Are you running Ubuntu 25.10? Then we have great news! A tricky software problem that silently stopped automatic updates for some users is now fixed. This means your system can efficiently check for the latest software releases again.
This bug affected many types of Ubuntu 25.10 Questing Quokka machines. This includes Ubuntu Desktop and Server installs, cloud deployments, and container images.
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What Caused the Update Trouble?
The issue stemmed from a bug in the date command. This specific date utility is part of the Rust-based coreutils rewrite, known as uutils.
Usually, the update detection software needs to check a file's modification time, or mtime. To do this, it passes a special flag, -r or --reference=file, to the date command. This flag tells the utility to display the file's timestamp instead of the current system date.
However, the specific uutils version shipped with Ubuntu 25.10 ignored this important argument. Curiously, the argument parser included the flag, but the developers had not hooked it up to any actual logic. Consequently, Ubuntu's update detection (i.e. unattended upgrades) logic failed silently instead of showing an error when it used the invalid flag. This breakage stopped the essential automatic update checks.
Ubuntu 25.10 Rust Coreutils Update Bug is Fixed!
Fortunately, developers have confirmed they resolved this bug. If you use rust-coreutils version 0.2.2-0ubuntu2.1 or newer, you are safe.
If your system uses an older version (rust-coreutils <= 0.2.2-0ubuntu2), you can remediate the issue yourself. You must manually install the corrected rust-coreutils package.
You can quickly fix the issue by using this simple command:
sudo apt install --update rust-coreutils
If you already update your system manually using apt or similar tools, you probably didn't notice this specific issue at all.
A Valuable Lesson in Testing
This problem offered a valuable lesson for the community. The uutils project aims for compatibility with the original GNU coreutils. To check its progress, the uutils team uses the GNU coreutils test suite.
uutils is actively tested against the GNU coreutils test suite. You can view the results that are automatically updated every day at the GNU test Coverage link.
Interestingly, the bug happened because the original GNU coreutils test suite itself lacked a test case for the critical -r flag. The failure in the Rust version actually uncovered a coverage gap in the official GNU test suite. Soon after the bug report, a new test was quickly added to the official GNU coreutils test suite to prevent this exact issue from happening again.
Please note that Ubuntu often uses non-LTS (Long Term Support) releases, like 25.10, for testing. Ubuntu wanted to "test drive" the new Rust-based coreutils in a real-world environment before deciding whether to use it in the next major LTS release.
The uutils project is transparent that it does not pass all of the GNU tests yet. Therefore, catching these real-world issues in 25.10 is exactly why Ubuntu chose to ship it now.
Recommended Read:
- Oxidizr: Try Modern Rust Alternatives To Legacy Unix Tools In Ubuntu
- How To Apply Updates Automatically With dnf-automatic In RHEL, AlmaLinux And Rocky Linux
- How To Disable Unattended Upgrades On Ubuntu
- Enable Automatic Security Updates In Debian 12
- How To Upgrade Everything With A Single Command In Linux
- 3 Different Methods To Upgrade Ubuntu To Latest Version
- Different Ways To Update Linux Kernel For Ubuntu
