Enable auto-updates by default in Fedora Kinoite
Summary
On Fedora Kinoite, Plasma Discover supports automatically updating the system in a safe fashion via rpm-ostree staged updates. We want users to benefit from bug fixes and updates in general by default thus we want to enable auto-updates by default. Users will still have the option of disabling that or tuning the frequency at which updates happen.
Owner
- Name: Timothée Ravier, Neal Gompa
- Email: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora Linux 42
- Last updated: 2024-09-09
- devel thread
- FESCo issue: https://pagure.io/fesco/issue/3042
- Tracker bug: #2233192
- Release notes tracker: #1025 & #51
Detailed Description
We will enable a setting named "Unattended Updates" in Plasma Discover that will enable background updates by default in new installations and existing installations. This process uses rpm-ostree staged updates support to download and prepare the new version of the system in the background, which is then used on reboot.
The user will only be notified to reboot their system once the updates have been applied and once a given amount of time has passed before the last time an update was applied.
This should not apply firmware updates automatically as it might not be safe to do so and might require user intervention.
Pull request for the change: https://pagure.io/workstation-ostree-config/pull-request/393
Bugs related to the change (that the change owner will fix):
- Auto-Update for flatpaks, via Discover appears to be non-functional
- RFE: Add per-backend update frequency
Tracker in the KDE SIG issue tracker: #342
Feedback
None so far.
Benefit to Fedora
Users benefit from updates quickly and by default. Users don't have to worry about updating their system anymore.
Scope
- Proposal owners: Implement and test the change (https://pagure.io/workstation-ostree-config/pull-request/393)
- Other developers: N/A
- Release engineering: N/A
- Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
- Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
- Alignment with Community Initiatives: N/A
Upgrade/compatibility impact
All Kinoite systems updated to Fedora 39 will have this setting set by default if the options have not been changed manually before.
How To Test
Run echo -e "[Global]\nUseUnattendedUpdates=true\n" > /etc/xdg/PlasmaDiscoverUpdates as root and reset the Update setting page to the defaults. The system should now download updates automatically and asks for a reboot once a week.
Note that this is currently not functional, likely due to the same issue as https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=471548.
User Experience
User will not have to manually check for updates, they will be applied automatically in the background. After a week without a reboot, they will be offered to reboot to apply system updates.
Dependencies
N/A
Contingency Plan
- Contingency mechanism: Push the change to the next release or undo the change.
- Contingency deadline: N/A. Any time before we GA
- Blocks release? No
Documentation
None needed.
Release Notes
Update on Fedora Kinoite are now downloaded automatically and applied on the next reboot.