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Ubuntu's new policy dictates that updates to already installed applications don't require password when doing it from Update Manager (Synaptic and apt-get still require password). Also, I would like to prevent the Update Manager to pop-up, it should only run when I invoke it. Thanks.

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    You can get the update manager to ask you for updates by going to Software Sources. Under the Updates tab, change the Automatically Check for Updates value to "Never". Nov 1, 2011 at 16:05
  • @KrisHarper I am running 12.04. Where do I have to make change? "Software Sources", where are they?
    – kamyogi
    Dec 13, 2013 at 11:36
  • @kamyogi I can't check right now, but Software Sources should either be available in the Dash, or in one of the menus in the Software Center. Dec 13, 2013 at 13:53

2 Answers 2

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To remove the 'update packages without admin auth'

gksudo gedit /var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d/com.ubuntu.desktop.pkla

The section in question is this

[Update already installed software]
Identity=unix-group:admin
Action=org.debian.apt.upgrade-packages
ResultActive=yes

Probably the easiest & maybe best solution is to just remove the whole section.

If desired you could leave & try setting the ResultActive=yes to this

ResultActive=auth_admin_keep

If I wanted this I'd just remove the section, then the action should fallback to the default in /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.debian.apt.policy which is to require auth per use.

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In my case adding my id to the sudo group solved the problem. My /var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/10-vendor.d/com.ubuntu.desktop.pkla has admin and sudo as authorized groups, but sudo had only an user defined during installation, and admin group was not defined. I would bet on adm there. Perhaps the name admin has gotten into the polkit file because someone has overlooked some configuration changes in the history of Ubuntu (see What is the difference between the groups "adm" and "admin")?

An original section of the file from my LTS 20.04.4:

[Update already installed software]
Identity=unix-group:admin;unix-group:sudo
Action=org.debian.apt.upgrade-packages
ResultActive=auth_admin_keep

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