"The following upgrades have been deferred due to phasing" Message in Ubuntu 24.04

Ubuntu
1

If you are using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, you are likely to come across this message while updating the system in the terminal:

The following upgrades have been deferred due to phasing

Actually, a reader contacted me with this error he faced with his newly installed Ubuntu 24.04 system.

admn@dell:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
[sudo] password for admn:
Hit:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security InRelease
Hit:2 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease
Get:3 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates InRelease [89.7 kB]
Hit:4 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports InRelease
Hit:5 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu noble InRelease
Hit:6 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/texworks/stable/ubuntu noble InRelease
Fetched 89.7 kB in 21s (4,340 B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
1 package can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see it.
W: https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu/dists/noble/InRelease: Signature by key 0AB215679C571D1C8325275B9BDB3D89CE49EC21 uses weak algorithm (rsa1024)
W: https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/texworks/stable/ubuntu/dists/noble/InRelease: Signature by key 3EAF6A811849A711A6D5F781ACBAE083CDF2E7E8 uses weak algorithm (rsa1024)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
apturl-common python3-dateutil ubuntu-advantage-desktop-daemon
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following upgrades have been deferred due to phasing:
distro-info-data
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
admn@dell:~$

Now, if you see this message, do not panic. Nothing to be worried about.

It’s not an error and your system is fine. It’s just a message that tells you that the package in question has an update but it is rolling out in phases. So that if the package causes regression, the update is rolled back and fewer users are impacted.

Perhaps if you run update again after a few days, the same package will be updated just fine.

9 Likes
2

Bottom line is that you do nothing. Just ignore the message.

Actually, previously the same message was phrased as “following packages have been kept back”

And I have wrote about why it happens in detail.

9 Likes
3

Thank you Prakash sir. its helpfull for me.

3 Likes
4

Is it really the same thing? Because I have both messages shown (for different packages) upon running apt-get upgrade:

...
The following upgrades have been deferred due to phasing:
  python3-distupgrade ubuntu-release-upgrader-core ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-generic-hwe-24.04 linux-headers-generic-hwe-24.04 linux-image-generic-hwe-24.04
  linux-modules-nvidia-550-generic-hwe-24.04
1 Like
5

apt policy {package name}

will tell you if it is being phased.
It will have something like :
1.20.3-0ubuntu1 500 (phased 40%) <----------------- There it is!

currently being phased updates LINK

Packages can be kept back for other reasons. I’m personally not sure if “deferred due to phasing” is the same as “kept back” in 24.04 Earlier versions just used “kept back”

2 Likes
6

Is this a little like being naughty at school… in my day they called it detention !

Now i coukd say i am being phased !
Sounds modern and electrical

1 Like