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I boot Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS from a USB drive. When the desktop is fully loaded, I get a bubble message at top center that says, "Software updates available to download. Please download waiting software updates." There doesn't appear to be anything to click, or any indication of how to proceed.

I run a Google search for the first sentence of that bubble message. At present, it finds virtually nothing on point. (There seems to have been more attention to a somewhat similar message that I get at bootup, on another machine, regarding extension updates.)

I go into Applications Menu > System Tools > Software Updater. It says, "The software on this computer is up to date." I click its Settings & Livepatch button > Updates tab. It confirms that I have set its "Automatically check for updates" option to Never. (I have it set to Never because I invariably run sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade promptly after bootup.)

I run sudo apt update. It confirms: "All packages are up to date."

If there are updates that need to be installed, I would like to install them. In that case, it would seem that both Software Updater and sudo apt update are wrong. On the other hand, if they are right, I would like to turn off the bubble message.

No doubt I am failing to grasp something about snap updates, or some such thing. I would appreciate a tutorial or, even better, a way to streamline the updating process so that one command, script, or tool would automate or otherwise take care of it.

Ray Woodcock
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  • A default Ubuntu system only gets security updates for packages in main, with security upgrades available only for universe optionally via ESM or PRO support enabled (this is a new feature) and your question reminds me of https://askubuntu.com/questions/1452497/what-are-esm-apps-and-how-do-they-relate-to-ubuntu-pro that maybe related, but it doesn't relate to snap packages – guiverc Sep 11 '23 at 02:41
  • Have you attempted to upgrade snap packages; ie. snap refresh as your commands only show deb packages being references (ie. apt)... An open snap package however cannot upgrade, thus you can get a "All snaps up to date." when its untrue, as open snaps are skipped. – guiverc Sep 11 '23 at 02:43

1 Answers1

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The results of running sudo apt update that confirm that All packages are up to date is correct. It just takes some time for the bubble notification at the top center of the desktop to be updated so that it catches up with the latest software updates from sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade.

The notifications from the Ubuntu Software app of pending software updates are laggy too, so the best way to check if your installed software is up-to-date is to run the sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade and sudo snap refresh commands from the terminal.

To disable Software Updater pop-up notifications run the following command:

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

To reenable Software Updater pop-up notifications run the following command:

gsettings set com.ubuntu.update-notifier no-show-notifications false

For other options for turning off Software Updater pop-up notifications see How to turn off Software Updater pop-up notifications?.

karel
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  • Thanks for this answer. I've taken to running sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade && sudo snap refresh. That's part of the solution. I guess my wish list includes a way to totally suppress the bubble notifications, so that this command doesn't sometimes fail because the updater is locked. – Ray Woodcock Sep 29 '23 at 13:29
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    @RayWoodcock I replied to your comment by editing my answer. – karel Sep 29 '23 at 16:56