Solved Updating Software and Software installed is Stuck

[ZennMystic]

I updated yesterday Tuesday March 10 2026, but when I turned on my PC to day I noticed that the installed and update software seems to be stuck. It has been this was for several hours now.

I have included snapshot to show what I am talking about.
I did a search on here, the one reference that came up about this talked about information and I log. I was not able to find/see this anywhere.

I use nala so I did a: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y && sudo apt clean
It said everything was up to date and clean.

I have also tired rebooting and turning the PC off and on again.

So I am not sure what to do now. If anyone can help solve/fix I would appreciate it TY.

Here is snapshot for updates and installed software:

 

[f33dm3bits]

You may want to include which DE you are using for those replying to your topic.

 

[Brickwizard]

are you using an EOL build, in which case the updater will not find any open repositories

 

[f33dm3bits]

are you using an EOL build,

Yes also good to include which Debian version you are using.

 

[Condobloke]

Which country are you in ?

How long since you installed updates?

Do you have anything else connected to your internet....is it working ok ?

 

[ZennMystic]

I do not know what DE or EOL means.

I is using Debian 12.

ChatGPT said to type in this:

cat /etc/os-release
cat /etc/debian_version
hostnamectl

I got this:

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="12"
VERSION="12 (bookworm)"
VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"
12.13
Static hostname: debian-pc
Icon name: computer-desktop
Chassis: desktop ️
Machine ID: b42ae108b4354b4d8e14794bc82a7597
Boot ID: 748f8d910fb54f658efd5f2e5d0df485
Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-43-amd64
Architecture: x86-64
Hardware Vendor: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
Hardware Model: MS-7D25
Firmware Version: 1.C0

Does this help?

 

[Brickwizard]

first switch on open a terminal and run sudo dpkg --configure -a then try sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y

If this doesn't work check your upgrade repository list anything not Debian disable and try again

 

[Rocketing-warp9]

I do not know what DE or EOL means.

DE Stands For "Desktop Environment" like your point/click part of your Distro.
Each has their own back-end, and have different looking components. EOL Means End of Life, When there are no more updates for that version, like how MS ended support for W10. If I may suggest if you have access to an Ethernet cable.. I was experiencing something similar with Lubuntu yesterday when I was upgrading from Lubuntu 18.04 to 20.04 to 22.04. It might not be it.. but it can't hurt.

 

[ZennMystic]

typing in: sudo dpkg --configure -a returned nothing/nothing seemed to happen.
typing in: sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y

I got this:

sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y
Error: https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-security Release
404 Not Found [IP: 146.75.78.132 443]
╭─ Updating Package List ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│No Change: https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm InRelease │
│Ignored: https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-security InRelease │
│Updated: https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates InRelease [55 KB] │
│No Change: https://apt.llvm.org/bookworm llvm-toolchain-bookworm-20 InRelease │
│No Change: https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla InRelease │
│Fetched 55 KB in 0s (0 bytes/s) │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
Error: The repository 'https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-security Release' does not have a Release file.

 

[osprey]

typing in: sudo dpkg --configure -a returned nothing/nothing seemed to happen.
typing in: sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y

I got this:

sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y
Error: https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-security Release
404 Not Found [IP: 146.75.78.132 443]
╭─ Updating Package List ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│No Change: https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm InRelease │
│Ignored: https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-security InRelease │
│Updated: https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates InRelease [55 KB] │
│No Change: https://apt.llvm.org/bookworm llvm-toolchain-bookworm-20 InRelease │
│No Change: https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla InRelease │
│Fetched 55 KB in 0s (0 bytes/s) │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
Error: The repository 'https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-security Release' does not have a Release file.

There are lots of ways to approach the issues raised in post #1. The following are some observations which may be useful.

Running bookworm isn't the optimal debian to run at the moment since trixie is the current stable. One reason to run bookworm would be if there is software that needs its particular version of libraries or packages, but otherwise, it's hard to see a good reason to run rapidly obsoleting software.

EOL means "end of line", which for debian bookworm is 10th of June 2026, which means that regular support for bookworm ends on that date. See here: https://www.debian.org/releases/.

Running a composite command like "sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y && sudo apt clean" is fine when the system is known to be working reliably, but otherwise, especially when installing new packages or software, it's more careful, and wiser, to run each command separately in succession, and view each screen to see if there are any messages of interest which would be informative about the system, like warnings or messages that appear unusual.

There appears to be a few issues with apt sources. The repository for bookworm security in the error shown in post #9 appears to be because the URL is incorrect. Perhaps change the entry to: http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security

A comment on using https in the sources file instead of http: it's not so much an issue, as unnecessary because apt already checks all the packages it downloads with it's own checksumming processes so the encryption protection of https is not needed. Using https just adds the encryption layer unnecessarily from apt's point of view. Using https takes up a bit more broadband than http. It's not a big deal, but one can be more efficient if interested in that.

If the system has the sort of problems described in post #1, then it may be useful to boot to a text prompt and login from there so that a minimal amount of software is running when upgrading. That way, when upgrading the software, one isn't messing with upgrading software that is actually running which can at times lead to unusual and/or disconcerting effects on a desktop.

 

[ZennMystic]

OK So I will upgrade to Debian 13 then? I have a spare external hard drive that is the same size as my internal Linux system drive.

So I think I should? Image backup? The old system? I have done this on Windows I used ghost image backup software. But I have never had to or do so on Linux.

How would I do this well on Linux? I do not plan to have to do this very often at all. Are there free Linux programs that would do this well?

 

[Condobloke]

Rescuezilla is one. Free. It works. Takes an image that can be restored. It compresses the file as it is taken. If you restore it to another drive, that drive must be at least as big as the original. Bigger is fine, smaller (even by less than 1MB) will not work.

Easy disk cloning and imaging | Rescuezilla (Clonezilla GUI)

Free bare metal restore solution with graphical interface on a live CD. Point-and-click to backup and restore an entire computer. Bare metal disaster recovery restores all programs, documents and settings. GPL open source.

rescuezilla.com

 

[Alexzee]

OK So I will upgrade to Debian 13 then? I have a spare external hard drive that is the same size as my internal Linux system drive.

So I think I should? Image backup? The old system? I have done this on Windows I used ghost image backup software. But I have never had to or do so on Linux.

How would I do this well on Linux? I do not plan to have to do this very often at all. Are there free Linux programs that would do this well?

I'm old school when it comes to a back up.
After plugging in my external drive I back up all of my files and data and then proceed with a fresh installation.

You don't have to do it this way it's just a suggestion.
Personally, I just don't trust back up or clone software.

 

[GatorsFan]

Error: https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-security Release
404 Not Found [IP: 146.75.78.132 443]

You may need to update your sources.list - The below is current for Debian 12 - you can make a new sources.list file and copy and paste the below into the folder where the file is - /etc/apt/sources.list - you must be in root to do this - make a backup of your current file first just add .bak to the end of it first then save it then move the new file into the folder then run sudo apt update and see if that fixes your issue - it should look similar to the image below

deb https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm contrib main non-free non-free-firmware

deb https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates contrib main non-free non-free-firmware

deb https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-proposed-updates contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-proposed-updates contrib main non-free non-free-firmware

deb https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-backports contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-backports contrib main non-free non-free-firmware

deb https://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src https://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security contrib main non-free non-free-firmware

 

[ZennMystic]

The spare drive I have is not big enough to full backup the drive Debian 12 is on, so I have been backing up everything I think I will need later/want to keep.

I think after reading the comments I am going to upgrade to Debian 13, clean install.
I have liked 12 a lot so high hopes for 13.

My original issue of the update/installed software being stuck seems to have self resolved.
So do I mark the thread as solved/resolved in some way? Not sure how to do this though and Resolved rather than actually Solved would be a better choice I think.

Going to take the weekend to think things through and make sure all I wanted is backed up.

I think it best to start a new thread as I have questions about install of Debian 13 that has nothing to do with this original post or should I just continue here?

What is good manners in this case?

Thank You all for your time and input.

 

[Condobloke]

Go to your first post, ....in the bottom left hand cornre of that post is the word Edit. Click on that. immedaately above in the top left hand corner, you will see ...no prefix. Click on the down arrow and change that to Solved,

If you like you can make a short additional post here explaining you would have rather named it Resolved.

Yes, definitely make a new thread for your Debian 13 questions etc

 

[ZennMystic]

I was more like Linux self resolved on it's own.