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How best to ensure unattended-upgrades runs regularly on a nomadic laptop?

How to customize unattended-upgrades notification emails?Cannot get unattended-upgrades to workunattended-upgrades error: “/etc/cron.daily/apt: DB Update failed, database locked”confusion about cron and anacron (setting up backup schedule for rsnapshot)Ubuntu 16.04: Unattended-upgrades runs at random timesUnattended upgrades status?unattended upgrades - which shutdown command works?Configuring unattended-upgrades Helpunattended-upgrades runs twice every day but never installs anythingSet unattended-upgrades non-interactively

0

APT seems to have an enduring blind-spot for computers which are not connected permanently to the internet. These days there are surely a ton of them, mostly laptops.

The general solution is unattended-upgrades. This is installed and run by default with a daily cron job. As a protection, anacron is also installed and run by default, and executes any cron jobs which were missed because the computer was turned off. So far so sensible.

BUT!

1. 
   

   Default unattended-upgrades config (/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades or similar) requires the following to be set, else upgrades risk being skipped:

   
   
   

   Unattended-Upgrade::OnlyOnACPower "false";
   
   Unattended-Upgrade::Skip-Updates-On-Metered-Connections "false";
   
   

   
   



2. More importantly, anacron, like cron, runs jobs whether or not an internet connection is available! This is clearly a major design bug for non-server Ubuntu, since personal computers are not always connected permanently. With default config, on a nomadic laptop, unattended-upgrades will simply fail much of the time.

(Perhaps there needs to be a separate class of cron job which waits for a network connection until executing. Or failed cron.daily jobs could be switched to cron.hourly until they execute successfully.)

One practical solution is a systemd unit file to execute unattended-upgrades as a user script after the network comes online. But it will only run once per boot.

What is the optimal solution? Does anyone know if there are plans to fix this with a new package or a config improvement?

laptop unattended-upgrades anacron

share

asked 2 mins ago

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0

APT seems to have an enduring blind-spot for computers which are not connected permanently to the internet. These days there are surely a ton of them, mostly laptops.

The general solution is unattended-upgrades. This is installed and run by default with a daily cron job. As a protection, anacron is also installed and run by default, and executes any cron jobs which were missed because the computer was turned off. So far so sensible.

BUT!

1. 
   

   Default unattended-upgrades config (/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades or similar) requires the following to be set, else upgrades risk being skipped:

   
   
   

   Unattended-Upgrade::OnlyOnACPower "false";
   
   Unattended-Upgrade::Skip-Updates-On-Metered-Connections "false";
   
   

   
   



2. More importantly, anacron, like cron, runs jobs whether or not an internet connection is available! This is clearly a major design bug for non-server Ubuntu, since personal computers are not always connected permanently. With default config, on a nomadic laptop, unattended-upgrades will simply fail much of the time.

(Perhaps there needs to be a separate class of cron job which waits for a network connection until executing. Or failed cron.daily jobs could be switched to cron.hourly until they execute successfully.)

One practical solution is a systemd unit file to execute unattended-upgrades as a user script after the network comes online. But it will only run once per boot.

What is the optimal solution? Does anyone know if there are plans to fix this with a new package or a config improvement?

laptop unattended-upgrades anacron

share

asked 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

183211

add a comment | 

APT seems to have an enduring blind-spot for computers which are not connected permanently to the internet. These days there are surely a ton of them, mostly laptops.

The general solution is unattended-upgrades. This is installed and run by default with a daily cron job. As a protection, anacron is also installed and run by default, and executes any cron jobs which were missed because the computer was turned off. So far so sensible.

BUT!

1. 
   

   Default unattended-upgrades config (/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades or similar) requires the following to be set, else upgrades risk being skipped:

   
   
   

   Unattended-Upgrade::OnlyOnACPower "false";
   
   Unattended-Upgrade::Skip-Updates-On-Metered-Connections "false";
   
   

   
   



2. More importantly, anacron, like cron, runs jobs whether or not an internet connection is available! This is clearly a major design bug for non-server Ubuntu, since personal computers are not always connected permanently. With default config, on a nomadic laptop, unattended-upgrades will simply fail much of the time.

(Perhaps there needs to be a separate class of cron job which waits for a network connection until executing. Or failed cron.daily jobs could be switched to cron.hourly until they execute successfully.)

One practical solution is a systemd unit file to execute unattended-upgrades as a user script after the network comes online. But it will only run once per boot.

What is the optimal solution? Does anyone know if there are plans to fix this with a new package or a config improvement?

laptop unattended-upgrades anacron

share

asked 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

183211

share

asked 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

183211

share

asked 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

183211

asked 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

183211

asked 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

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0

If connecting to internet with network-manager, the current default on Ubuntu, then create a dispatcher script to launch unattended-upgrades after connecting to the network:

sudo touch /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/20-myconnectionscript

sudo chmod +x /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/20-myconnectionscript

In 20-myconnectionscript:

#!/bin/sh



if [ "$2" = "up" ];

  # only proceed if unattended-upgrades was last run more than a day ago

  ELAPSEDSINCEUU=$(($(date +%s) - $(date +%s -r /var/lib/apt/periodic/unattended-upgrades-stamp)))

  if [ $ELAPSEDSINCEUU -gt 86400 ]; then

    /usr/bin/unattended-upgrades

  fi

fi

share

answered 2 mins ago

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0

If connecting to internet with network-manager, the current default on Ubuntu, then create a dispatcher script to launch unattended-upgrades after connecting to the network:

sudo touch /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/20-myconnectionscript

sudo chmod +x /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/20-myconnectionscript

In 20-myconnectionscript:

#!/bin/sh



if [ "$2" = "up" ];

  # only proceed if unattended-upgrades was last run more than a day ago

  ELAPSEDSINCEUU=$(($(date +%s) - $(date +%s -r /var/lib/apt/periodic/unattended-upgrades-stamp)))

  if [ $ELAPSEDSINCEUU -gt 86400 ]; then

    /usr/bin/unattended-upgrades

  fi

fi

share

answered 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

183211

add a comment | 

0

If connecting to internet with network-manager, the current default on Ubuntu, then create a dispatcher script to launch unattended-upgrades after connecting to the network:

sudo touch /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/20-myconnectionscript

sudo chmod +x /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/20-myconnectionscript

In 20-myconnectionscript:

#!/bin/sh



if [ "$2" = "up" ];

  # only proceed if unattended-upgrades was last run more than a day ago

  ELAPSEDSINCEUU=$(($(date +%s) - $(date +%s -r /var/lib/apt/periodic/unattended-upgrades-stamp)))

  if [ $ELAPSEDSINCEUU -gt 86400 ]; then

    /usr/bin/unattended-upgrades

  fi

fi

share

answered 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

183211

add a comment | 

If connecting to internet with network-manager, the current default on Ubuntu, then create a dispatcher script to launch unattended-upgrades after connecting to the network:

sudo touch /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/20-myconnectionscript

sudo chmod +x /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/20-myconnectionscript

In 20-myconnectionscript:

#!/bin/sh



if [ "$2" = "up" ];

  # only proceed if unattended-upgrades was last run more than a day ago

  ELAPSEDSINCEUU=$(($(date +%s) - $(date +%s -r /var/lib/apt/periodic/unattended-upgrades-stamp)))

  if [ $ELAPSEDSINCEUU -gt 86400 ]; then

    /usr/bin/unattended-upgrades

  fi

fi

share

answered 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

183211

sudo touch /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/20-myconnectionscript

sudo chmod +x /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/20-myconnectionscript

#!/bin/sh



if [ "$2" = "up" ];

  # only proceed if unattended-upgrades was last run more than a day ago

  ELAPSEDSINCEUU=$(($(date +%s) - $(date +%s -r /var/lib/apt/periodic/unattended-upgrades-stamp)))

  if [ $ELAPSEDSINCEUU -gt 86400 ]; then

    /usr/bin/unattended-upgrades

  fi

fi

share

answered 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

183211

answered 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

183211

answered 2 mins ago

SqerstetSqerstet

183211