Chowning to root was not enough but just making ~/update-manager/meta- release not readable by the current user was, so you could just chmod it to 0000 or something alike.
However, update-manager seemed to work even after the crash (apport spawned). Thus, I don't think it's critical, but update-manager should handle it more gracefully anyway. ** Changed in: update-manager (Ubuntu) Status: Unconfirmed => Confirmed -- Update manager crashes if ~/.update-manager/* isn't owned by the user. https://launchpad.net/bugs/91183 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs