Update Manager Ignores Its Own Mobile Broadband Warning

[Gretha]

Binary package hint: update-manager

Update Manager and Mobile Broadband: Update Manager Ignores Its Own Warning and Takes Control

Update Manager (Ubuntu 11.04, fully updated) duly announces when my netbook is connected to the internet via a wireless modem (Mobile Broadband). Mobile Broadband comes with strict data consumption limits, so this warning makes sense.

The settings for updates on my netbook are:

- Important Security Updates: Download and Install Automatically
- Recommended Updates: Manual Download and Install

However, when there are updates, Update Manager will happily download them all anyway -- without my prompting --, both the Important Security Updates (this is correct) and the Recommended Updates (this is incorrect). When I open Update Manager some time after a system restart, this has already occurred automatically in the background; it is a fait accompli, despite the Mobile Broadband warning displayed by Update Manager.

This can really bite very heavily into my available remaining Mobile Broadband data allowance.

I of course want to be able to choose which, if any, Recommended Updates are installed when under Mobile Broadband (and defer any non-essential ones until I am back under W-Fi), but I seem to have no control. Update Manager simply ignores its own wireless modem warning. This cannot be right.