Something new? "Refresh" of system components

[paul1149]

Starting two weeks ago I've been getting many "Refresh" of already installed system components when I daily update. I've never seen this before. Typically Discover doesn't even need elevation to perform these refreshes, which is odd. And typically each refresh might be 350mb in size, whereas most updates have always been much smaller. I'm attaching the offerings of today.

2024-12-07_08(2).png

The refreshes have gone smoothly, but I wonder what is going on.

Thanks.

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-13-amd64 [6.1.55-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-13-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
    init=/lib/systemd/systemd
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.5 tk: Qt v: 5.15.8 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: SDDM
    Distro: MX-23.4_KDE_x64 Libretto October 15 2023 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: MAG B550 TOMAHAWK (MS-7C91) v: 2.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: A.F0 date: 10/19/2023
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3+ gen: 4 level: v3 note: check
    built: 2022 process: TSMC n6 (7nm) family: 0x19 (25) model-id: 0x21 (33) stepping: 0
    microcode: 0xA20102B
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 6 tpc: 2 threads: 12 smt: enabled cache: L1: 384 KiB
    desc: d-6x32 KiB; i-6x32 KiB L2: 3 MiB desc: 6x512 KiB L3: 32 MiB desc: 1x32 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2218 high: 2317 min/max: 2200/4650 boost: enabled scaling:
    driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: ondemand cores: 1: 2205 2: 2198 3: 2200 4: 2254 5: 2200 6: 2200
    7: 2239 8: 2200 9: 2200 10: 2317 11: 2199 12: 2205 bogomips: 88797
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow mitigation: safe RET
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: always-on, RSB
    filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Lexa PRO [Radeon 540/540X/550/550X / RX 540X/550/550X] driver: amdgpu v: kernel
    arch: GCN-4 code: Arctic Islands process: GF 14nm built: 2016-20 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s
    lanes: 8 ports: active: DVI-D-1,HDMI-A-1 empty: none bus-ID: 2b:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:699f
    class-ID: 0300 temp: 38.0 C
  Device-2: Sunplus Innovation SPCA2281 Web Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 1-2.2:4 chip-ID: 1bcf:2281 class-ID: 0102
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
    loaded: amdgpu unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3200x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 846x285mm (33.31x11.22") s-diag: 893mm (35.15")
  Monitor-1: DVI-D-1 mapped: DVI-D-0 pos: bottom-l model: ViewSonic VP191b serial: <filter>
    built: 2004 res: 1280x1024 hz: 60 dpi: 86 gamma: 1.2 size: 376x310mm (14.8x12.2")
    diag: 487mm (19.2") ratio: 5:4 modes: max: 1280x1024 min: 720x400
  Monitor-2: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-A-0 pos: primary,top-right model: Asus VS248 serial: <filter>
    built: 2014 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 92 gamma: 1.2 size: 531x299mm (20.91x11.77")
    diag: 609mm (24") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 24.2.2-1~mx23ahs renderer: AMD Radeon RX 550 / 550 Series (radeonsi
    polaris12 LLVM 15.0.6 DRM 3.49 6.1.0-13-amd64) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Baffin HDMI/DP Audio [Radeon RX 550 640SP / 560/560X] driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 1-2.2:4 pcie: chip-ID: 1bcf:2281 gen: 3 class-ID: 0102 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 8
    bus-ID: 2b:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aae0 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 2d:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Sunplus Innovation SPCA2281 Web Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-13-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000 bus-ID: 05:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 2
    speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: d000 bus-ID: 2a:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8125 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth1 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.27 TiB used: 1.21 TiB (53.3%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:2 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 980 500GB size: 465.76 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: 1B4QFXO7 temp: 31.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB size: 931.51 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: 4B2QEXM7 temp: 29.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-00UJTA0 size: 931.51 GiB
    block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1A01
    scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 38.96 GiB size: 38.06 GiB (97.67%) used: 31.01 GiB (81.5%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:4
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 500 MiB size: 499 MiB (99.80%) used: 568 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:3
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 408.16 GiB size: 400.69 GiB (98.17%) used: 46.6 GiB (11.6%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:5
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 18.14 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:6
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 52.8 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 38.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 3194 pm: dpkg pkgs: 3163 libs: 1812 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala pm: rpm pkgs: 0
    pm: flatpak pkgs: 31
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    3: deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main non-free-firmware
    4: deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main non-free-firmware
    5: deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/megasync.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/meganz-archive-keyring.gpg] https://mega.nz/linux/repo/Debian_12/ ./
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
    2: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bookworm ahs
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nextdns.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/nextdns.gpg] https://repo.nextdns.io/deb stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list
    1: deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi-snapshot.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.vivaldi.com/snapshot/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zulu-openJDK.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] http://repos.azulsystems.com/debian stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zulu-openjdk.list
    1: deb [ arch=amd64 ] https://repos.azul.com/zulu/deb/ stable main
Info:
  Processes: 340 Uptime: 8m wakeups: 0 Memory: 15.54 GiB used: 4.75 GiB (30.6%) Init: systemd
  v: 252 target: graphical (5) default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[j2mcgreg]

Maybe there is something off with your main repository. Try using Repo Manager to switch to Salt Lake City and see if this behaviour continues.

[paul1149]

Ok, I switched to Salt Lake City, from Rochester, NY, and ran `sudo apt update`, then started Discover and refreshed, and the same "Refresh" packages presented themselves.

[j2mcgreg]

Ok, I switched to Salt Lake City, from Rochester, NY, and ran `sudo apt update`, then started Discover and refreshed, and the same "Refresh" packages presented themselves.

Do you get the same result if you use MXPI instead of Discover?

[paul1149]

Ok, I went to MXPI, Enabled Repos, did a Refresh List, and then selected the Upgradable filter. Nothing appeared. I'm not sure how to interpret that, because these "Refreshes" apparently aren't considered Updates, since no elevation is required to process them. I don't know what they are, or why no one else apparently has experienced them. Baffled.

[Germ]

I noticed the same thing after installing some flatpaks. The "refresh" doesn't actually update your system. They go into the flatpak/flathub directories that are setup when you install flatpaks. I eventually removed all the flatpak garbage and don't use flatpak any longer.

[paul1149]

Interesting. And then it stopped? I have installed two or three flatpaks lately.

[Germ]

Yes, it stopped.

[paul1149]

Ok, thank you. That gives me a direction. I use flatpak for handbrake and a couple of other things, and it's the only way to keep up to date. I'll try asking over there.

[asqwerth]

I think Discover shows all the available runtimes [environment/platforms] that are available in flatpak, for when you try to install a flatpak that is using the latest version of Plasma or Gnome. It doesn't affect the user if you don't use flatpaks, or, if you are using a flatpak app, you don't update the flatpak app's version on your system.

Note that if you don't use Discover to update your system, you won't accidentally update flatpaks; if you simply use MX-updater, you won't be updating flatpaks and will have to intentionally do so from the MXPI flatpak tab. That is the way I do things as I hate to update flatpak apps if they are already working fine.

If you update the flatpak app, then often they are offering the latest and "greatest", which means the latest version that runs on a newer runtime. An update will thus pull the new runtimes in.

If you absolutely need the latest version of the flatpak app, then you will have no choice but to pull in the new runtime. However, MX-cleanup as well as MXPI flatpak tab offers you options to remove old runtimes that are no longer in use because your flatpak app or apps is/are now using a newer runtime.