Refresh Operating System Updates throws error

[buddhawilliams]

What Happened?

I opened System Settings, clicked on System and noticed there was an update (expecting 8.1) and it said to reboot, so I did.
I logged back in and it was still 8.0 so I went back to System and it said 'Up to date, Last checked Dec 10' so I clicked Refresh. Nothing happened. I clicked it again, nothing happened.
I looked at syslog:

2025-12-24T15:36:52.095177+08:00 ElementaryOS io.elementary.s[3438]: OperatingSystemView.vala:656: Failed to check for updates: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name io.elementary.settings-daemon was not provided by any .service files

Should I just run a sudo apt full-upgrade to get to 8.1?

Note: I don't know if I'm on Wayland or X11. XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP and GDMSESSION is Pantheon.
Also, I am not 'on the latest release' but I have run all the updates :)

Steps to Reproduce

Open System Settings
Click on System
Click on Refresh
Nothing happens

Expected Behavior

Refresh should check whether there are any new updates for the system. And at the very least, update the Last checked dialog.

OS Version

8.x (Circe)

OS Architecture

amd64 (on most hardwares)

Session Type

Secure Session (Wayland, This is the default)

Software Version

Latest release (I have run all updates)

Log Output

2025-12-24T15:36:52.095177+08:00 ElementaryOS io.elementary.s[3438]: OperatingSystemView.vala:656: Failed to check for updates: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name io.elementary.settings-daemon was not provided by any .service files

Hardware Info

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 12-core
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050
32 Gb RAM
3 TB NVMe SSD

[buddhawilliams]

I just rebooted again (using sudo reboot in a terminal window) and it has changed, but is still broken.
The Checking for updates refresh button worked, and now it says 'Checking for Updates \n Starting' but not progressing from there.
updated syslog:

2025-12-25T02:13:56.969145+08:00 ElementaryOS systemd[1795]: Starting io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service - Check for system updates daily...
2025-12-25T02:13:56.988020+08:00 ElementaryOS busctl[4891]: Call failed: The name io.elementary.settings-daemon was not provided by any .service files
2025-12-25T02:13:56.988413+08:00 ElementaryOS systemd[1795]: io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
2025-12-25T02:13:56.988494+08:00 ElementaryOS systemd[1795]: io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
2025-12-25T02:13:56.988656+08:00 ElementaryOS systemd[1795]: Failed to start io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service - Check for system updates daily.
2025-12-25T02:15:23.541166+08:00 ElementaryOS zeitgeist-datah[2327]: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:210: Error during inserting events: GDBus.Error:org.gnome.zeitgeist.EngineError.InvalidArgument: Incomplete event: interpretation, manifestation and actor are required

the relevant section of journalctl --since=2025-12-25 output:

Dec 25 02:13:56 ElementaryOS systemd[1795]: Starting io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service - Check for system updates daily...
Dec 25 02:13:56 ElementaryOS busctl[4891]: Call failed: The name io.elementary.settings-daemon was not provided by any .service files
Dec 25 02:13:56 ElementaryOS systemd[1795]: io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Dec 25 02:13:56 ElementaryOS systemd[1795]: io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 25 02:13:56 ElementaryOS systemd[1795]: Failed to start io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service - Check for system updates daily.

[buddhawilliams]

I don't know if this is useful, I really don't understand how systemd works. But looking through the .service file, it looked like it was trying to run /usr/bin/io.elementary.settings-daemon. So I tried to run it from the command line. output below:

paul@ElementaryOS:/var/log$ /usr/bin/io.elementary.settings-daemon 

(io.elementary.settings-daemon:4102): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 23:37:46.320: g_application_get_dbus_connection: assertion 'application->priv->is_registered' failed
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.

(io.elementary.settings-daemon:4102): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 23:37:50.412: g_bus_watch_name_on_connection: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_CONNECTION (connection)' failed

(io.elementary.settings-daemon:4102): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 23:37:50.412: g_dbus_connection_signal_subscribe: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_CONNECTION (connection)' failed

(io.elementary.settings-daemon:4102): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 23:37:50.412: g_dbus_connection_call_internal: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_CONNECTION (connection)' failed
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Looking back in the journals, these messages appear in there at boot too.

[ryonakano]

Hmm, I can't reproduce your issue. @buddhawilliams Could you check if running sudo apt install --reinstall io.elementary.settings-daemon and then reboot fixes it?

[buddhawilliams]

Thanks Ryo I’m away for new year and will have a look on the 3rd when I return. Cheers Paul ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

…

On Tue, 30 Dec 2025 at 2:58 pm, Ryo Nakano ***@***.***> wrote: *ryonakano* left a comment (elementary/settings-system#403) <#403 (comment)> Hmm, I can't reproduce your issue. @buddhawilliams <https://github.com/buddhawilliams> Could you check if running sudo apt install --reinstall io.elementary.settings-daemon and then reboot fixes it? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#403 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADUBVDXPADUXMCJMSTUYRHL4EIPA3AVCNFSM6AAAAACP5LFANOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTMOJYGQ3DSNJTGI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[buddhawilliams]

Hi Ryo,
I did the reinstall and reboot.
Upon logging in, I went to System Settings, clicked Settings and it said "Up to date" and "last check unknown"

I opened a terminal to tail -f the syslog and then clicked "Refresh" and I got a similar error in syslog, with no change at all in the GUI.

2026-01-03T13:54:41.469598+08:00 ElementaryOS io.elementary.s[2958]: OperatingSystemView.vala:656: Failed to check for updates: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name io.elementary.settings-daemon was not provided by any .service files
2026-01-03T13:55:05.590268+08:00 ElementaryOS systemd[1807]: Starting io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service - Check for system updates daily...
2026-01-03T13:55:05.594173+08:00 ElementaryOS busctl[3509]: Call failed: The name io.elementary.settings-daemon was not provided by any .service files
2026-01-03T13:55:05.594401+08:00 ElementaryOS systemd[1807]: io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
2026-01-03T13:55:05.594455+08:00 ElementaryOS systemd[1807]: io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
2026-01-03T13:55:05.594548+08:00 ElementaryOS systemd[1807]: Failed to start io.elementary.settings-daemon.system-update.service - Check for system updates daily.

[buddhawilliams]

Ah - maybe I missed something useful here!
I didn't read the output of the reinstall script properly, because it looked standard, but I just redid it for sh*ts and giggles and I noticed an extra line in there:

Setting up io.elementary.settings-daemon (8.4.0+r454+pkg23~ubuntu8.1) ...
io.elementary.settings-daemon.check-for-firmware-updates.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.

I feel like this is probably the problem. I didn't install this machine, it was installed at the shop I bought the machine from, so I don't know if they did anything strange, or at least, didn't 'follow the bouncing ball' on install. This feels like they did do something that wasn't standard? Beginning to wonder if I should reinstall from 8.1 install media, if there isn't a quick way to fix this.

Full output of the apt reinstall follows:

paul@ElementaryOS:/mnt$ sudo apt install --reinstall io.elementary.settings-daemon
[sudo] password for paul:                  
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 93 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/142 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 215270 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../io.elementary.settings-daemon_8.4.0+r454+pkg23~ubuntu8.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking io.elementary.settings-daemon (8.4.0+r454+pkg23~ubuntu8.1) over (8.4.0+r454+pkg23~ubuntu8.1) ...
Setting up io.elementary.settings-daemon (8.4.0+r454+pkg23~ubuntu8.1) ...
io.elementary.settings-daemon.check-for-firmware-updates.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starti
ng it.
Processing triggers for libglib2.0-0t64:amd64 (2.80.0-6ubuntu3.5) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.27-2build1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1.1ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for libglib2.0-0t64:i386 (2.80.0-6ubuntu3.5) ...