software updater get old version of Firefox

Asked by rhackenb

When I click on the software update icon, it examines my system and then tells there there are softrware updates for Firefox 1.5. The problem is that I am running Firefox 2.0.0.4. I have to deselect all the references to Firefox so that it doesn't overwrite my current version of Firefox. The same thing happens with updates for Open Office. It's tries to update Open Office 2.0 instead of my current version of 2.3. It seem not to recognize that I am running later versions of these two applications. Does anyone know why it does this? I would prefer that it offer me updates to the versions that I am running.

I am running Ubuntu 6.07 (or something like that).

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John Asay
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Best John Asay (johnasay) said :
#1

What is happening is that Ubuntu does not update programs after release except for security and really big bug fixes. This is in an attempt to not break other parts of the system. For instance, in the change from firefox 1.5 to 2.0, the api was changed and it breaks yelp (a help program) which uses the firefox backend to display it's help files. A security update to firefox or openoffice must have been made showing you a new version of the now outdated software. Since you have newer version numbered software you must have installed it manually and bypassed the Ubuntu repos which is why Ubuntu does not realize you have new software.

Now, if you are still paying attention, what you can do to get the update manager off your back is to open Synaptic (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager) and search for the program you want (e.g. firefox or OO.org). Select the package and go the Package menu and select lock version. Now the update manager won't ask you to update (downgrade?) to the "new" version. It also won't update you to the new Firefox 2.0.0x but that is the tradeoff for using Dapper instead of one of the newer Ubuntu releases.

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rhackenb (rgh3) said :
#2

Perfect solution!

Yes, I manually installed the newer versions of both Firefox and OO. I guess I didn't see the newer versions in synaptic, maybecause they were unlocked.

The process of locking OO was painful because there were about 14 items that I had to do one at a time but this did work.

Thanks for your help.

rhackenb

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John Asay (johnasay) said :
#3

If you ever do upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu (as opposed to a fresh install) then make sure you unlock the packages first so they will upgrade to whatever is the newest version at that time. If you do this I would suggest opening Synaptic and then going to Settings -> Filters and then creating a new filter "locked" and delecting everythingy on the right except "pinned". That way you can go to custom filters on the bottom left and find all locked packages at once. You can select all of them and unlock at the same time to make things easier.