[Bug 1624644] Please test proposed package

[Brian Murray]

Hello Jarno, or anyone else affected,

Accepted update-manager into xenial-proposed. The package will build now
and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-
manager/1:16.04.13 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package.  See
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how
to enable and use -proposed.Your feedback will aid us getting this
update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug,
mentioning the version of the package you tested and change the tag from
verification-needed-xenial to verification-done-xenial. If it does not
fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the
tag to verification-failed-xenial. In either case, without details of
your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification .  Thank you in
advance!

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1624644

Title:
  By default settings unattended-upgrade does not automatically remove
  packages that become unused in conjunction with updating by other
  software

Status in apt package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in gnome-software package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in unattended-upgrades package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in update-manager package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in update-manager source package in Xenial:
  Fix Committed
Status in apt source package in Artful:
  Confirmed
Status in gnome-software source package in Artful:
  Invalid
Status in unattended-upgrades source package in Artful:
  In Progress
Status in update-manager source package in Artful:
  Fix Committed

Bug description:
  [Impact]

   * Update-manager and unattended-upgrades install many kernel packages during the lifetime of a release but does not remove them automatically leading to those packages filling disk space potentially completely filling /boot and making the system unable to install updates or even boot.
   * Stable release users are impacted by this bug for years and their systems already collected many autoremovable unused kernel packages, thus they would benefit from backporting the fix greatly.
   * The bug is fixed by removing autoremovable (not currently booted) kernel packages when running unattended-upgrades or update-manager. Update manager offers the kernel removals when there are other updates to be installed.

  [Test Case]

   1. Install kernel packages to be removed, mark them auto-installed
  and run apt's kernel hook script to make apt consider them
  autoremovable:

    sudo apt install -y linux-image-extra-4.4.0-92-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-93-generic
    sudo apt-mark auto linux-image-extra-4.4.0-92-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-93-generic
    sudo /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal

   2. Also downgrade a package to be upgraded:

     sudo apt-get install -y ca-certificates=20160104ubuntu1

   3. (update-manager). Run update-manager and observe that kernel
  packages are offered for removal in Details of updates.

    sudo update-manager

   4. (update-manager) Click on Install Now and observe that the kernel
  packages are removed.

   3. (unattended-upgrades) Run unattended-upgrades manually and observe
  the removal of the autoremovable kernel packages:

    sudo unattended-upgrade -v

  [Regression Potential]

   The change may cause update-manager or unattanded-upgrades to remove
  used kernel packages or fail to install other package updates.

  [Other Info]
   
  The unattended-upgrades fix is uploaded with many other fixes and those may cause regressions in other areas in unattended-upgrades.

  [Original bug text]

  When using default settings for unattended-upgrade i.e.
  Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Dependencies "false";
  # default "false"
  Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-New-Unused-Dependencies "true";
  # default "true"
  in configuration file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades,
  unattended-upgrade is unable to remove packages that become unused in conjunction with updating by other software such as update-manager or apt full-upgrade. This is because unattended-upgrade compares the list of unneeded packages before and after it upgrades packages to detect which packages are new unused ones.

  Consequently, if user installs new kernels using e.g. update-manager,
  the excessive kernels will not be removed by unattended-upgrade, and
  eventually (small) /boot will become full.

  Expected behavior: handle removing of unused packages differently at
  least until other package management software installed by default can
  handle removing of new unused packages.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
  Package: unattended-upgrades 0.90
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-36.55-generic 4.4.16
  Uname: Linux 4.4.0-36-generic i686
  ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
  Architecture: i386
  CurrentDesktop: XFCE
  Date: Sat Sep 17 11:28:44 2016
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-09-05 (11 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Mythbuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release i386 (20160719)
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: unattended-upgrades
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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