[Bug]: Desktop updater failures log no underlying error
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Assessment
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Newbie friendliness
- 86/100
- Issue type
- Bug
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Activity status
- Active
- Tech stack
- electron, typescript
- Domain
- desktop, observability
Research direction
Read DesktopUpdates.ts and inspect the three logUpdaterError handlers, then trace how ElectronUpdater*Error values expose their cause. Verify the desktop updater paths for cancelled pkexec prompts, download failures, and checksum mismatches. Done means the logs retain the underlying failure detail instead of showing only the shared message.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Before submitting
- I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate.
- I included enough detail to reproduce or investigate the problem.
Area
apps/desktop
Steps to reproduce
- On a
.debinstall, start an update and dismiss thepkexecpassword prompt. Or have the download fail (offline, 404). - Check the desktop log.
Expected behavior
The log records why the update failed.
Actual behavior
Every failure logs the same fixed message, e.g. "Electron updater failed to download the update on channel nightly.", plus errorTag and channel. The ElectronUpdater*Error types capture the thrown value in cause, but the handlers in DesktopUpdates.ts never log it. A cancelled pkexec, a sha512 mismatch and a 404 all look identical.
Impact
Minor bug or occasional failure
Version or commit
0.0.43-nightly.20260927.2344 (.deb)
Environment
Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS
Possible fix
Add cause: describeReadinessCause(error.cause) to the three logUpdaterError calls. This matters more now that .deb updates can fail inside pkexec/dpkg.
- Dominant language
- TypeScript
- Stars
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- Avg merge
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