update-manager suggests to use Livepatch, which is not available

[Christian Biscombe]

Ubuntu MATE 18.04.1
update-manager 1:18.04.11.7

Steps to reproduce:
1. After installing updates via update-manager, a dialog box appears stating 'Tip: You can use Livepatch to keep your computer more secure between restarts.'
2. Click 'Settings and Livepatch...'.
3. software-properties-gtk launches, showing the 'Updates' tab.
4. There is no option to enable Livepatch, either in the Updates tab or elsewhere.

Probably related to Bug #1770686. The dialog box should not suggest to use Livepatch if gnome-control-center is not installed.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Confirming on Xubuntu 18.04.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Did you mean “if canonical-livepatch is not installed”? I don’t think this has anything to do with gnome-control-center, as long as software-properties-gtk is (unfortunately) separate from it.

Coincidentally I’ve been working on design for handling other cases where Livepatch isn’t available: inapplicable architecture, inapplicable Ubuntu version, etc. This should use the same mechanism.

Specification updated: “It should have secondary text if: • Livepatch is available but not turned on for this system…” <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareUpdates?action=diff&rev2=226&rev1=225>

[Christian Biscombe (biscombe)]

Probably I did mean canonical-livepatch - that certainly sounds sensible. I mentioned gnome-control-center because it was implicated in Bug #1770686. Maybe that bug isn't as closely related to this one as I thought?

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Ah, well spotted. Several programs should vary their UI depending on whether canonical-livepatch is installed. update-manager is one of them (this bug); software-properties is another; and gnome-initial-setup is another.

Bug 1770686 reveals that the Livepatch settings in software-properties depend, in turn, on the gnome-online-accounts-panel in gnome-control-center. This isn’t a package-level dependency: you can still install and use software-properties without gnome-online-accounts, you just don’t see the Livepatch feature. So I guess anything linking to the software-properties Livepatch UI should check for the existence of that panel *and* of software-properties itself.

That doesn’t change the UI design for this bug (if you can’t turn on Livepatch, it’s not “available”), but it will affect the implementation.

[Eric R. Meyers (ermeyers)]

The gnome-control-center is not installed with xubuntu.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Andrea, could you have a look to that issue?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Setting as wontfix for bionic, it isn't important enough to justify the target

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package update-manager - 1:21.04.3

---------------
update-manager (1:21.04.3) hirsute; urgency=medium

  [ Brian Murray ]
  * UpdateManager/Dialogs.py: do not mention livepatch settings when the
    interface is not installed, thanks to Sebastien Bacher for the patch.
    (LP: #1807900)
  * UpdateManager/backend/__init__.py: Resolve unbound local error crash with
    oem package lists. Thanks to Thomas Bechtold for the patch.

  [ William Wilson ]
  * UpdateManager/Core/UpdateList.py: change to a regex from a static list
    of packages to be grouped under Ubuntu Base (LP: #1902025)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Fri, 08 Jan 2021 08:41:47 -0800