How to Fix the Ubuntu ‘System program problem detected’ Popup Error

One of the most notoriously annoying features of Ubuntu Linux is the Apport crash reporting system. If any background application, script, or system service crashes—even if the crash was completely invisible to you and the system instantly recovered—Apport generates a crash log. The next time you log into your desktop, you are greeted by an ominous pop-up window declaring: “System program problem detected. Do you want to report the problem now?”

If you click “Report problem,” the window goes away. But if the same minor background service crashes again a week later, the exact same pop-up will return. If your system is actually running perfectly fine and you are tired of this constant nagging, you can easily delete the old crash logs or completely disable the Apport reporting system.

How to Fix the System Program Problem Detected Popup

First, try deleting the existing crash logs. If the pop-up keeps returning, you can permanently disable the reporting service via the terminal.

1. Open your Terminal application (Ctrl + Alt + T).
2. To delete all existing crash reports (which will instantly stop the current pop-up from appearing), carefully type the following command and press Enter: sudo rm /var/crash/*
3. Type your administrator password when prompted.

If you want to permanently disable the Apport system so it never generates a crash pop-up ever again, you must edit its configuration file.

1. In the terminal, type the following command to open the configuration file in the nano text editor: sudo nano /etc/default/apport
2. Look for the line of text at the very bottom of the file that says enabled=1.
3. Use your arrow keys to navigate to the 1, delete it, and replace it with a 0. The line should now read: enabled=0
4. Press Ctrl + O (the letter O) and press Enter to save the file.
5. Press Ctrl + X to exit the nano text editor.
6. Finally, type sudo systemctl stop apport and press Enter to kill the currently running service.

Ubuntu will no longer monitor minor background crashes, and you will never see the “System program problem detected” pop-up on your desktop again.