Qubes Global Config: "Disable checking for updates for all existing qubes" no longer true after new qubes are subsequently created; unclear how to reapply setting

[andrewdavidwong]

How to file a helpful issue

Qubes OS release

4.2

Brief summary

In Qubes Global Config, there are radio buttons for enabling/disabling update checking for all qubes with an explicit warning that this applies only to existing qubes. (Newly-created qubes will have update checking enabled by default.) However, let's imagine that you select the "disable" radio button and press "OK." Next, you create a new qube (so it has update checking enabled by default). If you go back into Qubes Global Config, nothing has changed. It still shows the "disabled" radio button selected, and the text for that button is Disable checking for all existing qubes, which is no longer true, since there now exists a qube in the system that has update checking enabled. So, the GUI no longer reflects reality, and it is not clear how the user is supposed to reapply the desired setting. Should the user just open Qubes Global Config, change nothing, and press "OK" again? In a normal UX pattern for a settings panel, that should have no effect, and yet that seems to be the only way to achieve the desired result in this case.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Qubes Global Config.
2. Go to Updates.
3. Select "Disable checking for updates for all existing qubes."
4. Press "OK."
5. Create a new qube.
6. Open Qubes Global Config again.
7. Go to Updates again.

Expected behavior

There is some indication that not all existing qubes in the system have update checking disabled, and there is some intuitive way to disable update checking for all qubes again.

Actual behavior

Nothing in Qubes Global Config has changed. "Disable checking for updates for all existing qubes" is still selected, which is no longer true, because there now exists a qube in the system for which update checking is enabled. Qubes Global Config no longer reflects reality.

Moreover, it is not obvious what the user should do in order to (re)achieve a system state in which update checking is disabled for all qubes, since "Disable checking for updates for all existing qubes" is already selected. It seems that the only course of action is to make no changes and press "OK," but this would normally have no effect in a settings panel following a standard UX pattern.