Fedora question: How come using `dnf upgrade` in the terminal doesn't require restarting, but using the "Software" program sometimes requires restarting, even if they update the same exact packages?

snek_boi · edit-2 2 years ago

Fedora question: How come using `dnf upgrade` in the terminal doesn't require restarting, but using the "Software" program sometimes requires restarting, even if they update the same exact packages?

zedro · edit-2 2 years ago

If you want to do a more safely software update in general you can use dnf offline-upgrade download in terminal to download only the packages. Then you can use dnf offline-upgrade reboot to install updates. The system restart in “safe mode”, apply every updates, reboot again and start the system. Reference: https://fedoramagazine.org/offline-updates-and-fedora-35/

heartsofwar@lemmy.world · edit-2 1 year ago

deleted by creator

armond · 2 years ago

The only time a restart is needed to implement updates is when the kernel is updated. The "Software " program prompts you to do so, dnf does not.

snek_boi · 2 years ago

Thanks for the response! That’s interesting because it prompts further questions:

when I update through the “Software” program and then restart, I need to unlock my encrypted drive for the update to happen. Then, I get a “Updating your software, please don’t turn the machine off; it will restart when the update is complete” or something among those lines.
however, when I update through dnf, and then I restart, I don’t even get prompted to do the “Please unlock your drive”; the restart happens immediately, without doing a whole “Updating your software” screen.

So this makes me think that:

when you update the kernel through “Software”, you’ve got to restart
when you update the kernel through dnf, it happens through a different method so that you don’t have to perform the update through restarting

Is it correct to say that dnf upgrade performs the upgrade while the computer is running, bypassing the need to unencrypt my drive when it restarts? Does it update the kernel while the kernel is running? Or does dnf leave everything ready so that “right now, you’re running the old kernel, but when you restart, you’ll boot up in the new kernel, without having to install it because it will already be installed (I just installed it!)”.

armond · 2 years ago

when you use dnf, and there is a kernel update, the kernel will not be updated until you restart, yes, you will still be using the old kernel until your next restart. You can confirm this by running: uname -r. I have no idea about the unencrypt part as I don’t use encryption! sorry.

dragnucs · 2 years ago

Software has a different way to manage updates. It first downloads packages then installs them at next reboot. I am not exactly sure about why things are this way but it could be to have a more reliable update experience. For example I had a few updates that broke the terminal window and thus make the update crash, so if important packages were touched, serious problems occurred.

Fedora question: How come using dnf upgrade in the terminal doesn't require restarting, but using the "Software" program sometimes requires restarting, even if they update the same exact packages?

Fedora question: How come using dnf upgrade in the terminal doesn't require restarting, but using the "Software" program sometimes requires restarting, even if they update the same exact packages?

Fedora question: How come using `dnf upgrade` in the terminal doesn't require restarting, but using the "Software" program sometimes requires restarting, even if they update the same exact packages?

Fedora question: How come using `dnf upgrade` in the terminal doesn't require restarting, but using the "Software" program sometimes requires restarting, even if they update the same exact packages?