Stop update checking

[apg6xswhjc]

unattended-upgrades is a way to automatically update APT packages. By default it's configured to only apply security updates, and ignore non-security updates. (update-notifier will then notify you about the not installed updates by popping up Software Updater.)

I don't know why unattended-upgrades didn't honor the configuration setting. All I know is that ever since I first saw it ignore that setting, I have uninstalled it on all systems where I don't want automatic updates.

Cool thanks for the explain, I'll give that a go.


Re snaps:

The snapd devs intentionally made it impossible to disable automatic updates.

Wow. That's enough to make me want to uninstall it.

Sadly I do have a couple of snaps installed. I'll have to check if there are alternatives to install.

I might try chmod -x/+x approach. Then when I want to update snaps, I could just chmod +x.

Thanks for your help and explanations, guys.

[halogen2]

There are packages which are not available on apt but they are usually available on flatpak, which I think is better than snap

+1 for flatpak in this context. flatpak does not force automatic updates.

Re snaps:


Wow. That's enough to make me want to uninstall it.

I agree with you and do exactly that.

Thanks for your help and explanations, guys.

You're welcome.

[apg6xswhjc]

Also, I chmod -x snapd and that seems to work as we intended. I do get some errors in log about systemd couldn't start snap daemon (permission denied as expected). Snap apps seem to run fine. And when I ran the Software Upgrade, it went through to where it says "Updating snaps" and then just hung there until I did a force quit. So it wouldn't let the snaps update. And if I want to update them, I can manually chmod +x and update away. Hmmm could I/should I disable the snapd service as well?

on the apt side, however:

I removed unattended upgrades yesterday, and this morning, not long after booting, I'm prompted by Software Updater to update Thunderbird - a non security related application!

There is still an unattended-upgrades service listed in systemctl :

$systemctl status unattended-upgrades
● unattended-upgrades.service
     Loaded: masked (Reason: Unit unattended-upgrades.service is masked.)
     Active: inactive (dead)

but I don't think that could be it. Even if it ran, it would try run a command from a package that's no longer installed, and would fail anyways?

I started to poke around. There was nothing in my Startup Applications, but /etc/cron.daily/apt-compat looks suspicious! This runs /usr/lib/apt/apt.systemd.daily. I don't really follow everything going on in there, but it looks to me that it tries to observe the options in the Software & Updates and runs update/upgrade and unattended-updates.

If my guess is correct, this might be the culprit and removing the cron entry would stop the mystery update?

[halogen2]

on the apt side, however:

I removed unattended upgrades yesterday, and this morning, not long after booting, I'm prompted by Software Updater to update Thunderbird - a non security related application!

There is still an unattended-upgrades service listed in systemctl :

$systemctl status unattended-upgrades
● unattended-upgrades.service
     Loaded: masked (Reason: Unit unattended-upgrades.service is masked.)
     Active: inactive (dead)

Masking the service is not equivalent to actually uninstalling the package.

Did you do a manual software update of APT packages after masking the unattended-upgrades service and rebooting?

[mc4man]

Putting aside snaps the best way to stop update checking and updating without explicitly doing so is -
Remove unattended-upgrades
Remove update-manager
Remove update-notifier
Install synaptic and use it for all update/upgrades..

As far as snaps, they update in the background without notice or comment. You may have seen note of some wherever but generally you'd never know
(- it checks up to 4 times or so a day..

[ajgreeny]

As a test for future, I have now removed all snap related packages and all snaps themselves from my laptop running Xubuntu 20.04. I do use chromium occasionally and have that installed from the PPA, so snapd is not needed for that, and Spottify is now installed from their own repos which I think were way behind the snap version when I first started using it.

I'll see how things progress with all snaps gone and only add them back if really needed which seems unlikely at the moment.

[apg6xswhjc]

Masking the service is not equivalent to actually uninstalling the package.

Did you do a manual software update of APT packages after masking the unattended-upgrades service and rebooting?

I didn't actually touch the service. I did `sudo apt-get remove unattended-upgrades`. I assumed it would take care of the service as part of any install/remove...

Yes, I've done update/upgrade and rebooted multiple times since uninstalling it.

Putting aside snaps the best way to stop update checking and updating without explicitly doing so is -
Remove unattended-upgrades
Remove update-manager
Remove update-notifier
Install synaptic and use it for all update/upgrades..

Hmmmm. That might be my best approach...

How can it be so ridiculously difficult to have control over updating your own machine at your own time??? My mind is just blown away by this. It's making Windows look like the OS that respects the user.

[halogen2]

I did `sudo apt-get remove unattended-upgrades`. I assumed it would take care of the service as part of any install/remove...

Not fully. That leaves the configuration files. Parts of the service live in /etc which is where configuration files are stored.

Do you have Synaptic installed? If so, you can try using that to purge what's left of unattended-upgrades.

(For future reference, a full uninstall would have been sudo apt-get purge unattended-upgrades .)

Yes, I've done update/upgrade and rebooted multiple times since uninstalling it.

To be clear, that's sudo apt-get dist-upgrade or running Software Updater?

What do you get if you run -

apt list --upgradable

(If it lists anything, is it entirely phased updates you're not yet due for?)

Hmmmm. That might be my best approach...

If you want to go that route, first make sure that removing update-notifier and update-manager won't just be sweeping the root cause under the rug.

[apg6xswhjc]

Not fully. That leaves the configuration files. Parts of the service live in /etc which is where configuration files are stored.

Do you have Synaptic installed? If so, you can try using that to purge what's left of unattended-upgrades.

(For future reference, a full uninstall would have been sudo apt-get purge unattended-upgrades .)

Installed synaptic and done . That seems to have removed the service too.

To be clear, that's sudo apt-get dist-upgrade or running Software Updater?

What do you get if you run -

apt list --upgradable

(If it lists anything, is it entirely phased updates you're not yet due for?)

I just did sudo apt udpate and sudo apt upgrade. All packages are up to date and there's nothing to do. sudo apt list --upgradable says "Listing... Done". I think the dist-upgrade happens when I choose to Upgrade to new Ubuntu version from the Software Updater (ie from 19.04->19.10 and then 19.10 to 20.04).

If you want to go that route, first make sure that removing update-notifier and update-manager won't just be sweeping the root cause under the rug.

I'm running out of ideas on what else to do. I didn't see any updates today, but I'm betting when there are some available, Software Updater is going to prompt me again. I'd really prefer to leave everything if it would just follow the settings I have in Software & Updates. Never to check for updates. Why is that option even in there when it is entirely ignored?

[apg6xswhjc]

Well, further into my quest, I was looking through logs and came across packagekitd, which I recalled I used to get a message about it needing to stop before Software Updater would run.

Searching for additional information on that, I came across Disable Automatic Updates on Ubuntu Eoan Ermine. This includes Graphically, snapd, packagekitd, unattended-upgrades, apt-daily, and other data downloads.

It looks pretty complete, and I'm game to give it a try.

I'm staggered that such a simple use case is made so complicated.