Jtdcftul

I am using Ubuntu 14.10.

To keep things as brief as possible:

1. 
   

   Software Updater -

   
   
   

   (a) This runs, tells me I need updates, I give permissions to update, it then tells me I have no internet connection.

   
   
   

   (b) Previously to the last update, it worked fine, last update ceased suddenly after something network or driver related had been updated, since then I have had this report of no internet when I do have internet.

   
   
   

   (c) Today it reports I need to install 269MiB of updates, the very same updates that have been updated prior to the update that killed internet in software updater and just downloaded by terminal however this seems to not be registering with software updater.

   
   
   

   (d) Consequently I can not update via this service.

   
   


2. 
   

   Terminal -

   
   
   

   (a) This downloads the updates without a problem. I used the sudo apt-get update command and sudo apt-get install

   
   
   

   (b) It is not installing updates, it reports something that I didn't take much notice of other than it had wording like "nothing to install" or maybe install was update, well something along those lines. Yet there is something to install because stuff was downloaded and if it is not needed then that is wasting my data allowance TYVM which is costly as any mobile tether on a PAYG service can tell you hardliners. Grrrr.

   
   
   

   (c) see 1.(d)

   
   

So how can I work this situation, no matter what approach I take its not working so all the suggested avenues I have looked at, all relater to a specific program, however in my case the specific program is software updater related, if their is a subject or link that I am not aware of, please feel free to point me in that direction.

** EDIT **

For some unknown reason, a situation that left me unable to update by Software Updater and also via terminal, each with opposing problems, suddenly updated itself without rhyme or reason...

So the questions now are

1. how can a computer update itself without authorization?


2. how can a locked situation become unraveled before my very eyes without any intervention by me?

As described in my comment: apt-get install is for installing software which is not yet present on your computer. For doing the same job as update-manager does, you have to run apt-get upgrade i personally prefer apt-get dist-upgrade because it also installs kernel upgrades etc. Probably update-manager acts more like dist-upgrade. man apt-get is a good help page...

Now to the answers of your questions:

1. how can a computer update itself without authorization?

update-manager (the gui tool). Works only as a front-end. In the background there is aptd which is triggered by systemd. If you want to run updates, update-manager tells aptd over systemd to run the updates, while aptd is running as root.

The permission check itself is technically not necessary: While starting update-manager, it also asks aptd via systemd for which you won't be asked for a password.

For the auto updates, you should have a look at the script /etc/cron.daily/apt which runs as root once per day.

The process list while updates get installed shows something like this:

14537 ?        SNl    0:02   /usr/bin/python3 /usr/sbin/aptd

14625 pts/57   SNs+   0:00     /usr/bin/python3 /usr/sbin/aptd

14661 pts/58   DNs+   0:00       /usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 43 --unpack --auto-deconfigure /var/cache/apt/archives/freshplayerp....deb

2. how can a locked situation become unraveled before my very eyes without any intervention by me?

The locking probably comes from the apt-get update above, or from another test. It resolved by itself because it just finished its job.

For checking this, you can run the following command while apt-get is locked:

ps ax | grep apt