plasma-discover does not automatically update packages

[Tim Wood]

There is no setting in plasma-discover to automate checking for updates

-- Versions ---

> lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
Release: 20.04
> plasma-discover -v
discover 5.18.5

-- Expected Behavior ---
Discover will automatically check for software updates and notify user (or delegate that responsibility to Software Updater).

-- What happens ---
Nothing

-- Attempts to Fix Problem ---
There are references to plasma-discover-updater in launchpad (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plasma-discover/+bug/1581823) but attempting to install or run it fail. At the command line:
  > plasma-discover-updater
  command not found
  > apt-get install plasma-discover-updater
  Unable to locate package plasma-discover-updater
Or via Discover itself: Not results found when searching for "plasma-update-discover" or "plasma update discover" (at least not in the first page of a very long list of results)

It is not possible to file a bug report with the upstream project because the version of Discover that is installed in the current Ubuntu LTS release is no longer supported.

-- Security Issues and Best Practices

Security Issue: Discover-managed Software vulnerable to all post-install vulnerabilities
Discover managed software is updated only when user manually runs the update. Best practice is to automatically check for updates and either automatically install them or notify user they need to be installed.

Discover vulnerable to vulnerabilities identified since 2019
The version of Discoverinstalled in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (5.18.5 released in 2019) is no longer supported by upstream project.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: plasma-discover 5.18.5-0ubuntu0.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.11.0-40.44~20.04.2-generic 5.11.22
Uname: Linux 5.11.0-40-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.21
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat Nov 27 09:48:33 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-05-12 (563 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: plasma-discover
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Tim Wood (4til7)]

Until this bug is fixed/feature is added. A crude work-around is to add a bash script and run it on start:

nano bin/check_for_updates.sh

#/bin/bash
# Software update automation via cheese by JDT/Tim Wood, <email address hidden>

# Wait so this will appear over other things
wait 90

# Ask
kdialog --yesno "Some applications are only updated manually \nby running Discover. When Discover is run, \nyou can check updates by clicking 'Updates' \nin the lower left corner. Do you want to \nrun Discover to check for software updates?"

# Do
if [ $? = 0 ];
  then plasma-discover &
fi

> chmod +x bin/check_for_updates.sh

Then use the "Startup Applications" app to run the script on startup

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but this appears to be a "regular" (non-security) bug. I have unmarked it as a security issue since this bug does not show evidence of allowing attackers to cross privilege boundaries nor directly cause loss of data/privacy. Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.

[Scarlett Gately Moore (scarlettmoore)]

This bug is very old, if this is still an issue please update bug with info on a supported release.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for plasma-discover (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]