I am on Debian 11 testing. It's a low-end computer intended for users with little computer experience and I want to keep it up to date with a script that do not prompt users for a password.
Following the advice of several topics (like here):
So I wrote a simple script /home/user/Documents/update.sh like this:
#!/bin/bash
sudo apt update -y
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt autoclean -y
sudo apt autoremove -y
I then make the script executable:
chmod a+x /home/user/Documents/update.sh
Then I gave the user user the rights with visudo so as not to ask for the password
user ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD:/home/user/Documents/update.sh, /usr/bin/apt update, /usr/bin/apt upgrade, /usr/bin/apt autoclean, /usr/bin/apt autoremove
After testing by running the command on the terminal sh '/home/user/Documents/update.sh', the script works without asking me for a password.
To run the script at each startup, I modify crontab -u user -e (I also tested directly with crontab -e):
@reboot sh '/home/user/Documents/update.sh'
But on each reboot: no script starts.
As an alternative I try to make an update.desktop file in /usr/share/applications in which a double-click starts the script:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=update
Exec=sh '/home/user/Documents/update.sh'
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
After testing, double-clicking on this file runs the script without asking for a password
Then, with Gnome Tweaks, I add the file updates.desktop as an application at startup
This is where my second problem comes in: the script starts at startup, but asks me for a password.
Then I don't understand why this happens (is Gnome Tweaks running under another user, etc.).
- Why the crontab method does not work ? (I already have started crontab service to be sure)
- Why the Gnome Tweak method prompt me for a password ?
