[SOLVED] No updates since FreedomBox Version 24.18

[vrillo]

Hi,

I’m running Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) and FreedomBox Version 24.18 on my Raspberry Pi 4. Since 24.18 the system doesn’t update: “Package freedombox is kept back because a related package is kept back or due to local apt_preferences(5).”

2024-10-11 13:46:42,158 INFO Starting unattended upgrades script
2024-10-11 13:46:42,161 INFO Allowed origins are: origin=Debian,codename=bookworm,label=Debian, origin=Debian,codename=bookworm,label=Debian-Security, origin=Debian,codename=bookworm-security,label=Debian-Security, o=Debian Backports,n=bookworm-backports,l=Debian Backports
2024-10-11 13:46:42,163 INFO Initial blacklist:
2024-10-11 13:46:42,164 INFO Initial whitelist (not strict):
2024-10-11 13:46:47,262 INFO No packages found that can be upgraded unattended and no pending auto-removals
2024-10-11 13:46:47,341 INFO Package freedombox is kept back because a related package is kept back or due to local apt_preferences(5).

Log started: 2024-10-09 06:58:11
quota not working (qgroup not set)
quota not working (qgroup not set)
(Reading database …
(Reading database … 5%
(Reading database … 10%
(Reading database … 15%
(Reading database … 20%
(Reading database … 25%
(Reading database … 30%
(Reading database … 35%
(Reading database … 40%
(Reading database … 45%
(Reading database … 50%
(Reading database … 55%
(Reading database … 60%
(Reading database … 65%
(Reading database … 70%
(Reading database … 75%
(Reading database … 80%
(Reading database … 85%
(Reading database … 90%
(Reading database … 95%
(Reading database … 100%
(Reading database … 59387 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack …/apache2_2.4.62-1~deb12u2_arm64.deb …
Unpacking apache2 (2.4.62-1~deb12u2) over (2.4.62-1~deb12u1) …
Preparing to unpack …/apache2-bin_2.4.62-1~deb12u2_arm64.deb …
Unpacking apache2-bin (2.4.62-1~deb12u2) over (2.4.62-1~deb12u1) …
Preparing to unpack …/apache2-data_2.4.62-1~deb12u2_all.deb …
Unpacking apache2-data (2.4.62-1~deb12u2) over (2.4.62-1~deb12u1) …
Preparing to unpack …/apache2-utils_2.4.62-1~deb12u2_arm64.deb …
Unpacking apache2-utils (2.4.62-1~deb12u2) over (2.4.62-1~deb12u1) …
Setting up apache2-bin (2.4.62-1~deb12u2) …
Setting up apache2-data (2.4.62-1~deb12u2) …
Setting up apache2-utils (2.4.62-1~deb12u2) …
Setting up apache2 (2.4.62-1~deb12u2) …
apache-htcacheclean.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.
Config is in use.

Running kernel seems to be up-to-date.

The processor microcode seems to be up-to-date.

No services need to be restarted.

No containers need to be restarted.

No user sessions are running outdated binaries.

No VM guests are running outdated hypervisor (qemu) binaries on this host.
Illegal snapshot.
Config is in use.
Log ended: 2024-10-09 06:59:28

I also tried to update via Putty:

pi@freedombox:~$ sudo apt update
[sudo] password for pi:
Hit:1 Index of /debian bookworm InRelease
Hit:2 Index of /debian bookworm-updates InRelease
Hit:3 Index of /debian bookworm-backports InRelease
Hit:4 Index of /debian-security bookworm-security InRelease
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… Done
Reading state information… Done
1 package can be upgraded. Run ‘apt list --upgradable’ to see it.
N: Repository ‘Debian bookworm’ changed its ‘non-free component’ value from ‘non -free’ to ‘non-free non-free-firmware’
N: More information about this can be found online in the Release notes at: http s://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/arm64/release-notes/ch-information.html#non -free-split
pi@freedombox:~$ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… Done
Reading state information… Done
Calculating upgrade… Done
The following packages have been kept back:
freedombox
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.

Any ideas what to do?

[Avron]

Applying updates failed: unmet dependencies systemd-resolved <> resolvconf

A fix has been posted for this issue and will likely be available in the next release. Without any intervention, FreedomBox will upgrade to the next version (skipping the versions in between, which is okay).

The advice here is to just wait.

[jvalleroy]

The update (upload to stable-backports) is on hold due to this issue:

nextcloud: Setup stuck in error loop after upgrade (#2461) · Issues ·...

[vrillo]

Freedombox updated automatically. Diagnosis shows that everything seems to work well now.

[Tido]

I don’t understand.
I have downloaded in 2025 the stable release for RPi3 and stuck at v24.18 (see picture attached).
Frequent Feature Updates are not activated as the line above states, it is not needed for stable release.

I have the RPi3 updated and restarted >> Alle Pakete sind aktuell. >> nothing to update:

Summary

$ sudo apt update
[sudo] Passwort für admin: 
OK:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm InRelease
OK:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates InRelease    
Holen:3 http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security InRelease [48.0 kB]
Holen:4 http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security/main Sources [145 kB]
Holen:5 http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security/main arm64 Packages [242 kB]
Es wurden 435 kB in 3 s geholt (163 kB/s).          
Paketlisten werden gelesen… Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut… Fertig
Statusinformationen werden eingelesen… Fertig
Alle Pakete sind aktuell.

Please advise what I can check to find the error.

[Avron]

@Tido

Frequent Feature Updates are not activated as the line above states, it is not needed for stable release.

All the new Freedombox versions that are announced in this forum go to the testing release of Debian, they don’t go to the stable release. However, they are also backported to the stable release, but you will only get them if you active the backports, which is what this “frequent updates” mean.

If you want something extremely stable, it is fine not to allow these “frequent updates”.

I have a freedombox with the “frequent updates” activated and my set of services, that I never change, is postfix/dovecot, ejabberd, coturn, radicale, quassel and syncthing. It happens that the freedombox is unresponsive and I have to restart it be removing and putting back power, but perhaps at most once every 3 or 4 months.

Perhaps not activating the “frequent updates” could make this last longer, which might be nice as email and xmpp are now essential to me. Since it is activated for me now, I don’t have the choice to deactivate them. Perhaps at some point I will do a reinstallation and not activate them.

So I would say your situation looks perfectly normal and ok. My only recommendation: untick “Enable auto-update to next stable release”. When the next stable release appears, there are typically issues and if you have this option activated, your freedombox will migrate immediately, and last time this happened, these problems were significant. So it seems better to check the forum information, after some people tested the next stable version and problems were solved.

[Tido]

Thank you for the explanation, because I carefully read the words written, but wasn’t sure whether my system is fine or not. So, was left with a feeling of uncertainty.
Actually, I still don’t know. Is 24.18 a LTS-Release and upcoming issues will be fixed?

Terms and Description
Does my picture reflect what technically happens or am I wrong?
It says features, but on /plinth you call it Apps or System … coming from a users perspective.
ARCH, Suse Tumbleweed and others are called rolling - so I came to this term.

>> I removed the tic
In regard to upgrading to the next stable release, Ubuntu (Release Upgrade) would only make me aware of the availability - which is a sensible way to my understanding. I was just wondering why you (FreedomBox) takeover the “responsibility” of leaving the user with a broken system in the worst case. Just me thinking out loud

[Avron]

If you have the stable release and activate the “frequent updates”, what you have is still not the same as a rolling release: you will only get updates for the limited subset of packages that are backported to stable, which is far less than what is in Debian testing, so it should still be much more stable than using Debian testing directly.

Every new version of the freedombox package gets backported, but I believe this to be a rather uncommon case in Debian packages, so most likely, the other packages that are used (like postfix/dovecot, ejabberd and a few others) will most probably only get important security updates at most, until I switch to the next stable release.

@Tido

I was just wondering why you (FreedomBox) takeover the “responsibility” of leaving the user with a broken system in the worst case.

If you are mentioning the default tick of “Enable auto-update to next stable release”, I am surprised that this was not changed already.

If you are thinking of having an option for users to have a notification when any update is available and decide manually to apply the update, I would tend to support having that option, but I am not a developper and I don’t know how much extra work it is.