Thursday, February 18, 2010

Installing Kernel Security Updates Without Reboot With Ksplice Uptrack On Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop

Ksplice Uptrack is a subscription service that lets you apply 100% of the important kernel security updates released by your Linux vendor without rebooting.

Ksplice Uptrack is freely available for the desktop versions of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic and Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty. This tutorial shows how to install and use it on an Ubuntu 9.10 desktop.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!


1 Installing Ksplice Uptrack
Open Firefox and visit http://www.ksplice.com/uptrack/download. Click the Ksplice Uptrack for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic - Download now button:

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Select Open with GDebi Package Installer (default) in the Firefox download dialogue:

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After the download has finished, the Package Installer will come up. Click the Install Package button:

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Type in your password:

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Afterwards, the dependencies for Ksplice Uptrack are being downloaded and installed:

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Next you must accept the Ksplice Uptrack license:

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Ksplice Uptrack is now being installed:

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Click the Close button to leave the Package Installer afterwards:

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2 Using Ksplice Uptrack
The Ksplice Uptrack Manager should have opened automatically at the end of the installation process. This is how it looks:


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You should also find a Ksplice Uptrack icon in the taskbar - the Ksplice Uptrack Manager can as well be opened by clicking it.

This is how it looks when there are kernel updates available...


... and this is how it looks when there are no kernel updates (i.e., all kernel security fixes are installed):


If there are kernel updates available, you can install them by clicking the Install all updates button in the Ksplice Uptrack Manager.

The kernel updates are then being downloaded and installed:

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Afterwards, there should be a green check in front of each update which means the system is up to date.

Click the Close button to leave the Ksplice Uptrack Manager:

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