Graphical System Upgrades

Summary

Add support for performing system upgrades to a newer Fedora release through GNOME Software.

Owner

Name: Kalev Lember
Email: klember@redhat.com
Release notes owner:

Current status

Targeted release: Fedora 24
Last updated: 2016-02-16
Tracker bug: 1308538

The complete implementation of this feature is available in gnome-software 3.19.90 in rawhide.

Detailed Description

We'll implement a graphical user interface for system upgrades. The implementation will be similar to what the dnf system-upgrade plugin does: Download the content first, and then use systemd's offline update infrastructure for the actual installation. The main difference is that we use PackageKit and the libhif stack for the download and GNOME Software as a frontend.

To determine if a new release is available, we query the https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/api/collections/ API.

Descriptions and headlines for representing the new release to the user will be taken from appstream data if available, falling back to pre-generated text if nothing is available.

The feature is going to be implemented in gnome-software 3.20, but we are planning to backport this version to Fedora 23, to make this feature work for 23->24 upgrades as well.

Benefit to Fedora

This makes it easier for users to keep up to date with Fedora's rapid 6 month schedule, making sure users have an easy way to upgrade to latest Fedora.

Scope

Proposal owners:
- Implement this :).

Other developers: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Release engineering: Keep the collections API working
- List of deliverables: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Marketing: Provide material to represent the new release to the user

Policies and guidelines: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)