Announcements in MATE terminal

I did my usual apt update and saw that there is an announcement of sorts in the window when doing the update. What do you think about this?

Hi, @mickee :slight_smile:

When you mention "an announcement of sorts" in that "apt upgrade" window screenshot of yours, I assume you're referring to the following block of text in your screenshot:

# News about significant security updates, features and services will
# appear here to raise awareness and perhaps tease /r/Linux :wink:
# Use 'pro config set apt_news=false' to hide this and future APT news

In case you don't already know, "/r/Linux" is the Linux "subrredit" in Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/

I remember that specific message you've mentioned was discussed in the following Reddit topic (started on 30th October 2022) in that "/r/Linux" subreddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/yh6xwc/ubuntu_devs_tease_rlinux_via_apt_news_of_the_day/

I think this particular "teasing" message in "apt" output is related to the negative reaction that some users had to previous (but recent) "ads"/ "advertisements" in the output of "apt" commands promoting the "Ubuntu PRO" (beta) subscription service - https://ubuntu.com/pro - as discussed, for instance, in the following "OMG! Ubuntu!" article (published on 13th October 2022):

Interestingly, I've found there's already an open issue / bug about this "Ubuntu PRO" integration with "apt":

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ya, its not bad as far as I am concerned, tips and tricks would be appreciated. In this case how do I access Pro config to turn that off? I have it because i enabled it, but can't find the config for it.

Hi again, @mickee.

As far as I can tell, to turn those announcements off you have to run the command that is mentioned in that previous message, but prefixing it with "sudo". Like this:

sudo pro config set apt_news=false

If that doesn't work, run "Software Updater" first, so it updates the "ubuntu-advantage-tools" package to the 27.11.3 version that seems to be the version of that package that added the support for that "APT news" flag:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-advantage-tools/27.11.3~22.10.1

ubuntu-advantage-tools 27.11.3~22.10.1 source package in Ubuntu

Changelog

ubuntu-advantage-tools (27.11.3~22.10.1) kinetic; urgency=medium

  • New upstream release 27.11.3: (LP: #1993006)
  • d/postinst: remove the Ubuntu Pro beta apt message and set up the configurable flag for "APT news" instead
  • collect-logs: do not fail if a file cannot be read (LP: #1991858) - config: add a flag to disable "APT news" (LP: 1992026)
  • messaging: add announcement of "APT news" to apt output
  • messaging: only show "APT news" when using apt binary (GH: #2288)
  • version: use /run instead of /tmp for version file (GH: #2294)

-- Grant Orndorff <[email protected]> Fri, 14 Oct 2022 16:55:27 -0400

... and after running that update, run the command I've mentioned in the beginning of this reply:

sudo pro config set apt_news=false

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Thanks for this! @ricmarques

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