Ever since Ubuntu 12.04, the automatic error reporting service called Apport is enabled by default on boot. This should be a good thing… right until the “System program problem detected” window starts popping up randomly many times during the day.

Considering the huge number of Ubuntu users that probably already had the same issue, it is highly probable that someone else already reported about the problem your system run into. Also, you probably wouldn’t even notice any errors as the system already fixed it in the background.

Disabling Apport

To disable Apport, we can modify a config file pretty easily. Just run this command in the terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/default/apport

Set the value of “enabled” to 0 and save the file. After rebooting, the annoying window will be gone.

Disabling Apport from the GUI

If you don’t like the terminal, you can also disable Apport from the GUI by opening up Settings and navigating to Privacy > Error reporting. Just turn “Send error reports to Canonical” to off.