How do I disable automatic updates?

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#1

openSUSE v13.1
gnome 3.10.2

How do I disable automatic updates?

I have determined that, somehow, PackageKit is involved, presumably through gnome-packagekit. There are no (none, nil, nada, zilch, zero, zip) settings for controlling how often and when updates are checked, downloaded and installed.

I tried setting yast Online_configuration_settings to monthly two days ago. I also tested a “zypper up” script yesterday. Today I was informed there are updates. Grr. This is getting like Windows.

I would at least like to control the time-of-day that updates are checked and downloaded.

Is this even possible?

#2

On 2014-03-24 03:06, jimoe666 wrote:
>
> openSUSE v13.1
> gnome 3.10.2
>
> How do I disable automatic updates?

How did you enable them? Because they are not enabled by default.

> I have determined that, somehow, PackageKit is involved, presumably
> through gnome-packagekit. There are no (none, nil, nada, zilch, zero,
> zip) settings for controlling how often and when updates are checked,
> downloaded and installed.

Package kit does check for updates, yes. But it does not download them,
and of course does not install them, unless you click on update.

> I tried setting yast::online_configuration_settings to monthly two days
> ago. I also tested a “zypper up” script yesterday. Today I was informed
> there are updates. Grr. This is getting like Windows.
>
> I would at least like to control the time-of-day that updates are
> checked and downloaded.
>
> Is this even possible?

Package kit does check for updates when it wants to. You can not choose
the time, AFAIK. I think it does soon after you login, and then
periodically. For doing the actual update, you have to accept them.

If you are using yast online config, then you could remove the updater
applet (not package kit), or disable its autostart in your desktop of
choice.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

#3

I do not use PackageKit. I use YaST and/or zypper for software management. Thus I deinstalled PackageKit (in fact I did never installed it).

You could do so likewise and there will be no “automatic” updates.

#4

I do not recall.

If you are using yast online config, then you could remove the updater
applet (not package kit), or disable its autostart in your desktop of
choice.

I can find neither of these options. There is no “updater applet” indicated in Yast->Online_Update_Configuration.

I have disabled automatic updates in Yast->Online_Update_Configuration. Updates are still happening.

I can find nothing in Gnome to control if/when/how often updates happen.

#5

I looked into this. If I tag PackageKit for removal, a large number of Gnome utilities are also removed. (Why would gnome-tweak-tool, gnome-session, gnome-color-manager be removed, for instance?)

It looked sufficiently scary that I decided to pass on this option.

This still leaves me with the question: How do I turn off automatic updates?

#6

Then you most likely don’t get updates automatically.

I guess what you mean is “update notifications”.
The updates only get installed when you tell the update applet to install them.

I can find neither of these options. There is no “updater applet” indicated in Yast->Online_Update_Configuration.

I have disabled automatic updates in Yast->Online_Update_Configuration. Updates are still happening.

This has nothing to do with YaST.
It’s GNOME that provides an update applet.
This applet should have settings somewhere.

Yast->Online_Update_Configuration is something completely different. It sets up a cron job that calls “zypper up” (or “zypper patch”) in regular intervals.

I can find nothing in Gnome to control if/when/how often updates happen.

As I don’t use GNOME, I cannot tell you where to find that.
If you don’t find the settings, try running “gpk-prefs”.

But again, by default NO updates happen at all. The update applet is only CHECKING for updates and present them to you. The intervals should be configurable.
If you don’t want that at all, you could just uninstall gnome-packagekit and/or PackageKit.

#7

No idea, maybe they use PackageKit to automatically install certain packages.

You should be able to uninstall “gnome-packagekit”, i.e. the actual update applet, though.

#8

Correct. The updates are retrieved but not installed.

If you don’t find the settings, try running “gpk-prefs”.

Yes! That is the tweak I have been wanting. It controls if and (somewhat) when updates are checked.
Thank you.

#9

No. They are not retrieved either.

The applet just notifies you that there are updates available.
They only get downloaded if you tell it to install them.

#10

That is not my experience.

The updates are downloaded which is the reason for my quest to disable this update app. We have only a basic DSL connection and having each computer retrieving multi-megabyte updates whenever they feel like it impacts our actual work. I can use zypper to check and perform updates at off-peak times; I cannot control the PackageKit apps this way.

#11

As I said, I don’t use GNOME.
But on my KDE Apper/PackageKit has NEVER downloaded a package by itself.
It does of course refresh the repos (and therefore downloads the repo metadata) periodically.

There is a setting to automatically install updates, or automatically download (but not install) updates, but those are OFF by default.

I don’t think that gnome-packagekit behaves different regarding this, but I don’t know for sure.
So I just ran gpk-update-viewer, and it really did NOT download any package, it just showed me that an update was available. And I don’t find any setting for automatic downloading/installing there either.

#12

Am 25.03.2014 20:16, schrieb wolfi323:
> There is a setting to automatically install updates, or automatically
> download (but not install) updates, but those are OFF by default.

That is simply not true for Gnome. It downloads automatically by default
(though it does not perform the update).
I see that on two Gnome systems, myself using KDE where it is different.

–
PC: oS 13.1 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.11 | GTX 650 Ti
ThinkPad E320: oS 13.1 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.11 | HD 3000
HTPC: oS 13.1 x86_64 | Celeron@1.8GHz | 2GB | Gnome 3.10 | HD 2500

#13

Looks as if one can disable auto download with dconf-editor
http://worldofgnome.org/fedora-20-gnome-software-tips-and-tricks/

–
PC: oS 13.1 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.11 | GTX 650 Ti
ThinkPad E320: oS 13.1 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.11 | HD 3000
HTPC: oS 13.1 x86_64 | Celeron@1.8GHz | 2GB | Gnome 3.10 | HD 2500

#14

Yes, that was about Apper, I know there’s no such setting in gpk-prefs.

Hm, does GNOME then have a different update applet built-in (like with NetworkManager)?
As I said, I ran gpk-update-viewer (from gnome-packagekit), and it didn’t download packages either until I clicked on “Install Updates”.

#15

Am 25.03.2014 20:46, schrieb wolfi323:
> Hm, does GNOME then have a different update applet built-in (like
> with NetworkManager)? As I said, I ran gpk-update-viewer (from
> gnome-packagekit), and it didn’t download packages either until I
> clicked on “Install Updates”.
>
That shows exactly nothing as you started it manually, looking
dconf-editor now it is set to enable the auto download and that is the
default it came with.
Let’s see how it behaves I set now all to 1 week (4 settings) and
disable automatic download.

–
PC: oS 13.1 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.11 | GTX 650 Ti
ThinkPad E320: oS 13.1 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.11 | HD 3000
HTPC: oS 13.1 x86_64 | Celeron@1.8GHz | 2GB | Gnome 3.10 | HD 2500

#16

On 2014-03-25 19:16, wolfi323 wrote:
>
> jimoe666;2632943 Wrote:
>> I looked into this. If I tag PackageKit for removal, a large number of
>> Gnome utilities are also removed. (Why would gnome-tweak-tool,
>> gnome-session, gnome-color-manager be removed, for instance?)
>>
> No idea, maybe they use PackageKit to automatically install certain
> packages.

Package kit triggers removal of all that, because all those packages say
they need packagekit. For instance, they link to a library of package
kit. Others packages that say the need the library that in turn says
they need package kit, are removed as well… long list and disaster if
you go ahead.

> You should be able to uninstall “gnome-packagekit”, i.e. the actual
> update applet, though.

Yes, that works.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

#17

On 2014-03-25 19:36, jimoe666 wrote:
>
> wolfi323;2632944 Wrote:
>>
>> I guess what you mean is “update notifications”.
>> The updates only get installed when you tell the update applet to
>> install them.
> Correct. The updates are retrieved but not installed.

No.

Updates are not even retrieved automatically.

What the update applet does is download the data necessary to calculate
what updates are available - and this data can be large, several megabytes.

It does not download any update at all.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

#18

What does that mean?
There are two different settings? One for starting it manually, and one for using it inside GNOME?
Or is GNOME’s update applet a completely different thing than gpk-update-viewer? (that was my question)

I just had a look in dconf-editor, and I don’t find anything in there regarding automatic download or install either (and also nothin about the check interval).
Should this be in org/gnome/packagekit, or am I looking in the wrong place?
Or do I have to login to GNOME to get the real default settings?

Ah, ok. Found it now. It’s in org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/updates. So there is a daemon running when you login to GNOME apparently, which is different from gpk-update-viewer, and has “auto-download-updates” set to true.
Didn’t know that, sorry. But thanks for the clarification.

Btw, @jimoe666, there’s also a setting in there (dconf-editor) to de-activate that updater completely in addition to the “auto-download-updates”.

#19

On 2014-03-25 20:46, wolfi323 wrote:

> Yes, that was about Apper, I know there’s no such setting in gpk-prefs.
>
> Hm, does GNOME then have a different update applet built-in (like with
> NetworkManager)?
> As I said, I ran gpk-update-viewer (from gnome-packagekit), and it
> didn’t download packages either until I clicked on “Install Updates”.

I started “pk-update-icon -d 0” in a terminal on XFCE. This starts
immediately the check for updates, and it does just that, check. The
check itself is several megabytes heavy. When it ends, I get a prompt to
install or dismiss. If I say “install”, then I get a large dialog, where
I can accept or reject individual updates. Some are marked “security”,
some “important”, some “other” (the last come mainly from packman).

But no update is downloaded till I accept them.

I see no possible configuration.

In the XFCE setting manager, under “session and startup”, tab
“application autostart”, two of the entries are labelled the same,
“PackageKit Update Applet”. But one starts pk-update-icon and another
gpk-update-icon, which is not installed on my system. I have
gpk-update-viewer, though.

Simply unticking those two disables all checking for updates - for this
user, that is.

Starting “gpk-update-viewer” does the same thing as “pk-update-icon -d
0”, it checks for updates immediately. The resulting window is the same
as before, and no configuration is possible. Again, no updates are
downloaded till I accept, if I do.

If I start “gpk-prefs” I see options to adjust frequency of checks, and
whether to do the check while on battery or when using mobile broadband.
Nowhere it says anything about downloading updates.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

#20

read the link I posted, settings are in
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates

–
PC: oS 13.1 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.11 | GTX 650 Ti
ThinkPad E320: oS 13.1 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.11 | HD 3000
HTPC: oS 13.1 x86_64 | Celeron@1.8GHz | 2GB | Gnome 3.10 | HD 2500