Ubuntu does not automatically check for updates, even when set to
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
update-notifier (Ubuntu) |
Invalid
|
Medium
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
Binary package hint: update-notifier
I have two machines with this problem. This shouldn't be happening, so I am calling it a bug.
One of them is running the desktop version of Ubuntu 9.04. I have set it in the Software Sources admin applet to "Check for updates daily" and "Download all updates in the background." It never offers updates to me. But if I go to the terminal and "sudo aptitude update," updates are offered via the GUI right away. So, it seems that whatever process in the background is supposed to check for updates periodically is not working.
Another machine running the server version of Ubuntu 9.04. I have it set to check daily install security updates automatically. It also never finds updates automatically --- if I connect via SSH it tells me 0 updated packages are available, and security updates are never installed automatically. I have to make sure to connect and install updates manually from time to time.
Please let me know what I can do to help track this problem down.
Disclaimers:
Both of these machines were upgraded from Ubuntu 8.10. Both of them properly checked for updates before the upgrade to 9.04, and have been displaying this problem since the very moment 9.04 was released.
I am aware of the new update notification system in 9.04 (security updates daily, other updates weekly, no tray icon, etc.). This is not the problem here. I left town for two weeks and left both machines on to check, neither of them offered any updates automatically, but as soon as I returned and did a "sudo aptitude update" there were 60+ updates available on the desktop machine, many of them security updates that should have been detected by the daily check.
I'm not sure if the method used to upgrade from 8.10 would make any difference, but it is the only thing I can think of that is different between my machines. What I mean is, these two machines that do not check for updates automatically were updated from 8.10 with the command-line method ("do-release-
Thank you!
Found the problem (I think).
The /etc/cron.daily/apt script, which I believe handles the automatic update setting, was not marked executable on either machine.
This reveals two problems:
- /etc/cron.daily/apt lost its executable status during the do-release-upgrade process (I'm quite sure I didn't change the permissions on that file myself)
- The GUI for configuring the automatic update interval should check this and warn you if this script is not executable! (Or just fix it itself.)