[Bug 1817559] Re: update-notifier ignores update-manager's settings

[Steve Langasek]

Changing the setting for how often to automatically check for updates to
'Never' instructs the system not to automatically run 'apt-get update'
to check for updates.  It does not invalidate the results of a previous
'apt-get update' run which has already found that there are updates
waiting to be applied.

If there are already security updates waiting to be applied, the
behavior when "Automatically check for updates" is set to "Never" is
effectively undefined.  This is the "When there are security updates:
<blank>" - the option is greyed out but in practice what this actually
means is that the behavior is the same as "Display immediately".

I am inclined to argue that this is a bug in software-properties, which
should *show* that any available security updates will still result in a
prompt, not a bug in update-notifier for doing the prompting.  The
difference between the two, after all, is a one-time pop-up that is
easily resolved by applying the security updates.

Making it easier to ignore security updates than it already is would be
an antifeature.

** Package changed: update-notifier (Ubuntu) => software-properties
(Ubuntu)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1817559

Title:
  update-notifier ignores update-manager's settings

Status in software-properties package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  
  > 1) The release of Ubuntu you are using, via 'lsb_release -rd' or System -> About Ubuntu

  $ lsb_release -rd
  Description:	Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS
  Release:	16.04

  
  > 2) The version of the package you are using, via 'apt-cache policy pkgname' or by checking in Software Center

  $ apt-cache policy update-manager
  update-manager:
    Installed: 1:16.04.15
    Candidate: 1:16.04.15
    Version table:
   *** 1:16.04.15 500
          500 https://mirror.one.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
          500 https://mirror.one.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main i386 Packages
          100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
       1:16.04.12 500
          500 https://mirror.one.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 Packages
          500 https://mirror.one.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main i386 Packages
       1:16.04.3 500
          500 https://mirror.one.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
          500 https://mirror.one.com/ubuntu xenial/main i386 Packages

  ----

  Steps to reproduce:

  - Run `update-manager' manually, via `update-manager' from a terminal for example
  - Press "Settings..." button
  - Configure the following settings to hide all update-manager's pop-ups respectively:

  Automatically check for updates: Never
  When there are security updates: <blank>
  When there are other updates: Display every two weeks
  Notify me of a new Ubuntu version: Never

  - Close settings
  - Exit `update-manager'

  ----
  Expected behaviour:

  - update-manager won't be checking any updates at all
  - but even if there are some "other updates" then it must be displayed not more often than "every two weeks"

  ----
  Actual behaviour:

  - update-manager checks for updates from time to time by itself
  - update-manager shows notifications *all* *the* *time*: every single day and much more times per day than even twice
  - update-manager keeps to show notifications even if it has been seen & closed manually (just because there wasn't time for maintenance window currently, for example)

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
  Package: update-manager 1:16.04.15
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-143.169-generic 4.4.170
  Uname: Linux 4.4.0-143-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: wl
  ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.18
  Architecture: amd64
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Mon Feb 25 16:32:29 2019
  GsettingsChanges:
   b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'show-details' b'true'
   b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'window-height' b'365'
   b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'first-run' b'false'
   b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'window-width' b'303'
   b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'launch-time' b'int64 1551101458'
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-07-19 (951 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: update-manager
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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