If the kernel, initramfs, or a driver is updated, you have to reboot the computer to apply them (you can’t reload the kernel while it’s running). A user might not know or notice this, so GUI installers (and some CLI tools like pacman on Endeavour) often warn the user or sometimes force a reboot.
Well, then I don’t understand the downvotes, lol. The person i replied to said sometimes a distro will force a reboot, I said that’s bad, and a bunch of people apparently disagree with that.
Those distros “force” you to reboot when you want to update (as opposed to allowing you to do the update on the running system). Think Windows 7 and earlier, that kind of forced reboots, back when people were fine with the way Windows did updates.
![[Fedora 39] Why does Discover say there's updates while dnf say there's none? Also, why does Discover need to reboot to install said updates?](https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/266cefdc-1084-47c5-9d90-d53ce65471de.jpeg){kind=link}
If the kernel, initramfs, or a driver is updated, you have to reboot the computer to apply them (you can’t reload the kernel while it’s running). A user might not know or notice this, so GUI installers (and some CLI tools like pacman on Endeavour) often warn the user or sometimes force a reboot.
I thought we would have learned from Windows, you should never force a reboot.
I’ve never seen a distro force a reboot, Windows style. Only ever advise people to reboot.
Well, then I don’t understand the downvotes, lol. The person i replied to said sometimes a distro will force a reboot, I said that’s bad, and a bunch of people apparently disagree with that.
So when people say ‘force a reboot’ there are two things it can mean:
a reboot is required for updates to actually take effect. Linux sometimes does this for things like the kernel.
the OS forces you to stop everything you are doing and reboots the machine. I have only ever seen Windows do this. Not Linux, not even MacOS.
This might be where the confusion is coming in. @rtxn is referring to number 1 but the rest of us are referring to number 2
Those distros “force” you to reboot when you want to update (as opposed to allowing you to do the update on the running system). Think Windows 7 and earlier, that kind of forced reboots, back when people were fine with the way Windows did updates.