What is "packagekitd" and how do I make the Software Updater stop waiting for it?

I usually run the Software Updater when I switch on my desktop each morning. Very often I sit and wait while it displays this message:

waiting for packagekitd to exit

And looks like this:

I've done some websearching on this, and in spite of a couple mentions on Unix.SE, I haven't succeeded in finding out what "packagekitd" is, why I "wait" for it so often (can be a matter of minutes, not seconds), and whether I can avoid this somehow. My goal is to prevent packagekitd from hijacking my updating process.

Help appreciated! I'm running plain Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

1 Answer

PackageKit is a system made to use the distribution's software installation and update tools easier. You can read more about it here:

You can stop packagekitd with the command:

systemctl stop packagekit

If, for some reason, you wish to disable it, you can use:

systemctl disable packagekit