Changes/KDEKinoiteAutoUpdateByDefault

Enable auto-updates by default in Fedora Kinoite

This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux.
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

Summary

On Fedora Kinoite, Plasma Discover supports automatically updating the system in a safe fashion via rpm-ostree staged updates. We want users to benefit from bug fixes and updates in general by default thus we want to enable auto-updates by default. Users will still have the option of disabling that or tuning the frequency at which updates happen.

Owner

• Name: Timothée Ravier, Neal Gompa
• Email: <siosm@fedoraproject.org>, <ngompa@fedoraproject.org>

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora Linux 39
• Last updated: 2023-07-25
• devel thread
• FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

We will enable a setting named "Unattended Updates" in Plasma Discover that will enable background updates by default in new installations and existing installations. This process uses rpm-ostree staged updates support to download and prepare the new version of the system in the background, which is then used on reboot.

The user will only be notified to reboot their system once the updates have been applied and once a given amount of time has passed before the last time an update was applied.

Pull request for the change: https://pagure.io/workstation-ostree-config/pull-request/393
Bugs related to the change (that the change owner will fix):

• https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=471548
• https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454422

Feedback

None so far.

Benefit to Fedora

Users benefit from updates quickly and by default. Users don't have to worry about updating their system anymore.

Scope

• Proposal owners: Implement and test the change (https://pagure.io/workstation-ostree-config/pull-request/393)
• Other developers: N/A
• Release engineering: N/A
• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
• Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Alignment with Community Initiatives: N/A

Upgrade/compatibility impact

All Kinoite systems updated to Fedora 39 will have this setting set by default if the options have not been changed manually before.

How To Test

Run echo -e "[Global]\nUseUnattendedUpdates=true\n" > /etc/xdg/PlasmaDiscoverUpdates as root and reset the Update setting page to the defaults. The system should now download updates automatically and asks for a reboot once a week.

User Experience

User will not have to manually check for updates, they will be applied automatically in the background. After a week without a reboot, they will be offered to reboot to apply system updates.

Dependencies

N/A

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: Push the change to the next release or undo the change.
• Contingency deadline: N/A. Any time before we GA
• Blocks release? No

Documentation

None needed.

Release Notes

Update on Fedora Kinoite are now downloaded automatically and applied on the next reboot.