Give users control over snapd autorefresh mechanism - apply patch over offiical repo and build binaries

snapd-regain-sanity.patch

diff --git a/cmd/snapd/main.go b/cmd/snapd/main.go
index 741d998404..55d06d2d9c 100644
--- a/cmd/snapd/main.go
+++ b/cmd/snapd/main.go
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ func init() {
 }
 
 func main() {
+       if _, found := os.LookupEnv("SNAPD_DISABLE_AUTOREFRESH"); found {
+               logger.Noticef("AutoRefresh disabled due to SNAPD_DISABLE_AUTOREFRESH environment variable being set")
+       }
+
        // When preseeding re-exec is not used
        if snapdenv.Preseeding() {
                logger.Noticef("running for preseeding")
diff --git a/overlord/snapstate/autorefresh.go b/overlord/snapstate/autorefresh.go
index 7faed91d6c..51e1d5405d 100644
--- a/overlord/snapstate/autorefresh.go
+++ b/overlord/snapstate/autorefresh.go
@@ -327,6 +327,11 @@ func (m *autoRefresh) Ensure() error {
                return err
        }
 
+       if _, found := os.LookupEnv("SNAPD_DISABLE_AUTOREFRESH"); found {
+               logger.Noticef("AutoRefresh disabled due to SNAPD_DISABLE_AUTOREFRESH environment variable being set")
+               held = true
+       }
+
        // do refresh attempt (if needed)
        if !held {
                if !holdTime.IsZero() {

Will need to apt-mark hold snapd to prevent it from getting updated OOB.

Oct 05 15:08:15 nebula snapd[6400]: autorefresh.go:331: AutoRefresh disabled by presence of /snapd_disable_autorefresh.
Oct 05 15:13:15 nebula snapd[6400]: autorefresh.go:331: AutoRefresh disabled by presence of /snapd_disable_autorefresh.
Oct 05 15:18:15 nebula snapd[6400]: autorefresh.go:331: AutoRefresh disabled by presence of /snapd_disable_autorefresh.
Oct 05 15:23:15 nebula snapd[6400]: autorefresh.go:331: AutoRefresh disabled by presence of /snapd_disable_autorefresh.

Something better - because why not?

index 7faed91d6c..51e1d5405d 100644
--- a/overlord/snapstate/autorefresh.go
+++ b/overlord/snapstate/autorefresh.go
@@ -327,6 +327,11 @@ func (m *autoRefresh) Ensure() error {
                return err
        }

+       if _, found := os.LookupEnv("SNAPD_DISABLE_AUTOREFRESH"); found {
+               logger.Noticef("AutoRefresh disabled due to SNAPD_DISABLE_AUTOREFRESH environment variable being set")
+               held = true
+       }
+
        // do refresh attempt (if needed)
        if !held {
                if !holdTime.IsZero() {

systemctl edit snapd.service

[Service]
Environment=SNAPD_DISABLE_AUTOREFRESH=Y

Done

Canonical doesn't really make it easy to build a target for a particular release distro. If you run into any errors about AF_QIPCRTR the quickest work-around I've found so far is:

index 583f8cd9fd..b924e5fa04 100644
--- a/interfaces/seccomp/template.go
+++ b/interfaces/seccomp/template.go
@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@ socket AF_NFC
 socket AF_VSOCK
 socket AF_MPLS
 socket AF_IB
-socket AF_QIPCRTR
+#socket AF_QIPCRTR