Bug 436227

Summary: Discover always needs to restart when install updates
Product: [KDE Neon] neon Reporter: mabg
Component: Packages User EditionAssignee: Neon Bugs <neon-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL    
Severity: normal CC: aleixpol, jr, katyaberezyaka, nate, neon-bugs, sitter
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
See Also: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=435574
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:

Description mabg 2021-04-26 18:15:46 UTC
From the last 5.21.4 version, Discover always needs to restart when install updates.


EXPECTED RESULT


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows: 
macOS: 
Linux/KDE Plasma: 5.21.4
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 
KDE Frameworks Version: 
Qt Version: 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Comment 1 mabg 2021-04-26 18:17:14 UTC
It doesn't ask anymore for admin password.
Comment 2 shenlebantongying 2021-04-26 18:50:33 UTC
You can go System Settings → Updates(last one at bottom) → "Use offline updates".

Then the Discover should no longer ask you to restart.
Comment 3 mabg 2021-04-26 19:24:14 UTC
On System Settings - Updates, I haven't this option. I only have a radio button with options manual or automatic:

Actualizar software: Manualmente  Automáticamente. It is selected "Manualmente"
Comment 4 Nate Graham 2021-04-27 19:46:52 UTC
That setting is being added to Plasma 5.22.

Moving to Neon as this is a distro-specific decision to use offline updates by default.
Comment 5 guimarcalsilva 2022-03-11 02:50:46 UTC
This is a valid bug report and in the current state, offline updates represent a UX problem, specially in a distro like Neon that updates frequently. I do agree that it's important to have the system reboot in some situations to improve stability.

The real problem is the amount of reboots and that not all package updates need a reboot. You will probably want to restart to apply a Plasma or Kernel update, but it's not a good experience to expect the user to restart to update Firefox or Kate.

I don't know if this already exists, and if it does, support for it should be included in Discover, but in order to differentiate between system updates that need a reboot and ordinary app updates, I believe it would be ideal to have a multi-format standard where .deb/.rpm packages get a tag that tells Discover if they require a reboot to be installed. This tag would then be set for packages by packagers based on some criteria, like if it's a system package, a security update, or for some other technical reason. This should probably be proposed upstream and when/if support lands, Discover should be able to read that tag and prompt for a reboot based on it.

This would be the best option, as it would seriously reduce the need for reboots and thus improve UX, while still making important system updates less bug prone.

Does any developer know where this could be discussed upstream? I could file a feature request for such functionality.
Comment 6 guimarcalsilva 2022-03-11 02:55:32 UTC
Also, if the functionality I talked about above already exists, maybe some Neon packages could be tagged to not reboot the system. This would apply mainly for user facing apps, like Krita, Kate, etc.
Comment 7 Nate Graham 2022-03-11 17:04:30 UTC
The fact that the system uses offline updates which require a restart is not a bug, but rather an optional feature that many distros are using by default because it improves system stability. You can go back to the older riskier interactive updates if you'd like, by changing the setting in System Settings.

Not asking for a reboot when apps get updated is tracked by Bug 435574.