Setting up automatic updates (or something close to it).

BonerNimrod · 2026-05-07 01:49:58

I had recently installed Devuan for the first time on a used laptop, and essentially put, I would like to set up a way to automatically update the system and any installed packages. I'm mostly coming off from Mint, did dabble in Debian last year, but I'm mostly used to how the former handled updates through it's manager, and perhaps prefer it. So far, I have both Gnome-package-manager and unattended-upgrades installed. From what I remember, I think used package manager the most on Debian. I only discovered unattended-upgrades late into my foray, but I don't believe I had it set up to know if it did work for me. Also, I learned it mostly does security updates. What would be the best way to set up, at least, a manager that would notify me from time to time, and let me review what updates I would need to install on my machine? I would like to have something similar to Mint's manager, but I can try and learn about other alternatives. I'm not afraid of the terminal, but it is a bit inconvenient to type the commands and remember to do it every now and then. I appreciate any replies, I'm new here.

fsmithred · 2026-05-07 15:47:11

This was put together by a few of us in the devuan community a few years ago. It still works - I'm using it in excalibur. It checks for updates and gives you a notification in the panel.
https://get.refracta.org/files/packages … sr_all.deb

See /etc/default/update-notifier for settings.

And now, looking at that file myself, I'm reminded that it can do more than just notify you. Here's an excerpt.

# Set the default action for clicking on the notification icon.
# Valid choices:
# "none" or commented to only see a list of available upgrades.
# "terminal" to run the upgrade in a terminal
# "gui" to run the upgrade in synaptic package manager.

FRONTEND="none"

Edit: Source is here: https://git.devuan.org/fsmithred/basic-update-notifier

BonerNimrod · 2026-05-07 23:36:29

I'll give it a try, thanks. I assume this would take care of only the packages shown on Synaptic, and any new versions of Devuan, correct?

Last edited by BonerNimrod (2026-05-07 23:40:12)

fsmithred · 2026-05-07 23:59:04

It should work with whatever is in your apt sources and do the same as using apt or apt-get to update and upgrade.

PedigreeCat · Yesterday 14:57:13

I use a simple script that runs via cron. It requires absolutely no maintenance, which is why I installed it on my wife's laptop
Here is the content of the script:

#!/bin/bash

#if not root, run as root
if (( $EUID != 0 )); then
    sudo $0
    exit
fi

echo
echo ">> Looking for updates."
apt update --fix-missing
echo

echo ">> List of upgradable packages"
apt list --upgradable
echo

echo ">> Upgrading..."
apt -y full-upgrade --fix-missing --fix-broken
echo

echo ">> Making cleanup..."
apt -y autoremove
apt clean
apt autoclean
apt purge -y $(dpkg -l | awk '/^rc/ { print $2 }')
echo

echo ">> Flatpak updates..."
flatpak update -y
echo

echo ">> Done."
echo

If you're interested in a more advanced tool, check out topgrade:
https://github.com/topgrade-rs/topgrade

Last edited by PedigreeCat (Today 08:57:48)

BonerNimrod · Yesterday 21:17:25

Seems interesting. Got no experience with cron scripts, unfortunately, but Topgrade does look tempting. Might help me with flatpaks and appimages, from the looks of it. Thanks.

PedroReina · Today 08:05:58

BonerNimrod wrote:

Got no experience with cron scripts, unfortunately

You will not find a better occasion for learning than scratching your own itch. Don't be daunted, cron scripts on Debian and Devuan are easy to set up. Pick your tutorial, start with something easy... and take off. Friendly advice

PedigreeCat · Today 08:31:11

It's not too difficult. Save the contents to a file, such as sysupdate.sh, and set its execution permissions:

# chmod a+x sysupdate.sh

Then move the file to the /usr/bin directory:

# mv ./sysupdate.sh /usr/bin

Next, edit the cron configuration file:

# nano /etc/crontab

and enter the command to run the sysupdate.sh script:

0 21 * * * root /usr/bin/sysupdate.sh

This entry means that cron runs the script every day at 21:00 as root. Of course, you can change the script’s execution time to whatever you need.

Alternatively, instead of messing with editing crontab, after having granted the script execute permissions and moving it to /usr/bin, you can make a symbolic link in the /etc/cron.daily directory

# ln -s /usr/bin/sysupdate.sh /etc/cron.daily

and the script will be executed once a day.

That’s it. The script runs on its own, updates the repositories, installs new package versions, and cleans the system of old or unnecessary versions. For system-critical packages, changes take effect after the system reboot. This isn’t a problem for me, as I’m not a fan of keeping the system run for months.

In the script itself, you can block, for example, updates to Flatpak applications if you don’t have them.

The section at the very beginning of the script (5 lines below the #!/bin/bash line) is for systems with sudo and forces the sudoers to enter their password when the script is run manually by the user. In Devuan, you can ignore this and run the script manually with the command

su -c sysupdate.sh

Last edited by PedigreeCat (Today 11:22:20)

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#1 2026-05-07 01:49:58

Setting up automatic updates (or something close to it).

#2 2026-05-07 15:47:11

Re: Setting up automatic updates (or something close to it).

#3 2026-05-07 23:36:29

Re: Setting up automatic updates (or something close to it).

#4 2026-05-07 23:59:04

Re: Setting up automatic updates (or something close to it).

#5 Yesterday 14:57:13

Re: Setting up automatic updates (or something close to it).

#6 Yesterday 21:17:25

Re: Setting up automatic updates (or something close to it).

#7 Today 08:05:58

Re: Setting up automatic updates (or something close to it).

#8 Today 08:31:11

Re: Setting up automatic updates (or something close to it).

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