Incremental updates and package origin in Synaptic
If one does not immediately upgrade from Trisquel X to Trisquel X+1 but keeps Trisquel X updated, I believe the current package version after an incremental update to X.x has been released should be the same as the current version in X+1 for the affected packages, at least until the X+1 package gets updated. Is that correct?
In such a case, is Synaptic still supposed to list the affected packages in any of the Trisquel X package sources when sorting by origin?
Case in point: the hplip package. Nabia says 3.21.2 while Etiona says 3.17.10. On an updated Trisquel Etiona system, Synaptic says 3.21.2 as expected but does not list it in any of the various Etiona package sources. The package only appears when "All" is selected. Is there a way to get the relevant Nabia package source to be listed?
> Is there a way to get the relevant Nabia package source to be listed?
That should read: is there a way to get the relevant Etiona package source to somehow be listed?
The current versions are 3.21.2+dfsg1-2+9.0trisquel1 and 3.21.2+dfsg1-2+10.0trisquel1.
EDIT: that system had only security updates enabled. After re-enabling recommended updates, etiona-updates showed up again in the origin list.
That's not true in general. Most package versions will stay the same throughout the lifetime of Trisquel X. hplip is different because it was backported.
Really? What are incremental updates like 9.0.1 or 9.0.2 for then?
Updates of the ISO images (to avoid a heavy 'apt upgrade' after installing one of them, and, sometimes, to remove from the live system a package that was found nonfree).
So the backports may in fact happen any time in the life of an installed X version?
It's rare for a backport to hit the repo (other than the backports repo). In this case it was done for a freedom issue, as the newer version removed dependence on a proprietary plugin.
> other than the backports repo
Thank you very much, it's clearer now.
There remains the question whether it is possible to get Synaptic to show etiona-updates in the list of package sources even if it is not currently enabled. I guess any package that is not listed as coming from either main or security must have come through recommended updates if no other source has been enabled and nothing installed out of repo. I would like not to have to guess, but apt-cache policy hplip
is indeed silent on the package source if it is not currently enabled. So the only way seems to re-enable it and check again.