How to disable the Updates pop-up in Ubuntu 08/22/12

Quick little how to on stopping that updates box popping up every time you log into your Ubuntu linux machine.

Of course updates are important, but the default setting of having this pop up every day drives me crazy. Here I show how to turn it off completely and what settings I am currently using that give me the best of both worlds.

Via the User Interface…

Open the Ubuntu Software Center then go to Edit -> Software Sources and the Updates tab. Choose the “Never” option from the Automatically check for updates list.

(I believe it is always best to keep well updated with security updates, so on this particular machine I have also changed the When there are Security Updates option to “Download and Install Automatically”. That option suits me and unless you have a valid reason for not doing it, I can recommend that option. If you do have a valid reason, then please share it in the comments box below )

Via the Terminal…

To turn off the Pop up notifier of updates via the command line, just open a terminal and type:

gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch false

To turn it back on, use this command:

gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch true