Silverblue Update: Different behavior on Laptop than on VM

Ask Fedora
1

Hi!

I’ve been using Fedora Workstation on my desktop PC since 2022 and really like it.

In the summer of 2024 I tried Silverblue 40 in a GNOME Boxes VM and was really impressed that the updates were done automatically in the background and the new image was automatically active the next time I booted.

So I installed Fedora Silverblue on my Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga G4 laptop. It also works great, but the updates are an exception. Despite the setting in GNOME Software, updates are only downloaded, not applied.

This means I always have to open the software application for an update and manually click ‘Restart’ to activate the new image. A normal shutdown and reboot is not enough. This means I have to restart the laptop unnecessarily just to get the update installed.

Even updating to Silverblue 41 has not solved the problem, which is why I am writing this post. What could be the problem?

Fedora Silverblue could be soooo comfortable and pleasant if it was like in the VM…

Thanks in advance!

1 Like
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Added silverblue

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I think updates downloaded but not applied is the expected behavior when you choose “automatic” in GNOME Software preferences:

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I would prefer that they be automatically installed, and even better would be the ability to have the current “automatic” setting, or “full automatic,” depending on user preference.

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Actually, on Atomic variants, the update is a new deployment, a new image, that is loaded in the subsequent boot. So a reboot is required in order to load the new version.
On Workstation, the philosophy of GNOME Software is that it downloads the new packages then apply the updates during the subsequent boot[1]

  1. the so called offline upgrade in dnf therminology DNF system-upgrade Plugin — dnf-plugins-core 4.4.2-1 documentation ↩︎

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But on my VM they are applied too!

Yes! But on my Laptop I have to explicitly click the button in GNOME Software for that. If I shutdown and boot e.g. on the next day, when I want to use my laptop again, the update is NOT applied. But on my VM it IS!

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Are you sure that they are not applied? Do you use the same Fedora version in the VM, is this a current comparison or just what you remember?

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Yes, I’m sure, I have been observing since summer…
I did no updates manually for a month and the image was the same as at begin. Until then I updated it manually. I hoped, that Silverblue 41 brings the solution, bui it did not.

I even did a test: I shut down the laptop instead of a reboot after the Update was downloaded and the button for reboot was in GNOME Software. When I booted again, the old image was still active ant the new had to be downloaded again.

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You can enable automatic updates using the rpm-ostreed service, bypassing GNOME software. This method works for all Atomic variants.

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Yes but the software store integrations are supposed to fix important things

  • only update when battery is enough
  • only update on an unmetered network

This is not implemented in the rpm-ostreed service afaik, with the entire argumentation being “the GUI stores handle this”

Which they dont…

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If GNOME Software or KDE Discover does not do something that you would want it to do or think is a bug, please file a bug report upstream.