uCareSystem Core is a small software that automates the basic system maintenance processes. Now it is also available to install it via PPA if you are interested to automatically receive new features.
Introduction
For those who do not remember, when you run uCareSystem it automatically and without any intervention, performs some basic maintenance processes which otherwise you would need to perform them one by one.
This terminal version is particularly convenient in two cases:
- You can use it e.g. along with a PC shutdown command so when it has finished maintenance it will also shut down your computer. An example command would be:
sudo ucaresystem-core && sudo shutdown -h now
- You can configure it in a cron-job and let it automatically run for example every 2 days at 11 pm in the background.
Briefly, the uCareSystem Core automatically performs the following processes:
- Updates the list of available packages
- Downloads and install updates
- Checks if there are any old Linux Kernels and uninstalls them. Do not worry, though, as it keeps the current and one previous version and deletes all the previous one.
- Clears the retrieved packages
- Uninstall packages that are obsolete
- Uninstall orphaned packages
- Deletes package settings that you have previouslly uninstalled
How to install uCareSystem Core
There are two ways to install uCareSystem Core. You can either download the .deb package and double click to install it or you can add the PPA and install it from there.
I just want the deb package
If you don’t want to add the PPA then you can do the following:
- To download the package click on: View Package Details
- Select uCareSystem Core that corresponds to the version of your distribution
- Click the name of the package eg ucaresystem-core-xxxxxxxxx_all.deb
- Once it’s downloaded, double-click to install.
- To run it just open the terminal and run:
-
sudo ucaresystem-core
OK I would prefare PPA to be able to get new features
To install it via PPA then proceed as follows:
Open a terminal and run:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:utappia/stable sudo apt update sudo apt install ucaresystem-core
and now you can run it as follows:
sudo ucaresystem-core
Bonus video from an upcoming version
In the video below you will see a version that I am experimenting on and I intend to release it at some point. A key difference is that even in the terminal version, uCareSystem Core will be able to display a progress bar.
Utappia 
What a great utility, and one I hadn’t come across before. Thanks for posting – I’ll be using this from now on.
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Thanks for your kind words, any feedback is appreciated
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Yeah, I can’t believe this is installed in the main Linux repo’s as an App!
I stumbled on this by accident and now I use it for every computer I maintain (neighbors, elderly etc.).
It would be very nice if it would have a build in schedule, kind like a cron job, so I could force it let’s say every month.
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Just a quick note – the required package “deborphan” was not installed by default on my stock Kubuntu 14.04 systems. Could the script be updated to check for the package’s presence, and prompt the User to install it if indeed it is not present? Without the package in it’s current state the script will just skip this important step. Thanks!
PS – How id the GUI version coming along? 🙂
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Well if you installed it from the PPA or the deb package it should have been checking if it is installed. If it wasn’t, it should have installed it automatically. I am not sure why in your system it didn’t detected it. Did you use the code without installing from PPA / deb package?
P.S. Unfortunately I have no spare time to actually finish, test an deploy the GUI version. Once I have some I will post an update
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Thanks again for this great tool, and looking forward to the GUI version as well!
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Hi Salih,
Is it possible to install this somehow on (open)SUSE?
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Well the istallation is not the problem. Ucare, uses commands that are specific to Debian based distributions. If you can replace or find equevelent commands for making it compatible with openSUSE why not ? I am open for any contributions !
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If I could I would but clearly as you can see at the (level of) question I’m not thát experienced with Linux ..
I understand you have programmed it in a certain language and that it’s compiled for Ubuntu? Is it possible to compile it for (open)SUSE? I’ve read somewhere that it is a matter of putting it in a certain directory (don’t know which one) and to do something like sudo make install etc.
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Well it is written in bash so it doesen’t need to be compiled. In other words its a script that contains commands like, apt update, apt upgrade, apt-get autoremove etc.
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Hi! For Linux Mint upgrade don’t working:
$ cat /usr/bin/ucaresystem-core
……………………………………………..
# System : Debian Linux and Ubuntu Linux
………………………………………………………….
## Updates packages and libraries
sudo apt -y full-upgrade;
echo
…………………………………………………………………………….
Is it possible to change “apt -y full-upgrade” for “apt upgrade” or “apt dist-upgrade” by Linux Mint’s apt ?
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Sorry, I was not aware that Mint changes the default behavior of apt upgrade.
As a workaround, just edit the file ucaresystem-core to suit your needs and it will work like charm 🙂
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Salih, great tool and thanks for your contribution.
Quick question, I am using your tool (bash script) on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS scheduled in crontab.
Recently I noticed my cron job is stuck in the background prompting for user input.
Below I list my log file showing where my ucaresystem cron job is stuck.
Do you know anyway that I can modify your bash script to prevent scheduled job from becoming stuck and asking for user input? Thanks for your help!
A new version (/tmp/grub.iLB5uu5eRZ) of configuration file /etc/default/grub is
available, but the version installed currently has been locally modified.
1. install the package maintainer’s version
2. keep the local version currently installed
3. show the differences between the versions
4. show a side-by-side difference between the versions
5. show a 3-way difference between available versions
6. do a 3-way merge between available versions (experimental)
7. start a new shell to examine the situation
What do you want to do about modified configuration file grub?
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If possible answer the user prompt automatically in the script to “keep the local version currently installed”
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Unable to locate package ucaresystem-core
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What distribution, what version ?
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Installing the ppa on debian sid is unable to install the key:
During the integration of the ppa the output is:
gpg: keybox ‘/tmp/tmp1j52arlk/pubring.gpg’ created
gpg: /tmp/tmp1j52arlk/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key A726F660EBC8F9FD: public key “Launchpad PPA for Utappia” imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1
gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.
so apt update fails with:
E: The repository ‘http://ppa.launchpad.net/utappia/stable/ubuntu artful Release’ does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can’t be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
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Seems that the author of this program does not care about distributions other than Ubuntu.
That’s a pity.
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Hi Gerd, what distribution do you need for ?
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On Debian based systems, you can add the GPG key for the PPA like this:
sudo apt-key adv –keyserver https://keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv-keys 0xA726F660EBC8F9FD
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This article is old please refer to the latest version which doesn’t require you to manually add repository on Debian.
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Excellent! I’ve often sighed a little as I went through the various steps. This is great – fast, light & thorough. It’s a nice feeling to know that your systems are right up-to-date and clean. Thank you!
I’ll be contributing, as well – once again, thanks for a very useful utility!
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I am glad that it’s useful for you !
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I don’t know if you can help me. I use Ubuntu Subsystem for Windows 10 which is basically an Ubuntu bash shell provided by Microsoft and Canonical. I installed the Ucaresystem PPA with no problems. When I try to run I get this:
thomas@DESKTOP-O33NJK8:/mnt/c/Users/jespe/Videos$ sudo ucaresystem-core
Error getting authority: Error initializing authority: Could not connect: No such file or directory
Do you have any idea what could be missing?
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Interesting ! First of all I’ve never thought that anybody would ever use ucaresystem inside WSL, let alone I totally forgot that it exists now.
Secondly, thanks for reporting that as I should investigate that and probably I will open a bug report so that anyone can track the progress.
In the meantime, can you please edit the ucaresystem and remove the part that executes frist the pkexec ?
e.g.
nano /usr/bin/ucaresystem-core
Change : #!/usr/bin/pkexec /usr/bin/bash
To : #!/usr/bin/bash
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Sorry for the late answer. I changed it to “#!/bin/bash” (you wrote “#!/usr/bin/bash”), and now everything seems to work.
I prefer to use it since its just “fire and forget” and I want to use it in both windows and ubuntu (full)
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Just installed this on, I don’t know, my 4th Linux box… this one a new install of 18.04. I now feel like a new installation isn’t complete until uCareSystem-Core is installed – it’s one of the first things I do.
Folks, if you’re on the fence about using this don’t think about it anymore – just go ahead!. It’s really good. Pay the man too, he’s done excellent work!
Once again, thanks!
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Thanks !
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By the way, any chance of a Ubuntu 18.10 repository?
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Yes I am testing it and will probably push a release for 18.10 and 19.04 soon !
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