Q4OS Forum

rainforest

Member

Registered: 2025-01-24

Posts: 3

Really confused about automatically upgrade

During the installation of Q4OS, I saw that Q4OS can do automatic updates:
The Q4OS update manager watch your system and upgrade it automatically as soon as updates are available.

Later, I found this post in the forum Are Q4OS updates automatic or manual? But I haven't found what I'm looking for.
Then I found out that Debian's automatic update is based on unattended-upgrade (cannot post link, but can be found on Debian wiki),
but the installation told me that Q4OS's "Update Manager" does the update job "automatically".

After installation, I found "Update Manager" in Q4OS Software Centre, the description said:
Software updater and notifier. Notify users about available security and software updates and let them upgrade "on request".

Which does not match the description of the installation process.

I was pretty confused, which one really handles automatic updates?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,782

Website

Re: Really confused about automatically upgrade

Welcome @rainforest, updates policy in Q4OS Plasma depends on what desktop profile you apply throughout the installation.

The most common is the "Desktop" profile so the updates manager automatically checks for updates and provide an icon in the system tray as soon as updates are available. You can accept or postpone the upgrade.

If you have selected the "Basic" profile, the only manual update is possible, unless you install update manager from the software center.

rainforest

Member

Registered: 2025-01-24

Posts: 3

Re: Really confused about automatically upgrade

Thanks for the reply!

I selected the "Basic" profile during installation with internet connection.

If you have selected the "Basic" profile, the only manual update is possible, unless you install update manager from the software center.

Is it possible to make Q4OS automatically do the update without user's confirmation?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,782

Website

Re: Really confused about automatically upgrade

Yes, you need to configure unattended upgrades editing /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades lines to:

APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";

Now, you don't need update manager installed, your system will be upgraded automatically with no intervention.

Please see also https://wiki.debian.org/UnattendedUpgrades

rainforest

Member

Registered: 2025-01-24

Posts: 3

Re: Really confused about automatically upgrade

Now, you don't need update manager installed, your system will be upgraded automatically with no intervention.

Thanks a lot for the reply
I can now understand how the auto update actually work.

I wanted to suggest something about the "presentation" during installation process .
On the "Safe updates" presentation, it says the Q4OS update manager
"watches your system and upgrades it automatically as soon as updates are available."
This might be a bit misleading for new users (like me) since the update manager actually requires user confirmation unless configured otherwise.

Would it be possible to tweak the wording in future versions to make this clearer? Just a thought to help avoid the confusion.

Thanks again for all the great work on Q4OS!

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,782

Website

Re: Really confused about automatically upgrade

Yes, we will consider a change to the presentation. Anyway thanks for heads up.