System updates : What does it contain?

Hi,

From time to time I get an update called “system update” I haven’t found out how to find what’s in it if I look at the history it doesn’t appear.
Although I apply it with my blind eyes closed, I’d be interested to know what it changes.

Thanks

Open a terminal and type pamac upgrade.As it updates you can see whats being updated.

Given how little information you are providing, I presume that you are referring to the notification in your system tray.

Now, in more recent installations, these notifications come from pamac-tray-icon-plasma. Back when I installed Manjaro — in April 2019 — the default update notifier in the system tray of Plasma installations was octopi-notifier-qt5, and I’ve kept it that way. Therefore, I do not know what pamac qualifies as a “system update”, but I presume this will be a full update, i.e. including the kernels and the main operating system components.

Hi @kurdy,

The closest I could find to a package with that name is manjaro-system:

pamac list -i | grep -i sys
filesystem                            2023.03.21-1                  core      8.1 kB
ksystemlog                            23.04.3-1                     extra     6.1 MB
ksystemstats                          5.27.7-1                      extra     1.0 MB
kwindowsystem                         5.108.0-1                     extra     2.0 MB
lib32-systemd                         253.8-1                       multilib  2.2 MB
libksysguard                          5.27.7-1                      extra     7.2 MB
libsysprof-capture                    3.48.0-4                      extra     242.9 kB
manjaro-system                        20230401-1                    core      369 bytes
perl-ipc-system-simple                1.30-5                        extra     41.1 kB
plasma-systemmonitor                  5.27.7-1                      extra     1.2 MB
python-systemd                        235-2                         extra     385.0 kB
sysfsutils                            2.1.1-1                       core      90.5 kB
syslinux                              6.04.pre2.r11.gbf6db5b4-3     core      4.4 MB
sysstat                               12.7.4-1                      extra     1.7 MB
system-config-printer                 1.5.18-2                      extra     8.7 MB
systemd                               253.8-1                       core      29.9 MB
systemd-fsck-silent                   239-1                                   34.8 kB
systemd-kcm                           1.2.1-7                       extra     685.8 kB
systemd-libs                          253.8-1                       core      2.7 MB
systemd-numlockontty                  0.1-14                        AUR       232 bytes
systemd-sysvcompat                    253.8-1                       core      2.7 kB
systemsettings                        5.27.7-1                      extra     1.3 MB

Which also seem to be a meta-package:

$ pamac info manjaro-system
Name                  : manjaro-system
Version               : 20230401-1
Description           : Manjaro Linux System - Update script
URL                   : http://www.manjaro.org
Licences              : GPL
Repository            : core
Installed Size        : 369 bytes
Groups                : --
Depends On            : initramfs base
Optional Dependencies : --
Required By           : --
Optional For          : --
Provides              : --
Replaces              : --
Conflicts With        : --
Packager              : Mark Wagie <mark@manjaro.org>
Build Date            : Sat 01 Apr 2023 17:50:50
Install Date          : Tue 11 Apr 2023 14:53:35
Install Reason        : Explicitly installed
Validated By          : Signature
Backup files          : --

And base seem to be a meta-package as well:

$ pamac info base
Name                  : base
Version               : 3-2
Description           : Minimal package set to define a basic Manjaro Linux installation
URL                   : https://manjaro.org
Licences              : GPL
Repository            : core
Groups                : --
Depends On            : filesystem gcc-libs glibc bash coreutils file findutils gawk grep procps-ng sed tar gettext pciutils psmisc shadow util-linux bzip2 gzip xz licenses pacman archlinux-keyring manjaro-keyring systemd systemd-sysvcompat iputils
iproute2
Optional Dependencies : linux: bare metal support [Installed]
Required By           : manjaro-system
Optional For          : --
Provides              : --
Replaces              : --
Conflicts With        : --
Packager              : Philip Müller <philm@manjaro.org>
Build Date            : Wed 27 Jul 2022 21:18:35
Install Date          : Sat 30 Jul 2022 08:53:27
Install Reason        : Installed as a dependency for another package
Validated By          : Signature
Backup files          : --

So I hope that answers your question.

Edit:

More bout initramfs here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Mkinitcpio/Minimal_initramfs#top-page

3 Likes

Is it maybe this Gnome Software application?

Thank you for taking the time to suggest an approach, the information shows old dates, as the log shows the event happened today, I tried to search by date without success.

On the other hand, if I compare the logs and the GUI pamac history then we can see that the update is Brave.

The only thing I find strange is why we don’t get updates package by package but in blind meta package.

journalctl

aoû 24 15:39:39 msi-leopard pamac-tray-plas[2203]: updates_checker.vala:101: 1 updates found
aoû 24 15:39:39 msi-leopard systemd[1]: pamac-daemon.service: Consumed 14.790s CPU time.
aoû 24 15:46:10 msi-leopard pamac-manager[21595]: Using GtkSettings:gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme with libadwaita is unsupported. Please use AdwStyleManager:color-scheme instead.
aoû 24 15:46:10 msi-leopard dbus-daemon[928]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.manjaro.pamac.daemon' unit='pamac-daemon.service' requested by ':1.289' (uid=1000 pid=21595 comm="/usr/bin/pamac-manager --updates")
aoû 24 15:46:10 msi-leopard dbus-daemon[928]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.manjaro.pamac.daemon'
aoû 24 15:46:29 msi-leopard polkitd[930]: Operator of unix-session:2 successfully authenticated as unix-user:willy to gain TEMPORARY authorization for action org.manjaro.pamac.commit for system-bus-name::1.289 [/usr/bin/pamac-manager --updates] (owned by unix-user:...)
aoû 24 15:46:35 msi-leopard pamac-tray-plas[2203]: updates_checker.vala:71: check updates
aoû 24 15:46:35 msi-leopard pamac-tray-plas[2203]: updates_checker.vala:101: 0 updates found

pamac history

[2023-08-24T15:46:33+0200] [ALPM] upgraded brave-browser (1.57.47-1 -> 1.57.53-1)
1 Like

Well, in that case…

:man_shrugging:

The default popup notification does not list the updates, and that is ok so, because there may be hundreds of them. You have to click on the little shield with the dot (it has a dot if there are updates) near the clock and see the updates. Also, the updates are not applied automatically like on Android or windows, you have to manually apply them. So the notification is just there to grab your attention so that YOU update your system. You won’t find info in the logs what is updated…because it not yet updated at that point.

Thank you all for your answers. They encouraged me to look for the answer I was looking for on my own and finally get what I was trying to understand.

@Teo I know that I’m the one applying the update, that’s not the point. I was just wondering, what’s in it? And now I see that there are generally less than 10 items

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