[Freedombox-discuss] Preventing auto-reboots and auto-updates?

[spectral]

On Thu, 2023-03-09 at 10:33 -0500, Stefan Monnier via Freedombox-
discuss wrote:
> Freedombox seems to like to reboot, but now that I use it on a box
> that
> I also use for other purposes, it's rather annoying.
> 
> IIUC the reboots are linked to the "auto-update" functionality.
> But when I try to disable it, it ... "doesn't work".
> 
> More specifically, I do the following:
> 
> - Go to https://<MYSERVER>/plinth/sys/upgrades/
> - See the little checkmark next to "Enable auto-update"
> - Click on that checkmark to remove it.
> - Click on "Update setup".
> - See the page updated with a green message at the top saying
> 
>     Automatic upgrades disabled
> 
> - Yet also see in that same page that "Enable auto-update" still has
>   a checkmark next to it!
> - And next day's logs show that auto-updates are indeed enabled,
>   and the machine scheduled a reboot.
> 
> 

On my dedicated Freedombox (Pioneer Edition) on version 23.4, the
checkbox is unchecked when the page refreshes with the green "Automatic
upgrades disabled" message.

I think the checkbox is set based on the contents of
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades.  With the box checked I see a
value of "1", and with the box unchecked a value of "0".  Could
something be interfering with plinth updating this file on your system?

This is what I see in the file with updates enabled (checkbox checked):

zeppo at freedombox:~$ sudo cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades 
APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";