notification icon shows up when not expected to.

[Trouilliez vincent]

Binary package hint: update-notifier

Using a stock Ubuntu 7.10.

This week there was an update for the Flash plug-in. I installed it, and my web browser was then unable to display any Flash content. So I used Synaptic to force the use of the previous version of the plug-in, and that fixed things. That caused the notification icon to show up again, bugging me again about the update to the Flash plug-in. So I unchecked the box next to the package name, then clicked ok... and the notification icon still stares at me ! If I click on the icon, the box that I unchecked is now CHECKED again... no way out. That's annoying because the icon sits there all the time, and it also makes it impossible for me to know when there are new updates available, because obviously I am not going to click on the icon every day to see if there is some new update or not... that would defeat the purpose of the notification concept, wouldn't it ?! ;-)

Expected behaviour: if I decide to unckeck/refuse a particular update/package, the system should take note of it somewhere in some file, so that everytime it polls the server for updates, it does NOT show up the icon if all there is, is updates I have already refused in the past, for one reason or another.
However at some point, the user might then decide to go on and install previously refused updates (because he changed his mind, or because he has fixed some stuff that needed fixing before he could apply the update, whatever ;-). So, to help the user identify quickly these updates, it would be good to make them visually stand out of the crowd in the update manage list, maybe by using some colourful background, along with placing them at the very top of the list, with a word to remind the user he has suspended these updates. Update are already classified by type ("Recommended", "suggested", "critical/safety", etc". so a new "Pending, manually suspended" header could be created ? Just an idea...

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this symptom still reproducible in 8.10 or 9.04?

[Trouilliez vincent (vincent-trouilliez-modulonet)]

> Is this symptom still reproducible in 8.10 or 9.04?

I don't know, I installed Intrepid but have not yet had the opportunity to refuse an update.
Will uncheck some random package as soon as the next batch of updates comes up, see if the bug is still there.. and report ;-)

[Trouilliez vincent (vincent-trouilliez-modulonet)]

Ok, today the notification icon showed up again, some more updates.

Result : the bug is still there -> I uncheched one of the packages, installed the other ones. Once these updates were installed, it refreshed things and RE-selected the update that I had UN-checked seconds before, thus ignoring the user input. So I unchecked AGAIN that remaining update, then clicked on the "Close" button.
Result: -> the notification icon is still lit in the gnome panel, and if I click on it again, that update appears to be checked AGAIN !

[Trouilliez vincent (vincent-trouilliez-modulonet)]

Changing the status from incomplete to confirmed, as it is not incomplete and very much confirmed again on Ubuntu 8.10.

I also today just happened tyo find another situation where this bug causes annoyance :

today I noticed a show-stopped bug in Ubuntu 8.10's version of the package gcc-avr . The Jaunty's version fixes the bug in question but sadly this particulat package doesn't appear to be in an installable state. SO instead I installed the immediate older version, from the Ubuntu 8.04 repos, which works fine. However, since then, the update-notifier keeps telling me to upgrade gcc-acc of course !

This bug is really a big usability issue and I just can't believe that it will expire in 10 days as Malone says it will !
If so I am afraid will have to report the bug again, I am sorry in advance !

[Leszek (bigl-aff)]

Sadly I can confirm this bug in Jaunty - the same old behaviour that in Synaptic package is forced to previous version but it shows as update in update-notifier and icoon in tray still shows updates available.