[Bug 1619188] Re: Unattended upgrades can break persistent live media

[sudodus]

You mean similar to what is done in Linux Mint, where there are
different priority levels for the upgrades? It may help, but would be
more difficult to implement, and can still cause problems, when the
security upgrades accumulate.

I do not say that people should ignore the need for security upgrades. I
think it is important to get a 'heads up' warning as soon as possible.
This is done with the alternative 'Display immediately', which is the
default in Ubuntu 14.04.x LTS.

Persistent live systems are sensitive, and it is important for the user
to control, if, how and when to perform upgrades.

If the user needs higher security, I think it is better to use an
installed system or a live or persistent live system made from the
current daily iso file as described in the following link:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/817750/unattended-upgrades-broke-
persistent-live-media

Quote: 'or grab the current 16.04 LTS daily iso file, and create a new
persistent live system. You find it via this link:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/351/builds. In your case,
select a version of Mythbuntu, and you will find a link to the download
information. (The 16.04 daily iso files will no longer be updated after
16.04.5 is released.)'

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1619188

Title:
  Unattended upgrades can break persistent live media

Status in casper package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Looking at the persistent live Ubuntu 16.04 LTS system - the Software
  & Updates screen / Update - I notice, that Automatic updates is set to
  'Download and install automatically'. This is bad in a persistent live
  system.

  After leaving the persistent live Ubuntu 16.04 LTS system running
  overnight, I found that it had performed an automatic upgrade:

  df revealed that the content in casper-rw had increased to 1.6 GiB.

  It was a surprise that the persistent live system started an automatic
  upgrade. This is not caused by the installer (mkusb), because the
  files controlling those actions are not touched. Instead it is caused
  by a change of the default action, when there are security updates.
  And the survey indicates that this default setting is different
  between the flavours and versions of Ubuntu. Lubuntu keeps the setting
  'Display immediately', while the other tested flavours change it from
  14.04 LTS to 16.04 LTS.

  Until this is resolved, it is a good idea to disable unattended-
  upgrades manually, but above all, to take regular backups, when you
  use a persistent live system.

  The survey is described in this link to the Ubuntu Forums:

  https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2335669&p=13538805#post13538805

  and it contains some screenshots illustrating the settings manager for
  automatic updates for different versions and flavours of Ubuntu.

  -o-

  There are various scripts in the casper package that change things to
  be more appropriate for the live environment. I suggest to change the
  default for security updates to 'Display immediately', when the system
  is running live and persistent live.

  See also this link to Ask Ubuntu, the first report about this problem:

  https://askubuntu.com/questions/817750/unattended-upgrades-broke-
  persistent-live-media/817820#

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
  Package: casper 1.376
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-31.50-generic 4.4.13
  Uname: Linux 4.4.0-31-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperVersion: 1.376
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Thu Sep  1 08:32:08 2016
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160719)
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=xterm-256color
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: casper
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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