[Bug 2143695] Re: unattended-upgrades via apt-daily-timer does not log why it does not run

Tue Mar 10 08:45:10 UTC 2026

root at jan-laptop:/# journalctl --unit apt-daily-upgrade.service
Feb 27 06:26:30 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
Feb 27 06:26:30 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
Feb 27 06:26:30 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
Feb 28 06:53:49 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
Feb 28 06:53:49 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
Feb 28 06:53:49 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
Mar 01 06:11:03 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
Mar 01 06:11:03 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mar 01 06:11:03 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
-- Boot 723e52abde4a40a4a4d54a46adf4bf1f --
Mar 02 08:22:22 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
Mar 02 08:22:22 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mar 02 08:22:22 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
-- Boot 91df28e02c6f45fbb51c9235289ece75 --
Mar 03 06:51:36 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
Mar 03 06:51:36 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mar 03 06:51:36 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
-- Boot f3012b48da4446878d8d59243ce455b1 --
Mar 04 07:26:08 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
Mar 04 07:26:08 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mar 04 07:26:08 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
-- Boot cf0e33f4f971419b9f772872e95635e9 --
Mar 05 08:20:25 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
Mar 05 08:20:25 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mar 05 08:20:25 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
-- Boot 5bb826fb07534325971342e5b3bf9c7f --
Mar 06 06:47:23 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionACPower=true).
Mar 07 06:53:57 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
Mar 07 06:53:57 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mar 07 06:53:57 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
Mar 08 06:35:59 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
Mar 08 06:36:00 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mar 08 06:36:00 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
-- Boot 111d97d094dc4b609ece87aad9019845 --
Mar 09 07:29:19 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
Mar 09 07:29:19 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mar 09 07:29:19 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
-- Boot a848541f623d40c2a90415a879de5e14 --
Mar 09 21:47:56 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
Mar 09 21:47:56 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
Mar 09 21:47:56 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
root at jan-laptop:/# unattended-upgrade --debug --dry-run
loading plugins from ['/etc/unattended-upgrades/plugins/', '/usr/share/unattended-upgrades/plugins']
Checking if system is running on battery is skipped. Please install powermgmt-base package to check power status and skip installing updates when the system is running on battery.
Not running on this development release before 2026-04-01
upgrade result: True 
root at jan-laptop:/# journalctl --unit apt-daily-upgrade.service|grep devel
root at jan-laptop:/#

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2143695

Title:
  unattended-upgrades via apt-daily-timer does not log why it does not
  run

Status in unattended-upgrades package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  root at jan-laptop:/# lsb_release -d
  Description:    Ubuntu Resolute Raccoon (development branch)
  root at jan-laptop:/# dpkg -l unattended-upgrades
  Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
  | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
  |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
  ||/ Name                Version      Architecture Description
  +++-===================-============-============-===========================================
  ii  unattended-upgrades 2.12ubuntu5  all          automatic installation of security upgrades
  root at jan-laptop:/# apt list --upgradable|wc -l

  WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in
  scripts.

  71
  root at jan-laptop:/# journalctl --since=today|egrep 'apt-'
  Mar 09 06:53:58 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Started apt-daily.timer - Daily apt download activities.
  Mar 09 06:53:58 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Started apt-daily-upgrade.timer - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
  Mar 09 07:29:19 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Starting apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities...
  Mar 09 07:29:19 jan-laptop systemd[1]: apt-daily-upgrade.service: Deactivated successfully.
  Mar 09 07:29:19 jan-laptop systemd[1]: Finished apt-daily-upgrade.service - Daily apt upgrade and clean activities.
  root at jan-laptop:/# cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades
  APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
  APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";
  root at jan-laptop:/# cat /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades.log 
  cat: /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades.log: No such file or directory (os error 2)

  manual dry-run tells you why, but it should have logged it if possible?

  root at jan-laptop:/# unattended-upgrade --debug --dry-run
  loading plugins from ['/etc/unattended-upgrades/plugins/', '/usr/share/unattended-upgrades/plugins']
  Checking if system is running on battery is skipped. Please install powermgmt-base package to check power status and skip installing updates when the system is running on battery.
  Not running on this development release before 2026-04-01

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