Name: The install button in Software Updater (née Update Manager).
Age: Er, however long it’s been since 2005, when Ubuntu added a standalone updater tool.
Appearance: Invisible when you need it most!
The bug: If you uncheck every package listed in Software Updater, the Install Now button vanishes from view.
Doesn’t sound like a bug… No, because I haven’t finished. The button vanishes if nothing is selected to install. But if you then re-select a package (or all of them again) because you want to install it, guess what? The Install Now button does not come back. Meaning, you can’t.
Aww, maybe it’s upset? On the one hand, it’s code, so no. On the other, the install button will only vanish if updates get bulk deselected when Ubuntu Pro package updates are also listed but greyed out (as Ubuntu Pro isn’t enabled). Maybe the OS is taking that personally.
Who even noticed this issue? An Ubuntu user who, in both noticing and filing a bug about it, outed themselves as not l33t enough to use apt from the command line—woo, pull a party popper for the first use of the word “l33t” anywhere on the internet since April 2013!
Did they try turning it off and on again? Funny! But yes: you have to restart Software Updater to get it to show up again — at least, show up until you next deselect all packages and then the cycle repeats.
—do you think this is to force us all to use Snaps? Woah, someone’s been spending time on Linux YouTube ;). No; this is clearly a conspiracy to force us all to use the command line. I mean, you can’t click a button that isn’t there, can you?
Snark; so it is a bug. Obviously. It’s also now fixed. Ubuntu 25.04 and 24.10 users have the update, and today it hit the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS update channel. Anyone on earlier Ubuntu versions where this is an issue will be relieved to know updates are in the pipeline – so hang tight!
How long was this bug bugging? Long enough for me to notice, which says everything. Based on when the bug report was filed, around a year…
Was anyone actually bugged by it? Unlikely – too busy using apt to notice, innit.
Lesson learned: “Grey out a button if it can’t be used, don’t hide it away” — a slogan ripe for sharing on Instagram! Overlay it on a photo of sunset in that curly font that makes any vacuous platitude sound deeply profound, then watch the engagement roll in…
Do say: “Deselect all updates, and then re-select the ones you want to install – it works now.”
Don’t say: “Ubuntu’s GUI update manager… Do you mean apt?”
P.S. Are you okay, Joey? Yeah! I’ve wanted to try this format for years. Growing up, ‘to-fro’s’ (as I called them) were a mainstay in magazines my sister read (which I’d read because I dO mY oWn rEseArCh). UK newspaper supplements and magazines still do these, notably Private Eye and The Guardian (the latter to poke fun at banal topics, trends, or celeb announcements).