Add option to not check/download updates automatically when using mobile broadband

[Tomasz Dominikowski]

Binary package hint: update-manager

I would like to have a checkbox option in Software Sources that would say:

[] Don't check and download updates if using mobile broadband

In many countries bandwith is still expensive when using mobile broadband (eg. here there are no flatrate options and the smallest data package is just 50mb, even with HSDPA coverage). I don't want my bandwith wasted on checking for updates and downloading them automatically, so every time I switch to mobile broadband I have to remember to change the settings in Software Sources. This should be handled automatically with an additional option.

I think PackageKit gained this functionality recently, but despite initial enthusiasm there has been no push to actually replace Ubuntu's tools with a universal solution that would benefit all.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Thank you for your bug report. This would probably be handled in update-notifier and software-properties, not update-manager

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

This bug probably should be higher than wishlist, since at least with the development release this could cause the user to download ~ 1.4GB of data per month just for package lists. Even in the US the montly bandwidth limit is only 5GB, so it would take nearly one third of the bandwidth just for package list updates.

[mokabar (tim-klingt)]

any news on this? i ended up disabling automatic updates on my laptop ... which is definitely not be best solution