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How do I know my system updates are trustworthy?

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http://askubuntu.com – I routinely update my system whenever it notifies me of software updates. This is one of those things that I just trust to work without knowing the details, but I have become curious recently: How do I know that the process checking for updates will only show legitimate updates? the updates I receive and install are not malicious? I know that I have a set of software sources that I specify myself by URL and that whether I trust those sources is my decision. But what happens once I specified those URLs? From what is common these days, I would suspect that the authenticity of those sources (HowTos)

Danial's picture
Submitted by Danial on 01/04/2013

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Hello, I'm Spanish, I do not speak good English, I will try to explain the problem:

I have ubuntu 11.10 and now has left me the following error in the Update Manager, you can install all updates:

I tried to go to System Settings ----> Software Sources ---> updates, to see how I have configured the updates and I think I have the right ...

I'm using Ubuntu 12.04. I am new at Ubuntu. The system has given me a message that says "you must check updates manually" ... "You can configure this behavior in Software Sources on the Updates tab".

But I can't find Software Sources.

Updating your system with the latest patches or updates is a must whenever you installed Ubuntu. Installing the latest updates also resolve bugs (errors), improve performance and allow your system to run smoothly.

My update manager shows updates available. when i click on install updates it shows the following and does not update.

The action would require the installation of packages from not authenticated sources.

Every time after I run Software Updates, and have installed all the updates, the Software Updates Manager will show "The last check for updates was over a week ago. Please click Check for Updates to check." But the last update check was just minutes ago. How can I fix that? I checked the package history, and under Today there's all the updates I've installed minutes age. It seems normal.

Hi,

Let's say I open the Update Manager, and my package list is a couple of days old, or I do apt-get upgrade without doing an apt-get update first, what is the result of this?

If there have been updates since I last did a 'check' in the Update Manager, do I not get the latest version? Or do I simply not get updates on packages which had not updates at the time of my last check?

I'm trying to update to 12.10 or 12.04 from 11.10, but every time I check for updates or upgrades, nothing comes up. I've messed with the update manager settings from the Updates tab in Software Sources so I'm not sure how to proceed frmo here. Can anyone help me out? :(

Hey all,

I am trying to print the number of updates available and print it with conky, but I am having a hard time finding out the best way to do this. I would like a number between 0 and N, inclusive.

My first thought was to run: