is to get to know standard Unix console tools, because they'll be consistently useful across diverse systems and across decades, while the other stuff is here today, something wildly different tomorrow. -- Cheers, "The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw." Rick Moen -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey rick@linuxmafia.com McQ! (4x80)