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I know this subject has been discussed many times. I have applied almost every fix that I can find on the internet, but every time my Ubuntu18.04 systems starts I get a Software Updater popup.

I have an Ubuntu 18.04 PC running a single 'Kiosk' application with a touch screen. I'm also using Overlayroot to create a Read Only operating system. This system does not need updates - ever.

in the GUI Software & Updates utility I have set 'check for updates' to Never. I have turned off all Update Notifications, I have even now uninstalled Unattended Updates. But every time my PC starts about 1 minute later the Software Updater pops up with 'Updated software is available for this computer'.

I assume that somehow when I was building the system, and had it in Read/Write mode, a potential update, found itself onto the hard drive and now sits there notifying me of its existence every time I boot the system in Read only mode - that is to say that the notification is permanently stored in the Read Only drive. It even pops up when there is no network connection. However, I put the system back into Read Write mode and cancelled the notification, but still it persists.

Where is this notification coming from? Is there some file I need to delete?

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  • How behind on system maintenance are you? What is the output of sudo apt update?
    – Nmath
    Jan 12, 2022 at 8:30
  • Update notifier should not appear if the logged in user does not have sudo permissions. So the solution may be to have your kios system boot to a user not belonging to sudo group.
    – vanadium
    Jan 12, 2022 at 8:54
  • The system was built from scratch about 4 weeks ago. I did a full update / upgrade then and basically don't want / need anymore.
    – Mike Young
    Jan 12, 2022 at 9:18

1 Answer 1

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I see two options:

  1. Confirm (and perhaps set) the notifier to not show notifications

    • Check to see if notifications are set to appear via the Terminal:

      gsettings get com.ubuntu.update-notifier no-show-notifications
      

      If the value returned is false, then ...

    • Set no-show-notifications to true:

      gsettings set com.ubuntu.update-notifier no-show-notifications true
      
  2. Uninstall the notifier

    sudo apt remove update-notifier
    

In the event the kiosk is scheduled for manual maintenance, you can still update/upgrade the system via the Terminal with the standard apt commands 👍🏻

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  • Hi matigo Thanks for the suggestions. I ran the sudo apt remove update-notifier and so far - about 48 hrs so good. No sign of the popup.
    – Mike Young
    Jan 14, 2022 at 8:34

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