#1033357 aptitude: TUI does not display all error messages

Package:
aptitude
Source:
aptitude
Description:
terminal-based package manager
Submitter:
Vincent Lefevre
Date:
2025-08-10 14:29:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#1033357#5
Date:
2023-03-23 11:17:17 UTC
From:
To:
I've got the following error message from the TUI (with 'u' to update):

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│E: Failed to download some files                                             ▒│
│W: Failed to fetch                                                           ▒│
│   https://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/experimental/InRelease:               ▒│
│E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones  ▒│
│   used instead.                                                             ▒│
│                                    [ Ok ]                                    │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

However, "aptitude update" (like "apt update") is more informative:

[...]
Get: 31 https://ftp.debian.org/debian experimental InRelease [101 kB]
E: Repository 'https://ftp.debian.org/debian experimental InRelease' changed its 'Codename' value from 'experimental' to 'rc-buggy'
E: Failed to download some files
W: Failed to fetch https://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/experimental/InRelease:
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

I suspect that the cause is that the first message disappeared
in the TUI.

#1033357#10
Date:
2023-03-23 18:23:58 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Vincent,

Vincent Lefevre wrote:

Ran into this today, too. I think we had this already when bullseye
switched from testing to stable or so and I think there's a bug report
for this, too, already. Will search later for that one.

Interestingly compared to your last bug repoirt this time I think the
severity is higher, as this is an error which doesn't let you to
properly continue without proper explanation.

		Regards, Axel

#1033357#19
Date:
2023-03-23 20:21:31 UTC
From:
To:
I don't remember about this one, but there was one (still open)
for stretch to buster:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=931619

The difference is that at least, one has here an error message, so
that one can investigate and fix the issue; and despite this error,
one can still upgrade everything except experimental, which is the
only one affected by the error. For the other bug report, aptitude
didn't report anything, so that it didn't leave the chance for the
user to find and fix the issue, which is much more problematic
(note that I became aware of the issue only by chance, due to some
random discussion in a Debian mailing-list); moreover, it involved
firmware upgrades, which, AFAIK, often have security fixes.

#1033357#24
Date:
2025-08-10 14:21:07 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

	Bumped in to this today with the release of Debian Trixie, and
`testing` being renamed to Forky.  Aptitude's TUI said some of the
indices weren't downloaded, but didn't say why.  I had to run `apt-get
update` from the shell to get the full story:

```
~$ sudo apt-get update
Hit:1 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.debian.org/debian-security trixie-security InRelease
Get:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian testing InRelease [113 kB]
Hit:4 https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Ign:5 https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable InRelease
Hit:6 https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable Release
Hit:8 http://deb.debian.org/debian unstable InRelease
Hit:9 http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie-updates InRelease
Hit:10 http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie-backports InRelease
Hit:11 https://download.bareos.org/current/Debian_12  InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
E: Repository 'http://deb.debian.org/debian testing InRelease' changed its 'Codename' value from 'trixie' to 'forky'
N: This must be accepted explicitly before updates for this repository can be applied. See apt-secure(8) manpage for details.
```

	I don't expect aptitude to provide the acceptance mechanism, but
I do expect it to give more complete information on failures.

					Schwab