How to enable unattended software updates on Linux Mint

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How to enable unattended software updates on Linux Mint

Installation of software updates are very important in every operating system. We can either configure the installation of package updates manually or automatically in Linux Mint. This tutorial explains you how to enable the installation of software package updates automatically in the Ubuntu-based editions of Linux Mint.

Open your terminal and run the update:

sudo apt-get update

Install the “unattended-upgrades” package:

sudo apt-get install unattended-upgrades

This is the package used to install the updated packages automatically.

The configuration files are located at /etc/apt/apt.conf.d

To configure the unattended-upgrades edit the /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades file and make changes according to your need:

// Automatically upgrade packages from these (origin, archive) pairs 

Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins { 

"${distro_id} ${distro_codename}-security"; 

// "${distro_id} ${distro_codename}-updates"; 

// "${distro_id} ${distro_codename}-proposed"; 

// "${distro_id} ${distro_codename}-backports"; 

};

Note : “ // “ is a comment line. So whatever follows by the comment line ( // ) cannot be evaluated.

To enable the updates simply remove the comment line ( // ).

If you dont want to install the software updates for certain packages, just add those package names in the Blacklist:

// List of packages to not update 

Unattended-Upgrade::Package-Blacklist { 

// "vim"; 

// "libc6"; 

// "libc6-dev"; 

// "libc6-i686"; 

};

The results of unattended-upgrades will be logged to /var/log/unattended-upgrades

To enable automatic updates, edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10periodic and set the appropriate apt configuration options:

APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1"; 

APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages "0"; 

APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval "30"; 

APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";

The above configuration updates the package list, downloads, and installs available upgrades every day.

The local download archive is cleaned every thirty days.

Note : Here the number represents the days.

Tags: update automatic unattended
Created: 3 months ago.
Last edited: 3 months ago.
Reviewed: 3 months ago.
Read 0 times.

Comments
1 month ago	windyweather	This doesn't work. After a couple of days I find the shield has an "i" in it and the updates were not installed. Something is left out for LM 14. No Joy for automatic updates. ww
1 month ago	windyweather	Minor issue I think. I'm trying this on LM 14 and I don't find the 10periodic file. Do I need to create that file? Guess I'll create it with the contents you suggest. ww
3 months ago	AshBaby	Thanks, very concise and clear.
3 months ago	sujitnag	very impotent information
3 months ago	Hammer459	Nice and clear tutorial
3 months ago	telcnas	thanks for this nice info...... :)

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How to enable unattended software updates on Linux Mint

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