Software updater no longer functional

[Bret Busby]

On 20/01/2017, MR ZenWiz <mrzenwiz at gmail.com> wrote:
> About a week ago I noticed that my indicator for the software updater
> had turned into the "do not enter" road sign (a red circle with a
> horizontal white line in it).
>
> If I click on it, it shows me the menu, but none of the menu items works.
>
> If I open the settings app and click on the software updater once, it
> does nothing.  If I double click it, it says I have stopped previous
> updates from functioning and shows them.  However, if I click on the
> Install Now button, the updater small frame window comes up empty and
> never shows anything.
>
> I posted about some of this a while back when it was getting errors
> with the debconf library, but that was solved, or so I thought, by
> using Synaptic to update that library.  It seems this was not a
> complete fix.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Xubuntu 16.04.1 all the latest updates.
>
> Attached is a text file showing the output that comes up when I run
> this from a terminal window.
>
> Thanks.
> MR
>

I do not know whether it is part of your problem, but I have been
getting this persistent malicious entry in the software updates -
"Automatic software updater", which seems to be a trojan with the
objective of turning the system into an unusable MS Windows - like
brick - forever updating and rebooting, and, when a user actually gets
a break in the paralysis, that allows the user to do something with
the computer, once the user starts using the computer, away it goes
again.

How do I block this trojan, so that I do not inadvertently miss
deselecting it in a required system update?

I am using UbuntuMATE 16.04 (updated, except for the trojan).


-- 

Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia

..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

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