Discussion: giving users a real clue when an update fails, not just a file list

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
25/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Needs clarification
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
python
Domain
desktop

Research direction

Start by reading the related aptkit issue #18 and the referenced Update Manager issues #116, #120, and #888 to understand the existing failure details. The issue does not name files, tests, or an agreed behavior, so first clarify with maintainers which causes and recovery guidance the dialog should expose. Done requires an agreed scope and a testable definition of the user-facing error message.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Opening this for discussion rather than as a concrete request. I started a related thread on aptkit about the backend side (https://github.com/linuxmint/aptkit/issues/18), and this is the Update Manager half.

Recently an update failed here. The error told me which files couldn't be fetched but not why. No reason, no next step. I eventually traced it to a mirror that was syncing, but only because I went into the apt logs by hand. A regular user can't do that, and they shouldn't have to.

Older versions of Update Manager used to show more. Issues #116 and #120 from years back show the dialog printing reasons like "Could not resolve". Some of that detail seems to have been lost over the various backend changes. There are also open issues like #888 where a failure shows only a cryptic line with no actionable cause.

So my question to other users and the maintainers: when an install or update fails, how much should the dialog tell someone who isn't comfortable in a terminal? I'd love to see at least a plain-language reason and a hint at what to try, even if the deep detail stays tucked away. Curious what others think before anyone proposes a specific change.

Dominant language
Python
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Forks
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