Level 4-5 to Level 3 Progression in Update Manager!!

[Capadac]

Does Level 4-5 updates eventually become level 3 after successful testing? I ask because kernel updates are usually level 4 and not having them can be a security risk, but also i read online that KDE updates are level 4 and can break the system. Can someone elaborate please?

[xenopeek]

The level of an update depends solely on what part of the operating system it affects. So level 4-5 updates always remain at that level.

For some background on why for example your kernel is not by default updated (as it is level 4-5), and how that does/does not affect your security, see http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 47#p590569. Similar reasoning goes for other components of level 4-5.

[Capadac]

The level of an update depends solely on what part of the operating system it affects. So level 4-5 updates always remain at that level.

For some background on why for example your kernel is not by default updated (as it is level 4-5), and how that does/does not affect your security, see http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 47#p590569. Similar reasoning goes for other components of level 4-5.

Thanks that explained alot!!

[palo]

The level of an update depends solely on what part of the operating system it affects. So level 4-5 updates always remain at that level.

For some background on why for example your kernel is not by default updated (as it is level 4-5), and how that does/does not affect your security, see http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 47#p590569. Similar reasoning goes for other components of level 4-5.

This is a real ah-ha moment for me. I always found that there were updates in Synaptic Package Manager including (but not limited to) the kernel that were not shown in the Update Manager. For this reason I abandonded the Mintupdate in favor of Synaptic. Now I see the levels that are in UM do not exist as an option in SPM -

Does this mean that the extra updates that show in SPM are all level 4-5 and I have been updating on the edge all this time? Haven't had any problems with it BTW.

Update afterthought: if any PPA is enabled does the UM always assume it is level 1-3 and show it or - well what exactly does it do?

[xenopeek]

Yes, if you use Synaptic you see all updates. You can easily enable level 4-5 updates in Update Manager from the Edit > Preferences menu. I usually have them set to visible, but not automatically installed.

The Update Manager has a set of rules, where each rule specifies the level of the update. The name of the package that has an update is matched to the rules, and the level of the update is taken from there. So even with PPAs, the names of the packages are matched against the rules. The list of rules is in /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/rules. Or, the source is here: https://github.com/linuxmint/mintupdate ... date/rules

It might have some additional ways to decide the update level, on top of the rules. I'm not sure. The source code is of course available for those curious, here: https://github.com/linuxmint/mintupdate

[palo]

Vincent>
Thank you for taking the time to explain this. Being newly Minted I had thought (up till now) that MintUpdate and UpdateManager was faulty having not found such an explanation as you gave. It makes sense now and I will rethink how I do updates.

Pat