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Aquarius Power
Asked: 2020-03-22 15:59:06 +0800 CST

What is the best way to upgrade all packages if you use a Desktop PC without a nobreak and with the possibility of a blackout happening?

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I use Synaptic to upgrade my Ubuntu 18.04.

I am concerned on having problems in case of a blackout (that is not uncommon).

What I have been doing is to update at most about 20 packages at once, and always from the bigger to the smaller (I chose the Synaptic filter "Status/Installed(upgradable)"). But huge packages like more than 50MB, I update individually...

But I am still not sure how safe that is?

What is the worst thing that could happen? My machine stop booting (broken boot) in case blackout happens during an upgrade? Or is it fail proof?

And what I do is somewhat time-consuming... could it improve in some way (if there is no other better way)?

I always thought install scripts should/would continue after reboot automatically, but I never tried that (to suddenly turn off the machine) to see what happens, so?

upgrade safely

1 Answers

  1. Depends on what packages you're upgrading. If you're upgrading base system packages like dpkg, apt, python, grub with their dependencies, then their breaking could lead to serious issues.

    You could try to download your upgrades first:

    sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade --download-only

    Then find reliable energy source and upgrade your system starting from the most important packages. Other packages like LibreOffice, gimp, DE and so on you could upgrade with possible blackouts. They more probably could be fixed by apt.

    To be more specific, you could start with ubuntu-minimal package which depends on some set of required system packages.

    But better buy an UPS.

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