Two independent instances of Software & Updates

[hawaii]

Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Release: 14.04

software-properties-gtk:
  Installed: 0.92.37.2

What I expected to happen
A change in the settings of Software & Updates opened through the menu of Synaptics Package Manager should be reflected when opening Software & Updates by issuing software-properties-gtk in the terminal.

What actually happened
In Software & Updates opened through the menu of Synaptics Package Manager (Settings -> Repositories), I opened the Updates tab and changed 'When there are other updates:' from 'Display every two weeks' to 'Display immediately'. I then closed the window. In the terminal I started Software & Updates by executing software-properties-gtk. I went to the Updates tab and the setting for 'When there are other updates:' was still set to 'Display every two weeks'. Leaving this instance of Software & Updates open, I then opened another instance of Software & Updates through the menu of Synaptics Package Manager. Opening the Updates tab, the setting for 'When there are other updates:' was indeed 'Display immediately'. This demonstrates that Ubuntu stores two independent sets of settings for Software & Updates. However, the settings through the menu of Synaptics are ignored by the system. This can confuse a user who discovers Software & Updates through the Synaptics menu and relies on it to customize updates.

I will include a screen shot of these two instances of Software & Updates open side by side reflecting their divergent settings. Both windows were opened and the Updates tab chosen. No menu items were changed before taking the screen shot.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: software-properties-gtk 0.92.37.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-43.72-generic 3.13.11.11
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-43-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sat Dec 13 22:54:50 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-07-01 (165 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: software-properties
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Converting "Software & Updates" into a proper System Settings panel, as planned, would be one way of fixing this bug. <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareAndUpdatesSettings?action=diff&rev2=22&rev1=21>

Probably there is a simpler short-term solution, though, using GApplication/GtkApplication. <https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/gtk-migrating-unique-GtkApplication.html>