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How to disable auto update to v. 4.x.x

asked 2022-11-08 01:10:04 +0000

igork gravatar image

Hello, we have a program that uses Wireshark. It stopped working with Wireshark v. 4.x.x. We must keep it with the latest version before Wireshark 4.x.x.

The problem is that whenever we downgrade the Wireshark to v 3.6.9, the system upgrades it to the latest v 4.x.x. What to do? We changed gui.update.enabled to FALSE, but it continues updating it.

Can someone help?

Thank you.

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Please add the output of wireshark -v or Help->About Wireshark:Wireshark to the question.

Chuckc gravatar imageChuckc ( 2022-11-08 14:23:40 +0000 )edit

Here it is:

C:\Program Files\Wireshark>Wireshark -v

C:\Program Files\Wireshark>

Wireshark 4.0.0 (v4.0.0-0-g0cbe09cd796b).

Copyright 1998-2022 Gerald Combs <[email protected]> and contributors.
Licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (version 2 or later).
This is free software; see the file named COPYING in the distribution. There is
NO WARRANTY; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Compiled (64-bit) using Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 (VC++ 14.32, build 31332),
with GLib 2.72.3, with PCRE2, with zlib 1.2.12, with Qt 6.2.3, with libpcap,
with Lua 5.2.4, with GnuTLS 3.6.3 and PKCS #11 support, with Gcrypt 1.10.1, with
Kerberos (MIT), with MaxMind, with nghttp2 1.46.0, with brotli, with LZ4, with
Zstandard, with Snappy, with libxml2 2.9.14, with libsmi 0.4.8, with
QtMultimedia, with automatic ...
(more)
igork gravatar imageigork ( 2022-11-08 14:39:49 +0000 )edit

This has actually been happening to us for some time as well; however I create a custom Wireshark installer and thought maybe it was something stupid I was doing to cause this because I had never heard anyone else report this problem. Our custom installer actually checks for updates against the version of Wireshark on our own server, not against the latest off-the-shelf version and yet out of the blue, we will find that our custom version of Wireshark has been replaced with the latest off-the-shelf version. It's maddening.

It's almost certainly something else causing this to happen and not Wireshark itself, but what that something is, I have no idea.

cmaynard gravatar imagecmaynard ( 2022-11-08 15:40:05 +0000 )edit

Is it a mix of OS versions or just one particular release?
Shouldn't there be Windows events that could help to diagnose this?

Chuckc gravatar imageChuckc ( 2022-11-08 16:03:11 +0000 )edit

I use Windows 11 workstation. I am not sure about other people, but I am sure that most of them have Windows 11 and very few people have Windows 10.

I am not sure what Windows event would tell me and how to find an event related to Wireshark update.

igork gravatar imageigork ( 2022-11-08 16:23:41 +0000 )edit

2 Answers

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answered 2022-11-08 08:36:17 +0000

hugo.vanderkooij gravatar image

updated 2022-11-08 10:38:29 +0000

Jaap gravatar image

To the best of my knowledge Wireshark will only recommend an update but NOT perform an autoupdate itself. So I guess that is some customization that you have added yourself or is in some form enforced by a policy.

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Not anymore. It started updating. We have multiple users and multiple workstations with the same issue. You can try to downgrade it to the latest v 3.x.x. In a day or two, it will upgrade to the latest v 4.x.x.

We do not do any customization to Wireshark. We use all defaults when we install it.

igork gravatar imageigork ( 2022-11-08 11:55:33 +0000 )edit

@hugo.vanderkooij. Can you please unmark it as an answer? This is NOT an answer to my question.

igork gravatar imageigork ( 2022-11-08 16:38:55 +0000 )edit

@igork, it's AN answer; it doesn't necessarily have to be THE answer.

cmaynard gravatar imagecmaynard ( 2022-11-08 19:37:13 +0000 )edit

How can it be the answer? He said that auto update does not happen when it happens. We have it on multiple workstations. Basically, every time we have to use Wireshark with our tools, we have to downgrade it.

You replied here and told us that you have the same issue.

There is an auto update now and I need to disable it. It started with v 4. We did not have this issue before this new version.

igork gravatar imageigork ( 2022-11-08 20:10:08 +0000 )edit

@igork, for me this problem started well before version 4.0 (I don't recall exactly when), but as @hugovanderkooij indicated, Wireshark itself doesn't auto-update and there's nothing in the source code that leads me to believe otherwise. I don't know why this happens, but of course I'd love to find out why and put an end to it.

But, as stated in the Help section, This site is for asking and answering questions, not for open-ended discussions., so this Q/A site isn't really the place to discuss the problem and try to determine a solution. If you'd like to discuss it further, I might suggest that you visit the Wireshark Discord Server or perhaps the Wireshark Users Mailing List, reddit, facebook, libera.chat (#wireshark), or other such forums and message boards. Oh, and if you ever need help on April 1st, be ...(more)

cmaynard gravatar imagecmaynard ( 2022-11-10 02:38:56 +0000 )edit
0

answered 2023-07-19 19:10:21 +0000

cmaynard gravatar image

I've finally gotten to the bottom of why this happens, at least in my case, but I suspect a similar situation is affecting you as well.

Basically, my company employs a tool that automatically updates a bunch of software, and Wireshark is included in the list of software that gets automatically updated. This is fine for a stock Wireshark installation, but not for a customized Wireshark installation. I am currently trying to work with our IT team to devise a solution to avoid having the customized version of Wireshark automatically updated. You will surely need to do the same if this is indeed the same thing that's happening in your case.

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Asked: 2022-11-08 01:06:55 +0000

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Last updated: Jul 19 '23