distribution upgrade tool waits for user input indefinitely

[Nikola Kovacs]

Binary package hint: release-upgrader-apt

Since a dist upgrade is a long process, I usually go to sleep around the time it finishes downloading. The next morning when I wake up I realize that about 10 minutes after I've left the computer, Ubuntu found a modified config file and doesn't know what to do with it. And it sits there for 6 hours, waiting for me to wake up and answer the question. Almost every dist upgrade I've done goes like this, and it's extremely annoying.

A simple fix: backup the config file, replace it, and show me what you did in a summary after the upgrade with a nice message and write it into some log so that I can check what happened. I doubt normal human beings who don't even know what /etc/login.defs is, can answer this question correctly anyway.

Actually, the backup already happens, the log already happens, all that has to be done is modifying DistUpgradeView*.py to return yes to dpkg and keep a list of replaced config files so that it can show the summary.

A smarter fix: wait a minute or so and if there's no user input do the above.

This is not a duplicate of #67338 since that's about flash, and I didn't get a licence prompt (yet).

[Robert Persson (ireneshusband)]

see also #147928

[Omegamormegil (omegamormegil)]

Yes! Fix this! I'm tired of babysitting my upgrades!

[Richard Birnie (rbirnie-deactivatedaccount)]

As noted this is the same as bug 147928. Marking as duplicate and adding to the wishlist.