12. Fault isolation

12.1 How to use this chapter

Find the symptom in the table below. Then read the section for the corrective action.

Symptom	Section
The tooltip shows Check failed. Is bs-update in ~/.local/bin?	12.2
The command bs-update is not available in a terminal.	12.3
The icon is not in the system tray.	12.4
The total is always zero.	12.5
The count is too high.	12.6
No notification comes.	12.7
The update run opens no terminal window.	12.8
An update run asks for a password many times.	12.9
The count on Debian or Ubuntu is old.	12.10
A Debian package never receives its update.	12.11
A second Gear Lever window opens.	12.12

12.2 The tooltip shows a failure

Cause: The widget cannot start ~/.local/bin/bs-update, or the output holds no line Total:.

Corrective action:

1. Open a terminal.
2. Run ~/.local/bin/bs-update -l.
3. Read the error messages.

If the file is absent, restart Plasma. The widget installs its own copy at each start. If the file is present but not executable, correct the mode:

chmod 755 ~/.local/bin/bs-update

12.3 The command is not available in a terminal

Cause: ~/.local/bin is not in the PATH variable.

Corrective action: Add the directory to the PATH variable in the configuration file of your shell. Then open a new terminal.

12.4 The icon is not in the system tray

Cause 1: The tray entry has the value "Shown when relevant", and the system is up to date. This is the correct behavior.

Corrective action: Set the entry to "Always shown".

Cause 2: The tray entry of the widget has the value "Hidden".

Corrective action:

1. Click the arrow in the system tray.
2. Click the configuration button.
3. Set the entry "bs-updater" to "Shown".

12.5 The total is always zero

Cause 1: The selection has no enabled tool.

Corrective action: Run bs-update --list-tools and examine the states. Then select a tool in the settings page.

Cause 2: The tool of a selected source is not installed.

Corrective action: Install the tool, or clear the checkbox of that source. Chapter 4 gives the tool of each source.

Cause 3: The system is up to date.

12.6 The count is too high

Cause: Two enabled tools update the same kind of package.

Corrective action: Open the settings page "Update sources". Read the warning and clear one of the two checkboxes. bs-update also reports the condition on its error output.

12.7 No notification comes

Cause 1: The notification is off in the settings page "General".

Corrective action: Select the checkbox for the notification.

Cause 2: notify-send is absent.

Corrective action: Install libnotify.

Cause 3: You wait for the up-to-date notification after a scheduled check. A scheduled check never sends that notification.

Corrective action: Start a check with a click on the icon.

12.8 The update run opens no terminal window

Cause: The system has no terminal application, or the default terminal of KDE is not correct.

Corrective action: Install Konsole, or set the TERMINAL variable to your terminal application.

12.9 An update run asks for a password many times

Cause: More than one tool must have root privileges. Each sudo command asks again after the timeout of sudo.

Corrective action: This is normal behavior. Answer each question.

12.10 The count on Debian or Ubuntu is old

Cause: The count comes from the package lists on the disk. A refresh of these lists must have root privileges, and a scheduled check has no password.

Corrective action: No action is necessary. The timer apt-daily refreshes the lists in the background. The update run also refreshes the lists before it installs a package. Section 8.6 gives the full reason.

12.11 A Debian package never receives its update

Cause: apt-get upgrade never removes a package. A package whose update must have a removal stays back.

Corrective action: Run this command yourself:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

12.12 A second Gear Lever window opens

Cause: The command line interface of Gear Lever also starts the graphical application when a display connection is available.

Corrective action: bs-update removes the two display variables before it starts Gear Lever. If a window opens, make sure that you use the current version of the command:

head -1 ~/.local/bin/bs-update

The first line must be #!/bin/sh. Then restart Plasma to install the current copy from the widget.

12.13 How to collect data for a report

Give this data with a problem report:

1. The distribution and the version of Plasma.
2. The output of bs-update --list-tools.
3. The output of bs-update -l.
4. The error messages of the run.

Remove your user name and each path in your home directory from the output before you send it.