Top-level checkbox only reverses selection, doesn't turn on/off

[Jeremy Bícha]

To verify this bug, sign up for a PPA with several new packages. A random example is https://launchpad.net/~aapo-rantalainen/+archive/gcompris . Before installing the PPA, install gcompris and several language packs. Then install the PPA and refresh your apt cache.

1. Open Update Manager and notice that the gcompris PPA section has several packages available.
2. Uncheck one of the packages.
3. Click the top-level checkbox for the PPA.
4. Instead of deselecting everything in the PPA, the selection is reversed (what was checked is now unchecked and so on). And unchecking the PPA checkbox reverses the reversal.

In Gmail
========
The checkbox is unchecked by default. Clicking the header checkbox makes everything on the page checked including the checkbox. Unchecking one of the items changes the header checkbox into a "checked but inconsistent status" which is represented by showing the checkbox checked but at ~50% of normal intensity. Clicking the header checkbox again unchecks everything. Checking a few items afterwards does not put the header checkbox into checked or inconsistent mode.

GTK has an inconsistent mode but it doesn't seem to work the same way for checkboxes (it ought to!) and so doesn't seem to help: http://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/unstable/GtkToggleButton.html#gtk-toggle-button-set-inconsistent

What should happen:
===================
1. All items should be checked by default.
2. Unchecking an item should keep the header checked (if GTK properly represents the 3rd state, inconsistent, then that should be used now)
2b. If all section items are manually unchecked then the section header should be unchecked too to match.
3. Clicking the section header when it is in checked or inconsistent state and when some or all items are checked should uncheck all items including the section header.
4. Checking an item should keep the header unchecked until all items are checked when the section header should be checked too to match.
5. Clicking the section header when it is in unchecked state should make all section items checked.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: update-manager 1:0.152.15
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-9.12-generic 3.0.3
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-9-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Aug 24 02:48:56 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Alpha amd64 (20110822)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: update-manager
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

Thanks for tasking the time to report this bug. This is not a regression, as we did not have section checkboxes before, it has only been implemented for oneiric. The problem with implementing it as a select/deselect all checkbox is that we only have two-state checkboxes, with checked/unchecked state, therefore we can not represent a partially selected state.

What behavior would you like to see here?

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

You're correct; it's not a regression; maybe I've been using Oneric so much that I forget what Natty is like. It's a welcome addition as I may have a PPA installed but I don't want to update those packages so some way to temporarily exclude those packages is nice.

I looked all over Ubuntu for an example where a header checkbox is used and I didn't really find an example which perhaps means it's a confusing interaction. I'll add my notes to the main bug report.

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug #1039543, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.