The Interruption of the Update Notifier
Whenever you log into a fresh session of Ubuntu Linux, the system automatically checks the software repositories in the background. If new package versions are available, the “Software Updater” application forcefully pops up on your screen, interrupting your workflow and prompting you to install the updates immediately. While keeping your system secure is critical, having this pop-up steal focus the moment you boot your computer can be highly disruptive to your productivity.
How to Disable the Automatic Update Prompt via GUI
You can configure Ubuntu’s update manager to download security patches silently in the background while suppressing the annoying visual prompts for standard software updates.
1. Open the Activities overview (press the Super/Windows key).
2. Type Software & Updates and launch the application.
3. In the window that opens, navigate to the Updates tab.
4. Look for the dropdown menu labelled When there are other updates.
5. Change the setting from “Display immediately” to Display weekly or Display every two weeks to drastically reduce the frequency of the pop-ups.
Disabling the Prompt Entirely via Terminal
If you prefer to handle all of your updates manually through the terminal using apt and want to completely eradicate the graphical pop-up, you can disable the update-notifier service entirely.
Open your terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and enter the following command to prevent the update-notifier from running automatically on startup:
gsettings set com.ubuntu.update-notifier no-show-notifications true
With this setting applied, your system will still receive repository metadata in the background, but you will never be bothered by a pop-up window again. You must remember to routinely run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade to keep your machine secure.