Is Kubuntu turning into Windows? Unattended upgrades? Seriously?

[Bings]

The way I see it is if I didn't trust the updates that the operating system were going to provide, why would I install it in the first place?

[TWPonKubuntu]

I don't trust the updates which are blindly presented to my system for installation. I want to see a list of what is to suggested and I want to be able to accept/reject on a line item basis. Windows taught me that...

[Snowhog]

I don't trust the updates which are blindly presented to my system for installation.

That is a bit 'over paranoid' IMO. IF one is ONLY using Ubuntu Repositories, there is very little risk (can't say zero risk; you can't eliminate ALL risk) in anything going seriously wrong. It's when one has third-party PPA's; not sanctioned by Canonical/Ubuntu) that your risk is elevated. But even then, if those PPA's are from known sources; sources that themselves are trusted; the risk is low.

[TWPonKubuntu]

...(can't say zero risk; you can't eliminate ALL risk)...

That is my point, exactly. Show me what is being suggested and let me decide. "Trust but Verify" - Ronald Reagan

[Snowhog]

Well, in that sense, I agree, and why I don't use a Graphical Package Manager OF ANY ILK to maintain my system; I use apt from the CLI. I get to see what is coming down the pike, and can choose to accept (allow the upgrade) or reject (cancel the upgrade).

[Don B. Cilly]

I also use apt, and I find it vastly superior to "Graphical Package Managers OF ANY ILK" in almost any respect.
It doesn't seem to have a way to choose packages "on a line item basis" though.

Which doesn't worry me at all. I mean, how am I to know which package I should reject - before I install it?
I use neon Testing, mind you, and some packages do turn out to be slightly dodgy.
As Miles Davis would say though... so what? They're mostly minor annoyances - even with Testing - and if they aren't, I complain here and usually get a fast fix (thanks Acheron ;·) or on bugs.bunnykde...

[Don B. Cilly]

Because, if he is like me, the alias is just as hard to remember.
That's why I keep my most often used commands on a sheet of paper taped to the wall next to me.

Well, even given that, actually typing an alias like 'upd' would still be simpler than 'sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade', wouldn't it?

[oshunluvr]

Aliases are great if you use ones that make sense to you. Here;

"update" does "sudo apt update & sudo apt list --upgradable"
"upgrade" doe "sudo apt full-upgrade"
"updb" does "sudo updatedb"

and many others of course...

[jlittle]

I get annoyed by the warning generated by my alias al='apt list --upgradable'

$ al | less

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

Listing...
[I]<whatever...>[/I]

Just piping output to less is not a script, it's normal command line use. Stupid IMO. apt list --upgradable is the one apt command that does not have an equivalent with apt-get, dpkg, and the like. apt-get -s dist-upgrade | grep '^Inst' | sort is the closest I've come up with.

[GreyGeek]

Well, in that sense, I agree, and why I don't use a Graphical Package Manager OF ANY ILK to maintain my system; I use apt from the CLI. I get to see what is coming down the pike, and can choose to accept (allow the upgrade) or reject (cancel the upgrade).

That is EXACTLY why I use the CLI for package updates and why I use the CLI for making BTRFS snapshots and incremental backups, deletions, etc... (Using my trusty cheatsheet on the wall next to me! )

[chimak111]

I get annoyed by the warning generated by my alias al='apt list --upgradable'...

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

There's a nice answer here to a related question. It explains why devs include that warning and how we can suppress it.

Following that advice,

$ apt list --installed | grep -i rofi

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

rofi/bionic,now 1.5.0-1 amd64 [installed]

$ apt list --installed 2>/dev/null | grep -i rofi
rofi/bionic,now 1.5.0-1 amd64 [installed]
$

So my alias "apli" now looks like this:

alias apli='apt list --installed 2>/dev/null | grep -i'

Edit: https://askubuntu.com/questions/9908...erface-warning is also a nice read.

[jlittle]

There's a nice answer ...

I'd read that answer. Good reasoning about scripts and stability, but *I'm not using apt in a script*. Assuming script usage because the output is not a tty is just not good enough. I've not found any explanation that understands that point.

$ apt list --installed 2>/dev/null

I find that approach dubious, because I'm using the CLI (partly) to get error messages, and that throws them away.

Edit: https://askubuntu.com/questions/9908...erface-warning is also a nice read.

That's not about "apt list"; in that case, apt-cache does the job.

With even more digging, the package colorized-logs has a utility that can subvert apt's obnoxious (IMO) behaviour:

$ pipetty apt list --upgradable | less -r

[PDR60]

Having built 1000's of Kubuntu/ubuntu machines for both home use and IT customers, I can honestly say I have never lost a machine due to faulty updates or bad updates. I've lost a few machines but never to that. I've been using Kubuntu since 5.10 back in the day. I was so impressed I wrote an install for 6.06 that 1000's of forum users used to install and convert from Windoze to Linux. Linux has come along way and KDE has been advancing right along with it. Specifically, Kubuntu has been really quite good. I only run the LTS versions since they started and have never had any problems. Its had its hickups and various things but compared to Windoze its a solid beast that can perform everything from running a gaming machine all that way up to multi processor database machines. I have a 4 node 16cpu cluster running DB2 and it has been running flawlessly for over 5 years. Its a whole process to upgrade OS versions but we have it worked out. That thing is so fast. We're running it on IBM X-series machines.

We also have a couple running on IBM P-series but its real Debian and a whole other ball game.

I am finally getting ready to build a new desktop with 20.04. I've been upgrading all along since 14.04 on the same hardware. The only thing I've done is update video cards, ram, and an occasional set of harddrives by replacing one of the mirrored drives and just rebuilding the array onto the new set of drives one at a time. Some of the early releases utilizing systemd were a bit of a challenge to upgrade but not impossible.

That being said, I want to play some of the newer games and the old Gigabyte 980 is just not up to the task anymore. Sad really... but it will make a great addition to the KVM farm. I'll let you know how the 20.04 install goes on the new Gigabyte Aorous board with a 3600 cpu. I unfortunately was not able to acquire an Nvidia 3060TI But my 1060 will due for now. I'm looking forward to the M2 ssd drives. I hear boot times are under 15 seconds of pushing the power button. I can only imagine how well kdenlive will run.