On 2016-01-13 01:35, gumb wrote:
2) Musing over whether I really wanted to trust my parents to apply updates, I gave it a test under their user account. When it popped up, I clicked the button to install the updates, expecting it to prompt me at some point for the root password. It began downloading, then kept progressing, and entirely finished the job, without ever prompting me. WTF?
Normal, intentional, and not new. The user is allowed to install updates (not new packages) without special permissions, since some years ago. The justification is that those packages are already installed, so there is little risk in allowing users to do it. I think it can be restricted somewhat, but I don't remember how, sorry. It is one of the the reasons I remove packagekit in my production systems.
3) Going back to point 1), there is no 'off' setting, or obvious way to disable the update utility. In the end the only way I could find to stop it without delving into config files was to edit the system tray settings and deselect it as one of the entries.
Well, yes, that's one way :-) But you have to repeat for all users. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 13.1 x86_64 "Bottle" at Telcontar)