A Couple of Questions about Debian 9 stable

[mhbell]

Is anyone using auto upgrades or updates with Debian? I would like my Debian 9 stable to automatically to download and install security updates or at least notify me that update are available like mint does. If you are doing this, What software (Cron, Apt, Auto-Upgrade, are you using? I like to automate things as much as possible which was easy to do in Mint.

Tia

Mel

[raymac46]

Not doing it. I just use apt update && apt dist-upgrade in the Terminal. You could use Synaptic to do it if you want a GUI. There used to be a package called update-manager-gnome but I don't know if Stretch has it.

[securitybreach]

Yeah, sorry but I do the same as RayMac does and simply run the commands.

[sunrat]

I do the same. You could put it in a cron job but sometimes it asks for input about changing config files, or very occasionally a dependency conflict. You can also circumvent yes/no questions by adding -y to the command but that could also have unintended consequences such as replacing customised configs.

MX-16 has Update Manager which notifies you and I think Gnome has something similar. Not sure if it's included by default in Stretch though.

Debian Stable pretty much only needs apt update && apt upgrade, very rarely would you need dist-upgrade.

[raymac46]

I am following Debian unstable so I usually use apt dist-upgrade but I haven't seen much difference between it and apt upgrade. I agree apt upgrade is probably a better idea with Debian stable.

I'm not an expert on this but I feel a bit safer with dist-upgrade when you are bringing in the latest stuff.

[raymac46]

I just checked Synaptic and I do not see any update manager listed for Debian unstable at least.

[sunrat]

I am following Debian unstable so I usually use apt dist-upgrade but I haven't seen much difference between it and apt upgrade. I agree apt upgrade is probably a better idea with Debian stable.

I'm not an expert on this but I feel a bit safer with dist-upgrade when you are bringing in the latest stuff.

Yes, you need to do dist-upgrade for unstable.

 

upgrade will install new versions of currently installed packages but not install any new ones.

dist-upgrade can install new packages such as a kernel, and also install new packages and remove old ones.

Best to always look what it proposes to do before hitting the OK button.

[sunrat]

There was a similar question on FDN so I did a little searching.

KDE Plasma 5 package updater, plasma-discover - https://packages.debian.org/stretch/plasma-discover

Gnome package updater, gnome-package-kit - https://packages.debian.org/stretch/gnome-packagekit

 

I'm not sure if these provide notifications but worth a try.

[raymac46]

Gnome-packagekit looks a lot like Linux Mint's handy Software Manager which is great for installing new software. However LM has a separate Update Manager which runs an applet that provides notifications.

None of the Debian derivatives (or Debian itself for that matter) has anything like YaST or the Control Center you find with Mageia. It isn't a big problem though as Synaptic or the command line tools do a good job of keeping up to date in the case of Debian. Linux Mint and Ubuntu have their own GUIs for installation and updates.

[abarbarian]

The MX-16 update notifier works well maybe you could research how they implement it. If you can find out how it works you should be able to do the same thing as it is Debian based.

[saturnian]

Debian Stretch ships with Apper in KDE; I don't know of anything similar for Xfce, and I don't have GNOME installed in Stretch (yet). Apper can be set to check for updates (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or never). There's an icon that shows in the system tray. There's also a setting to "Automatically update."

 

I set Apper to check for new updates "Never" and I turn off the automatic updates. But I still get an "Updates" icon in the system tray, which I find annoying. At the moment, I'm keeping that icon "hidden," but in the past I think I've simply removed Apper.

 

I always use Synaptic to update the system. I use the "Smart Upgrade" setting in Synaptic, which, according to Synaptic's documentation, is the same as dist-upgrade. I always use that setting, whether with Testing or with Stable; other users might want to take a different approach. Check man apt-get to see the differences between apt-get upgrade and apt-get dist-upgrade -- for this info, I think it's better to look at man apt-get instead of man apt.

Edited June 30, 2017 by saturnian