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I have an Ubuntu dedicated server. I reboot it every Sunday, yet there is rarely a week where on Friday I don't see this when SSHing in due to auto-updates:

I have an Ubuntu dedicated server. I reboot it every Sunday, yet there is rarely a week where on Friday I don't see this when SSHing in due to auto-updates: 0 packages can be updated. 0 updates are security updates. *** System restart required *** Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS Linux ubuntu 4.15.0-34-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP Mon Aug 27 15:21:48 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

parliament32 7y ago
This is just an Ubuntu-ism. Linux doesn't require a reboot for anything other than kernel updates (and dbus in special cases). On a side note it's a bad idea to run Ubuntu on a server in prod. Ubuntu is great for desktop and pretty trash for everything else. You'd be better off just running Debian, it's a lot more stable.
- linuseouyt 7y ago
  > Linux doesn't require a reboot for anything other than kernel updates You can say the same about Windows updates. Ubuntu has a new kernel update every 3 weeks, unless CVEs force sooner ones. https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kernel/StableReleaseCadence https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kernel/StableReleaseCadence Anyway, parent was saying that Windows is shit because it forces frequent updates. Ubuntu, which as you say it's the closest to a user friendly Linux dist does the same thing.
  - JamesT_Kirk 7y ago
    Not really. Linux Mint is more popular and is far more usable and stable in my experience. And it does not force updates.
  - PhasmaFelis 7y ago
    > Anyway, parent was saying that Windows is shit because it forces frequent updates. Ubuntu, which as you say it's the closest to a user friendly Linux dist does the same thing. Windows will kill all your apps and reboot your machine in the middle of the night on a regular basis, unless you do some serious digging in the registry. (And they may have closed off even that by now.) Is that "the same thing" as Ubuntu?
  - computerex 7y ago
    One thing that's different is that you'll be never forced to update on linux and you will never be forced to reboot, even on Ubuntu.
- SXX 7y ago
  In most cases this is exactly kernel updates that Ubuntu ask reboot for. You can just go check contents of this file to see what packages requested upgrade: /var/run/reboot-required.pkgs
SXX 7y ago
In 99% of cases this is efficiently mean that your kernel been upgraded, but it's doesn't affect system usability at all and rarely affect security. I have servers that been continuously upgraded over years, never got single reboot and still function properly.
- tsimionescu 7y ago
  As far as I know, Linux doesn't support library hotswapping any more than Windows does, so if you have a security update in libc for example, you can either manually restart all programs which use it, or reboot the system. Unless you do one of these, you don't have the security patch up and running, right?
  - wokkel 7y ago
    Yes it does but differently: the library is placed on disk and the symlink pointing to the new version is updates. Services depending on this library are restarted. Ssh handles this exceptionally well in that it keeps running sessions open and new sessions use the new library. There is alsof no risk of having locks on files during installation: Unix keeps a gidsen copy of a file until the last process closes it. All in all, almost no reboots required unless a critical kernel bug is found that can be exploited remotely.
    - tsimionescu 7y ago
      Still, each individual process using an updated library needs to be restarted for the update to take effect. The way I see it, Linux does give you much more flexibility in how to deal with these restarts; and the ability to overwrite libraries on disk guarantees you don't get into the horrible Windows update-restart-update-restart cycles: you only ever require one restart at most. However, there are also risks. For one, if you don't restart long-running processes which use updated shared libraries your system may be at risk; also, even if the update was not a vulnerability fix, it is technically possible for processes that communicate through a shared library to misbehave if they have different versions (one using the old library with an old data-structure for example). This probably doesn't happen so much in Linux, where IPC is commonly done through text streams, but may be a much bigger problem on Windows if you update some COM library for example, reducing the usefullness of no-restart updates.
DenseComet 7y ago
Try out Ubuntu Livepatch. It can update the kernel without reboots, which is likely the cause of the message.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
icedchai 7y ago
You reboot your server every week? Whatever for?
- stephenr 7y ago
  This is the real WTF of this subthread.
- tom_ 7y ago
  To make sure the process works?
- Enginerrrd 7y ago
  Don't some updates set a "reboot required" flag?
  - icedchai 7y ago
    Yes. My point is doing this all the time is, generally, a waste of time. I recommend turning off automatic updates, do it on a schedule. Weekly is too frequent. I have some servers I update yearly. That may be too long. At a previous startup, we had boxes that hadn't seen an update in 3+ years.

parliament32 7y ago

This is just an Ubuntu-ism. Linux doesn't require a reboot for anything other than kernel updates (and dbus in special cases). On a side note it's a bad idea to run Ubuntu on a server in prod. Ubuntu is great for desktop and pretty trash for everything else. You'd be better off just running Debian, it's a lot more stable.

linuseouyt 7y ago
> Linux doesn't require a reboot for anything other than kernel updates You can say the same about Windows updates. Ubuntu has a new kernel update every 3 weeks, unless CVEs force sooner ones. https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kernel/StableReleaseCadence https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kernel/StableReleaseCadence Anyway, parent was saying that Windows is shit because it forces frequent updates. Ubuntu, which as you say it's the closest to a user friendly Linux dist does the same thing.
- JamesT_Kirk 7y ago
  Not really. Linux Mint is more popular and is far more usable and stable in my experience. And it does not force updates.
- PhasmaFelis 7y ago
  > Anyway, parent was saying that Windows is shit because it forces frequent updates. Ubuntu, which as you say it's the closest to a user friendly Linux dist does the same thing. Windows will kill all your apps and reboot your machine in the middle of the night on a regular basis, unless you do some serious digging in the registry. (And they may have closed off even that by now.) Is that "the same thing" as Ubuntu?
- computerex 7y ago
  One thing that's different is that you'll be never forced to update on linux and you will never be forced to reboot, even on Ubuntu.
SXX 7y ago
In most cases this is exactly kernel updates that Ubuntu ask reboot for. You can just go check contents of this file to see what packages requested upgrade: /var/run/reboot-required.pkgs

SXX 7y ago

In 99% of cases this is efficiently mean that your kernel been upgraded, but it's doesn't affect system usability at all and rarely affect security. I have servers that been continuously upgraded over years, never got single reboot and still function properly.

tsimionescu 7y ago
As far as I know, Linux doesn't support library hotswapping any more than Windows does, so if you have a security update in libc for example, you can either manually restart all programs which use it, or reboot the system. Unless you do one of these, you don't have the security patch up and running, right?
- wokkel 7y ago
  Yes it does but differently: the library is placed on disk and the symlink pointing to the new version is updates. Services depending on this library are restarted. Ssh handles this exceptionally well in that it keeps running sessions open and new sessions use the new library. There is alsof no risk of having locks on files during installation: Unix keeps a gidsen copy of a file until the last process closes it. All in all, almost no reboots required unless a critical kernel bug is found that can be exploited remotely.
  - tsimionescu 7y ago
    Still, each individual process using an updated library needs to be restarted for the update to take effect. The way I see it, Linux does give you much more flexibility in how to deal with these restarts; and the ability to overwrite libraries on disk guarantees you don't get into the horrible Windows update-restart-update-restart cycles: you only ever require one restart at most. However, there are also risks. For one, if you don't restart long-running processes which use updated shared libraries your system may be at risk; also, even if the update was not a vulnerability fix, it is technically possible for processes that communicate through a shared library to misbehave if they have different versions (one using the old library with an old data-structure for example). This probably doesn't happen so much in Linux, where IPC is commonly done through text streams, but may be a much bigger problem on Windows if you update some COM library for example, reducing the usefullness of no-restart updates.

DenseComet 7y ago

Try out Ubuntu Livepatch. It can update the kernel without reboots, which is likely the cause of the message.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

icedchai 7y ago

You reboot your server every week? Whatever for?

stephenr 7y ago
This is the real WTF of this subthread.
tom_ 7y ago
To make sure the process works?
Enginerrrd 7y ago
Don't some updates set a "reboot required" flag?
- icedchai 7y ago
  Yes. My point is doing this all the time is, generally, a waste of time. I recommend turning off automatic updates, do it on a schedule. Weekly is too frequent. I have some servers I update yearly. That may be too long. At a previous startup, we had boxes that hadn't seen an update in 3+ years.