Continue updating after dist-upgrade

[tribut]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

Bug description

When Ubuntu performs a dist-upgrade, all third-party sources are disabled (commented out). It is important to deal with this, because most users do not realize this and end up using an old version for a prolonged amount of time - often until it stops working at all.

The "usual" approach seems to be what Google does for its Linux packages: Install a cronjob in /etc/cron.daily that checks if the repository has been disabled in this way and if necessary, re-enable, see here and here for the script used by Chrome.

Steps to reproduce

• Install signal-desktop on Ubuntu
• Perform a dist-upgrade

Actual result: Signal-Desktop is no longer updated
Expected result: Updates should continue to be installed

Platform info

Operating System: Ubuntu (all versions)
Signal version: 1.0.35

[Maltimore]

Uff, I got bit by this one too. This feature request is very important indeed.

[aunwin]

So did I as mentioned in #2521. Using the Ubuntu Software Center GUI I was able to install the latest Signal version though. However, it was installed in parallel to the old version which from today on also shows up in the software center list. Both launch with different versions associated (v. v1.15.3. and v1.11.0 )

[scroom]

For me the following workaround helped:

After the upgrade to bionic I had to remove the formerly added software sources of signal. Afterwards I had to readd them following the instructions:

sudo rm -i /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list
curl -s https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop

[erebion]

Uff, I got bit by this one too. This feature request is very important indeed.

Yes, but as I commented on #2521 as well, the package should just land in Debian:

#2521 (comment)

That will also ensure dependencies are always present. :)