Unattended Updates for Ubuntu 24.04 Server

Automated Bash installer script for configuring unattended updates on Ubuntu 24.04 Server.

Important

This script configures unattended updates with the following defaults:

• Installs and updates all available packages
• Installs security updates automatically
• Creates a crontab entry to run updates every Saturday at 04:00

Optional Features

• Enable removal of unused packages
• Enable automatic reboot if needed
• Enable automatic reboot even if users are logged in

Note

Before running the script, decide whether you want to enable the optional features mentioned above. The lines to review in the code are shown below:

#
# Uncomment the next 2 lines to enable automatic removal of unused packages. This equals apt autoremove.
#
# sed -i '/Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Dependencies/ s/^\/\/\s*//' "$config2"
# sed -i 's/Remove-Unused-Dependencies "false"/Remove-Unused-Dependencies "true"/' "$config2"

#
# Uncomment the next 2 lines to enable automatic reboot
#
# sed -i '/Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot/ s/^\/\/\s*//' "$config2"
# sed -i 's/Automatic-Reboot "false"/Automatic-Reboot "true"/' "$config2"

#
# Uncomment the line below to enable automatic reboot even if users are logged in
#
# sed -i '/Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot-WithUsers/ s/^\/\/\s*//' "$config2"

Preparing

Update your package index before running the installer:

sudo apt update -y

Download the Script

Clone the repository from your Git server:

git clone https://git.x-files.dk/server-general/auto-update-ubuntu.git

Usage

Run the script to configure unattended updates automatically:

cd auto-update-ubuntu
sudo ./auto-update-ubuntu

Post-install

Nothing to do.

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More Information

More guides and documentation can be found on wiki.x-files.dk

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License

Licensed under the MIT License.

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