Update works but no logs - Desktop Widget reports 'never updated'

[Peejay]

Thank you firenice03. I ran the terminal command you gave and it went through the whole routine with no errors but when I logged back in the widget display was still the same. I also did a cold reboot but with the same result.

The history.log was unchanged, still showing the last entry as 24 November 2017, and an incomplete one.

I have copied the last entry just to show you what I mean. It just looks as though it has never completed properly and that log-writing for apt has been prevented ever since. The actual update process continues to work fine, though, as your latest test demonstrates.

You are correct that I had a problem with an owncloud client but Jerry's suggestion seemed to deal with that completely. Whether this problem is a relic of the original installation I can't be clear, but perhaps it could be. I'll see what else I can find out about the owncloud client problems but meantime here is the history.log portion for 2017-11-24

Start-Date: 2017-11-24  13:04:23
Commandline: apt-get dist-upgrade -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confdef -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold -y
Requested-By: philip (1000)
Install: linux-image-4.4.0-102-generic:amd64 (4.4.0-102.125, automatic), linux-headers-4.4.0-102:amd64 (4.4.0-102.125, automatic), libllvm5.0:amd64 (1:5.0-3~16.04.1, automatic), libllvm5.0:i386 (1:5.0-3~16.04.1, automatic), linux-image-extra-4.4.0-102-generic:amd64 (4.4.0-102.125, automatic), linux-headers-4.4.0-102-generic:amd64 (4.4.0-102.125, automatic)
Upgrade: libgles2-mesa:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), linux-headers-generic:amd64 (4.4.0.101.106, 4.4.0.102.107), linux-libc-dev:amd64 (4.4.0-101.124, 4.4.0-102.125), libraw15:amd64 (0.17.1-1, 0.17.1-1ubuntu0.1), linux-image-generic:amd64 (4.4.0.101.106, 4.4.0.102.107), libglapi-mesa:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libglapi-mesa:i386 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), python-tk:amd64 (2.7.11-2, 2.7.12-1~16.04), libxatracker2:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libegl1-mesa:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), boot-sav:amd64 (4ppa64, 4ppa65), python:amd64 (2.7.11-1, 2.7.12-1~16.04), python-gdbm:amd64 (2.7.11-2, 2.7.12-1~16.04), libgbm1:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libpython-stdlib:amd64 (2.7.11-1, 2.7.12-1~16.04), boot-sav-extra:amd64 (4ppa64, 4ppa65), chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra:amd64 (62.0.3202.89-0ubuntu0.16.04.1315, 62.0.3202.94-0ubuntu0.16.04.1317), libwayland-egl1-mesa:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libgl1-mesa-dri:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libdb5.3:amd64 (5.3.28-11, 5.3.28-11ubuntu0.1), libdb5.3:i386 (5.3.28-11, 5.3.28-11ubuntu0.1), libosmesa6:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libosmesa6:i386 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libgl1-mesa-glx:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), mesa-vdpau-drivers:amd64 (17.0.7-0ubuntu0.16.04.2, 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~16.04.2), linux-generic:amd64 (4.4.0.101.106, 4.4.0.102.107), python-minimal:amd64 (2.7.11-1, 2.7.12-1~16.04), boot-repair:amd64 (4ppa64, 4ppa65)