update-manager unexpectedly / accidentally restarts system

[jlutz]

When update-manager is finished updating, it pops up a dialog "System needs restarting. [Restart Now], [Restart Later], [Cancel]". Unfortunately, the default button is "Restart Now" is the default button. If the popup occurs in the middle of some other work, this popup grabs the focus, and takes an [Enter], that was meant for some other window, as a selection of "Restart Now" and reboots the system without further confirmation. The whole session is killed without a chance to save current work.

Expected behaviour: either have "Restart Later" as default action, or (better): no default action at all (no reaction on keyboard events), but only on real mouse clicks.

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Release: 14.04

$ apt-cache policy update-manager
update-manager:
  Installiert: 1:0.196.12
  Installationskandidat: 1:0.196.12
  Versionstabelle:
 *** 1:0.196.12 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:0.196.11 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: update-manager 1:0.196.12
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-32.57-generic 3.13.11.4
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-32-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Thu Jul 31 13:12:03 2014
GsettingsChanges:
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'show-details' b'true'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'window-height' b'835'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'first-run' b'false'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'window-width' b'646'
 b'com.ubuntu.update-manager' b'launch-time' b'1406804350'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-08-22 (342 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130423.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: update-manager
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-05-19 (72 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Daniel Richard G. (skunk)]

I would add that if the "Restart Now" action is selected, it should do the usual thirty-second countdown, to allow the user a chance to cancel if needed. Even if the default action is not to restart, an errant mouse click in the wrong spot can still lead to the same problem.

(The dialog should not ignore keyboard input. That would be a glaring inconsistency in the system UI, and there are better ways of addressing this issue.)

[Per Ångström (autark)]

Yesterday, I lost about an hour's work because of this behavior. I had been editing an audio file in Audacity, and I was going to save it. When Audacity's save-confirmation dialog appeared, I pressed Enter, not seeing that the small Restart dialog had also appeared in the corner of the screen and grabbed keyboard focus. Instead of saving my work, the computer immediately shut down and restarted. After the restart, all my work was lost.

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Release: 14.04