So, unattended-upgrades refused to treat linux-image-generic as autoremovable in xenial and trusty; so let's look at apt itself:
In both cases (1.2.31, and 1.0.1ubuntu2.22), linux-image-generic is not autoremovable after removing linux-generic, whereas it was in released updates - fix verified. ** Tags removed: verification-needed verification-needed-trusty verification-needed-xenial ** Tags added: verification-done verification-done-trusty verification-done-xenial -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux-meta in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1787460 Title: Unattended upgrades removed linux-image-generic Status in apt package in Ubuntu: Fix Released Status in linux-meta package in Ubuntu: Triaged Status in linux-meta-hwe package in Ubuntu: Triaged Status in apt source package in Trusty: Fix Committed Status in linux-meta source package in Trusty: New Status in linux-meta-hwe source package in Trusty: New Status in apt source package in Xenial: Fix Committed Status in linux-meta source package in Xenial: New Status in linux-meta-hwe source package in Xenial: New Status in apt source package in Bionic: Fix Released Status in linux-meta source package in Bionic: New Status in linux-meta-hwe source package in Bionic: New Status in apt source package in Cosmic: Fix Released Status in linux-meta source package in Cosmic: New Status in linux-meta-hwe source package in Cosmic: New Status in apt source package in Disco: Fix Released Status in linux-meta source package in Disco: Triaged Status in linux-meta-hwe source package in Disco: Triaged Bug description: [Impact] If a user accidentally removed linux-generic, unattended-upgrades will also autoremove linux-image-generic, leaving them without kernel upgrades. [Test Case] 1. Remove all reverse dependencies of linux-image-generic 2. Mark linux-image-generic as automatically installed 3. Run unattended-upgrades -v --dry-run --debug to ensure that linux-image-generic is not removed (after verifying that it is, with old apt) [Regression potential] This adds two regular expressions to the list of packages that must not be automatically removed. As such, the only possible regression is that some packages starting with linux-image, not containing any dots, are not removed [Original bug report] On a fairly fresh install of 18.04 with no modifications whatsoever to the unattended-upgrades configuration, it decided to remove linux-image-generic which also removed linux-modules-extra which caused sound drivers to disappear, etc. The relative snippet from /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended- upgrades.log is: 2018-08-15 06:18:00,048 INFO Starting unattended upgrades script 2018-08-15 06:18:00,048 INFO Allowed origins are: o=Ubuntu,a=bionic, o=Ubuntu,a=bionic-security, o=UbuntuESM,a=bionic 2018-08-15 06:18:01,552 INFO Removing unused kernel packages: linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic linux-headers-4.15.0-32-generic linux-headers-4.15.0-32 2018-08-15 06:18:01,588 WARNING Keeping auto-removable linux-headers-generic package(s) because it would also remove the following packages which should be kept in this step: libxml2 linux-image-4.15.0-32-generic linux-modules-4.15.0-32-generic linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-32-generic 2018-08-15 06:18:09,476 INFO Packages that were successfully auto-removed: linux-headers-4.15.0-32 linux-headers-4.15.0-32-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic 2018-08-15 06:18:09,477 INFO Packages that are kept back: linux-headers-generic 2018-08-15 06:18:10,300 INFO Packages that will be upgraded: libxml2 linux-image-generic 2018-08-15 06:18:10,300 INFO Writing dpkg log to /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades-dpkg.log 2018-08-15 06:18:39,238 INFO All upgrades installed 2018-08-15 06:18:42,818 INFO Packages that were successfully auto-removed: linux-image-generic linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-32-generic 2018-08-15 06:18:42,818 INFO Packages that are kept back: ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04 Package: unattended-upgrades 1.1ubuntu1.18.04.5 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-32.35-generic 4.15.18 Uname: Linux 4.15.0-32-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.3 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME Date: Thu Aug 16 13:17:30 2018 InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-07-24 (23 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180724) PackageArchitecture: all ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: unattended-upgrades UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/1787460/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp