Thanks for the report. The previous behavior was rather eccentric. Security updates that require restart aren't inherently more important than security updates that don't. So it wouldn't make sense for us to highlight any menu when available security updates happen to require a restart, but not when they don't.
So how about if we highlighted a menu when *any* security updates were available? Well we used to do the equivalent of that before 2009, with the update-notifier panel applet. We replaced that with the Software Updater alert. But even if it was still a good idea to highlight a menu bar element when updates were available, the session menu wouldn't be the appropriate menu to use; it contains nothing about updates. (This is a drawback of referring to the menus as "indicators". In many cases they do indicate things, but not all. That seems incomplete given their name, but it's fine for a user who never sees that term.) ** Changed in: indicator-session (Ubuntu) Status: Confirmed => Won't Fix -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of DX Packages, which is subscribed to indicator-session in Ubuntu. Matching subscriptions: dx-packages https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1180860 Title: Session (gear) indicator not changing to red when restart required Status in “indicator-session” package in Ubuntu: Won't Fix Bug description: I just installed a set of updates, which included the kernel. After the updates were installed, update-manager showed me the dialog stating that a restart was required, but the session indicator did not change at all. It was not red, and there is not "restart required" type of item in the menu. It used to always do this, and no longer does. Also, the kernel updates were listed in update-manager as "security" updates, but the session indicator had not turned red to indicate they needed to be installed. I thought it was supposed to turn red and add an "Updates required" menu item in such a situation, as well. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04 Package: indicator-session 12.10.5daily13.03.08-0ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-19.30-generic 3.8.8 Uname: Linux 3.8.0-19-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8 Architecture: amd64 Date: Thu May 16 11:18:46 2013 InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-21 (206 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5) MarkForUpload: True SourcePackage: indicator-session UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2012-12-24 (142 days ago) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-session/+bug/1180860/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dx-packages Post to : dx-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dx-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp