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

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

Ubuntu’s update prompt is a notification in the ordinary English sense
of the word.
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NotificationDesignGuidelines#Normal_window> So
I guess the dconf keys predate update-notifier’s change from using FDo
notifications to launching update-manager, but I don’t think that
requires their name or description to be changed. (It is perverse,
though, to have a boolean setting whose name starts with “no-”.)

I think the bug here is that setting “Automatically check for updates:”
to “Never” has caused “When there are security updates:” to become
blank+disabled, suggesting that there will be no prompts when really
there will be. This doesn’t happen in 14.04, so I guess someone changed
it when they realized the current menu options are only relevant to
automatic checks. But besides the case where updates became known before
you switched to “Never”, there’s a much more likely case where security
updates might be known without automatic checks: if you did a manual
check but then didn’t install them.

So, I guess the menu should instead contain options for when to remind
you about known security updates that aren’t installed yet, no matter
how that happened. Anyone who’s seen a billboard or digital sign defaced
by a giant Windows update prompt might think “Never” should be one of
the options, but I’ll defer to Steve that it shouldn’t be. (I guess we’d
say that kind of thing should use Ubuntu Core instead.)

** Changed in: software-properties (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => In Progress

** Changed in: software-properties (Ubuntu)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)

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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:
  In Progress

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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