Even back in the Windows 3.1 or 95 days I didn’t have to reboot this often - sometimes twice a day. Seems a bit excessive?
Like the other comment mentioned, you don’t need to reboot, unless you’ve updated the kernel.
If you somehow downloaded by mistake an immutable system, like Fedora Silverblue or Fedora Kinoite, know it’s not the classic way to manage Linux systems.
But even with an immutable distro you don’t have to reboot. The updated image just gets downloaded in the background and booted into when you restart. There is no harm in still being booted from the old image id you don’t specifically need anything only included in the new one. Nothing forces you to reboot.
Silverblue is my daily driver. Everything is in flatpaks, which update automatically, or in distrobox which I have a bash script that updates automatically.
System updates download in the background and just boot automatically the next time you boot up. I just ignore them.
you should only need to reboot when updating the kernel. Why are you rebooting? Is it because the system is unresponsive?
I’m using the KDE version and updates come in automatically through Discover. They almost always announce in the system tray that a reboot is required.
You also don’t have to reboot when Discover says to. It’s just saying that the updates won’t take effect until you reboot. It could probably be worded better, for sure.
I think that installing new versions often means that particular services need to be restarted. Rather than implement logic to restart relevant services, it probably just says “fuck it, reboot”.
Eh, no. It only downloads the packages, then asks you to reboot and installs the new packages during the boot process. This means you get a clean system afterward in which no pre-update binaries are being run anymore. It just comes at the price that you need a full reboot for something that usually needs a session relogin at worst.
On the other hand you rather have to put a gun to the average GUI user’s head to get them to reboot ever, otherwise the computer will sit there for months on end until finally they shut it down once and it can finally apply updates.
Honestly that little reboot icon in the sys tray is sort of like a loaded gun pointed at me
This is exactly my issue, Just as I can’t deal with unread notifications, I can’t live with a pending update icon just sitting there.
Right click the up arrow > configure icons tray > second tab > reboot notification > disabled.
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So you don’t want to hear about the arch box I leave hot and live for two months at a time?
It’s because it has offline updates enabled in Discover settings, its not a distro thing rather that Gnome and KDE have that in their software centers as a setting, and Fedora enables it by default, but it can be disabled.
It’s to make your system more stable because no packages get moved or updated during a running system causing unexpected behavior, and you also don’t have to reboot when it tells you, it’s more just a reminder that updates are waiting to be applied when you do, they could really word that better.
Interesting, I assumed I’d have to live with it… Would changing that setting be a bad idea?
Not a bad idea really, if you update tons of stuff without rebooting if you have it disabled sometimes weird stuff can happen, but its not very common and usually not very bad at all. I’d leave it on if you want that extra little bit of stability, but if its just a regular every day use computer I think either way is fine.
Well that was easy. Thank you very much, I may stick to Fedora for a while longer!
For anyone wondering, just edit
/etc/xdg/discoverrcand change the flag to “false”.Edit: looks like it can also be changed with a checkbox in system settings > software updates.
sigh… i hate to say it but do your updates via command line because it will actually tell you if you need a reboot. As said above, it should only be for Kernel updates, and even then it will tell you that it will switch kernels next reboot and keep running on the current one.
Most desktop applications for doing updates ask you to reboot not because its needed, but because they are being “safe” or not running with the same user rights as you are in the terminal.
Why does no other distro do that though? I’ve tried a bunch before and this is the first time I get that notification sitting there taunting me.
Hrm. Skim ahead if you already know some of this… So say you have a running program XYZ that loads libUseful.so to do useful things. Now you run some updates and libUseful.so gets replaced with the new version. Because of how files on Unix work, the old version still exists on the disk until XYZ closes it, but any new program will load the new version. So things generally “just work” when the system is updated in place, but on the rare occasion causes weird problems. Fedora (from the GUI) chooses to run updates during reboot to prevent the rare, weird problems. If you update from the command line, it just does them in place. Kernel updates always require a reboot to apply though.
Ubuntu does this all the time and so does Debian. I rarely open a terminal on a machine that’s been running for a while that doesn’t show the “a reboot is required to apply updates” blurb on login.
After applying an update you need to make sure anything using the unmatched code is replaced by the patched code. A reliable way to do that is a reboot. Actually a reboot is pretty much the only reliable way to do that.
So I am not surprised that a distribution targeting end users asks for a reboot.
It has been a while since I have used Fedora but this is not unique to that distro. Arch will also tell you to reboot if the kernel, systemd, and a few other packages are updated. I rarely do it right away though.
Do you have offline updates enabled in the Discover settings by any chance?
If you’re using KDE, you can go to System Settings > Software Updates and
- Set the notification frequency to weekly or monthly to reduce the number of update notifications.
- Disable offline updates. This will install updates while you’re using the system and you can choose to reboot when/if you want.
Opening Discover will check for updates and, if updates are found, show the tray notification regardless of your notification frequency and when you last updated.
Fedora does roll out updates pretty much daily, which can be annoying, but you can choose what and when to update.
Dude just change discover’s update mechanism in the settings. Discover usually reboots to install updates so that nothing goes wrong. You can change it though, so that updates are applied instantly. That way you’ll only need to reboot for kernel updates.
Can you provide more details on why you were forced to reboot so regularly?
So after reading the comments it’s not that you need to reboot. It’s your need to process notifications.
I’m on OpenSUSE and I only reboot once a week if really needed
Fedora is nicest when you use a lot of flatpaks imo. They just update constantly in the background without reboot.
Only system updates need reboot.
Even better: Silverblue! (I use uBlue)
Everything gets updated in the background without even needing intervention, not even a “you need to click here to download and reboot to apply changes”-notification.
I shut down my PC every few days when I leave the house for longer and boot into the next base-image without even noticing.
And if I do because something doesn’t work, I just select the image from yesterday.
Oh yeah, and 99% of my apps are Flatpaks anyway, which auto-update too by default.
I just don’t notice my OS in any way, I just work with it. Lovely!
I agree, I actually use Silverblue as well. The only thing I added was a script to auto update distrobox too.
Using MX Linux, I reboot only after kernel upgrade
Yeah, seems definetly excessive. I don’t know fedora good enough to tell you what you’re doing wrong though, sorry
I’m not doing anything wrong, it’s just made that way. Browser update? Reboot. Update to an app that I haven’t even opened in weeks? Reboot.
It isn’t, though. Made that way, I mean. I update maybe weekly and restart my system when I do. That’s it. I seldom get notification that I need to update unless I open the Gnome Software app, and unless it’s a security update, it’s not imperative to do it just because it’s there. And even then, it doesn’t always require a restart.
I’ve been using Fedora off and on (mostly on) for the better part of a decade, and I’ve never run into what you’re describing. So no. It isn’t “made that way.” I imagine if it were, it would be a hell of a lot less popular.
I am using Nobara, which is a Fedora based gaming distro. I definitely do not have to reboot for updates to software outside of system updates to the OS specifically. Updating Discord, Firefox, Steam, Heroic Launcher, Signal, etc does not require a reboot. Something sounds amiss. I am running straight Fedora on my Surface Pro and same story there, basically restart for system upgrades only.
Doesn’t your Fedora classify 99% of all updates as “system” which arrive almost every day? Before I figured out that I could disable offline updates, I had the same user experience as OP. Well, I ignored it when it told me that I needed to reboot…
Yeah, this is one of the reasons I don’t like Fedora. The other reason is because they are owned by Redhat/IBM who are best buddies with the NSA.
I prefer Ubuntu or Debian based distros as well as opensuse. I’m using Linux Mint because it’s developed by independent Devs and is Ubuntu based but with all the Snaps stuff stripped out.
It’s ideal. Fast, beautiful, reliable, stable yet can do everything Ubuntu can and has all the latest security patches and Ubuntu improvements.
They also have a Debian based version if you want to be Debian based but run Cinnamon.
I’ve been using Linux for years and IMO it’s the best distribution overall.
But opensuse is also great, and fully independent. And super reliable. They have 2 variants:
Leap: this is their long term version which only gets a total upgrade every 2 years. It does get security updates and fixes but the main upgrade is every 2 years. Super stable.
Tumbleweed: this is the rolling release which gets updated with all the latest packages, fixes, security etc daily.
Also super stable unless you have a proprietary WiFi card from Broadcom. If you do, WiFi will break often because the guy who makes the WiFi driver has to update the driver after opensuse updates Tumbleweed. He normally needs about 2 days to fix it but if you don’t have ethernet, you’ll have to tether your phone to your pc to use the internet and download the fix. Can be a pain.
There are tons of Ubuntu based distros around so try a few on a live usb. Go to Distrowatch.com for a comprehensive list of all distros. Use the filters to find what you want.
@danielfgom @cygnus fedora is as independent of red hat as Linux mint is independent of canonical. At least as far as I know
Allegedly but most of the Devs are full time Redhat employees…so you know.
@danielfgom ah I see well either way even if fedora put a backdoor in it wouldnt exactly be a secret. maybe a compromised iso from their main website but people would quickly raise the alarm over the hashes
The only back door that could exist is SELinux, the NSA created security suite.
But even if there is no backdoor, the fact that the government agencies are Red hat’s biggest clients is very worrying.
