Why can I not update Gnome to version 3.34

Question

Since updating to gnome 3.32 on ubuntu 18.04 a few weeks ago, every time I reboot I now get a notification to update to gnome 3.34. Clicking on the link to do just this produces, after about 30 seconds of waiting, the message "Unable to update gnome application platform version 3.34". All other updates proceed without problem.

Solution 1

Type in a console/terminal:

flatpak update

helped in my case. No need to do anything guiverc suggested.

This updated the following packages:

$ flatpak update 
Looking for updates…


        ID                                                  Arch          Branch        Op       Remote        Download
 1. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.Locale                     x86_64        18.08         u        flathub         1.0 kB / 316.0 MB
 3. [✓] org.freedesktop.Sdk.Locale                          x86_64        18.08         u        flathub         1.0 kB / 319.4 MB
 4. [✓] org.gnome.Platform.Locale                           x86_64        3.28          u        flathub         1.0 kB / 188.9 MB
 5. [✓] org.gnome.Platform.Locale                           x86_64        3.30          u        flathub         1.0 kB / 320.2 MB
 7. [✓] org.gnome.Platform                                  x86_64        3.34          u        flathub         1.0 kB / 318.4 MB
 9. [✓] org.gnome.Sdk                                       x86_64        3.34          u        flathub         1.0 kB / 658.5 MB
10. [✓] org.gnome.Sdk.Locale                                x86_64        3.34          u        flathub         1.0 kB / 326.3 MB
11. [✗] org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264                   x86_64        19.08         i        flathub       593.6 kB / 593.4 kB

Warning: org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264 not installed
Changes complete.


        ID                                               Arch              Branch            Remote            Download
 1. [✓] org.gnome.Sdk.Locale                             x86_64            3.32              flathub           17.4 kB / 323.2 MB
 2. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.html5-codecs            x86_64            18.08             flathub            2.9 MB / 3.3 MB
 3. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel             x86_64            18.08             flathub            1.8 MB / 1.8 MB

Installation complete.

Solution 2

I had this issue, and none of the above worked.

What seems to have worked is first I ran the command to remove unused flatpacks (seemingly mainly old ones)

flatpak uninstall --unused

As it removed unused packages, it listed them, including org.gnome.Platform Here below I show my output:

        ID                                              Branch          Op
 1. [-] org.freedesktop.Platform.html5-codecs           18.08           r
 2. [-] org.freedesktop.Platform                        18.08           r
 3. [-] org.freedesktop.Platform.Locale                 18.08           r
 4. [-] org.gnome.Platform                              3.32            r
 5. [-] org.gnome.Platform.Locale                       3.32            r
 6. [-] org.gnome.Platform                              3.34            r
 7. [-] org.gnome.Platform.Locale                       3.34            r
 8. [-] org.kde.Sdk                                     5.12            r
 9. [-] org.kde.Sdk.Locale                              5.12            r
10. [-] org.kde.Sdk                                     5.13            r
11. [-] org.kde.Sdk.Locale                              5.13            r

Then I ran flatpak repair. This needs sudo privileges.

sudo flatpak repair

It removed non-deployed packages. See output below:

Verifying flathub:runtime/org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/5.14…
Verifying deploy/runtime/org.gnome.Platform.Locale/x86_64/3.36…
Removing non-deployed ref flathub:runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264/x86_64/19.08…
Verifying flathub:runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264/x86_64/2.0…
Verifying deploy/runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default/x86_64/19.08…

Now I'm no longer getting the message to update Gnome.

This message was sporadic - and evidently it comes from Flatpak updater.

It looks like something installed the freedom.desktopwhatever flatpak to begin with in error, and it's happening a lot, and noone is posting the correct solution, anywhere. One forum got off on a tangent about whether we are allowed to run proprietary codec freedom.desktopwhatever. If we're not, it's not our fault it's erroneously getting installed on our systems! Believe me, I never knowingly installed the Gnome desktop runtime using Flatpak, I do not think so! What a thoroughly stupid, idiotic idea.

Evidently one cannot install three of the most popular desktop environments for Ubuntu, including Gnome, without using Flatpak. What a recipe for disaster. Ubuntu needs to stop forcing people to use Flatpak. And that snapwhatever as well. It smacks of Windows 10's disasters!

Solution 3

A recipe that worked for me after a few false starts:

# flatpak update
This gave: Warning: Failed to install org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264/x86_64/19.08: Error deploying: While trying to apply extra data: runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/19.08 not installed

flatpak repair
flatpak install flathub org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/19.08
flatpak update

I believe that's done the update so clicking on the clock no longer brings up the 'update to install' notification.

Comments

[guiverc]

Are you using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS? Ubuntu 18.04 LTS supports GNOME 3.28, so if you upgraded to gnome 3.32, you'll have a frakensystem that has many packages that you'll now have to upgrade or backport fixes yourself. I'd suggest you check ubuntu-support-status on how many packages you have that are still supported/upgradable by the system, as moving outside of default repositories puts upgrade/patch/security on yourself. All Ubuntu-GNOME releases are now EOL; as Ubuntu switched to GNOME with 17.10 there was no reason for the Ubuntu-GNOME flavor as GNOME was the default for Ubuntu.

[Malcolm Jaros]

You are right. I have 236 packages (9.0%) that are unsupported. To recover from this mess should I try to upgrade from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to 19.10 or roll-back (how?) to GNOME 3.28

[guiverc]

The best path for you only you can decide... though from where you got the packages would be a huge influence on best approach. You could remove all the non-18.04 packages, remove all your updated sources & then re-install them from 18.04 sources. A faster approach is to re-install 18.04 using 'something else' and no-format which take note of added packages, wipe system directories, install, re-install added packages (if in installed system's repos); without touching user data IF you don't format anything. If you've installed 19.10 packages - that could be an option too.

[jena]

don't confuse flatpak with apt (i know it's hard these days with all of them integrated in gnome-software), see my answer below

[Organic Marble]

Can you explain how updating flatpak solves the gnome version problem?

[Fini]

Well, obviously some GNOME stuff is installed via flatpak, the updated packages included: org.gnome.Platform 3.34 org.gnome.Sdk.Locale 3.34 org.gnome.Sdk 3.34 org.gnome.Platform.Locale 3.34 org.gnome.Platform.Locale 3.28 org.gnome.Platform.Locale 3.30 org.gnome.Platform 3.34 org.gnome.Sdk 3.34 org.gnome.Sdk.Locale 3.34 org.gnome.Sdk.Locale 3.32

[Fini]

Sorry the formatting capabilities here kill me :-( Above you see what flatpak update updated, amoungst other packages. Anyhow, you see a lot of GNOME comes as flatpaks and needs to be updated there, as it seems.

[NiKo]

That fixed it for me too. Basically flatpak uninstall --unused && sudo flatpak repair.