Software update alert when there isn't any need

I'm running Zorin Ultimate 15.3
I have software update set to periodically check for updates and alert me. I still tend to apply updates from the command line only bc. I have a historic (and most likely, irrational) distrust of GUI-based SW updaters under Linux. Regardless ...

For the past week, I get a notice every other day that updates are ready. When I drop to the cmdln and run sudo apt update && sudo apt list --upgradable I'm shown that nothing is needed. However, gnome-software is insisting that there's something to update. When I click on the notification message and Software opens, I see the following:

Sorry, something went wrong: failed to get origin-hostname: Remote "flathub" not found

When I dismiss this, a single item remains in the Software list:

GNOME Application Platform version 40
The GNOME runtime is appropriate for any application that uses the GNOME platform. The runtime is layered on top of the Freedesktop run...

When I click on this item, I get the following:

runtime/org.gnome.Platform/x86_64/40 No update description available.

So apt thinks there are no updates and Software thinks there is but can't really tell me about it.
What's up with this? What should I do?

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Do you use any flatpak software?

Yes; I recently installed HydraPaper. It allows me to set two different wallpaper images for my dual-monitor landscape/portrait setup.

Flathub and flatpak appear to be causing some issues.
Interestingly, Hydrapaper should be in the multiverse repo...

But it is also available as a .deb
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/h/hydrapaper/hydrapaper_2.0.2-1_all.deb

If it was me, I would

flatpak remove hydrapaper

then

sudo apt remove --purge flatpak

Then install hydrapaper .deb as above

(Just to check, you can run sudo apt dist-upgrade)

Then reboot and test the updater.

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I'm all for uninstalling unneeded apps; if I can find HydraPaper elsewhere, woot!

However, when I run flatpak list I got the following:

Zorin-95
ZorinBlue-Dark
ZorinBlue-Light
ZorinGreen-Dark
ZorinGreen-Light
ZorinGrey-Dark
ZorinGrey-Light
ZorinOrange-Dark
ZorinOrange-Light
ZorinPurple-Dark
ZorinPurple-Light
ZorinRed-Dark
ZorinRed-Light

So ... does that not mean there are system components that need FlatPak?

those themes are flatpak packages to flatpak apps. you can safely remove them.
Ofcause you can also keep them, if you want to install any other flatpak.

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No. The Zorin Themes are included in Flatpak but also included in apt and in your /usr/share/themes directory. You safe to remove those if you are removing Flatpak since only Flatpak apps would call on those Flatpaked Zorin themes.

EDIT: Storms reply above did not show up on my screen 'til after I submitted my post. :stuck_out_tongue:

I'm using "Ninja Submit" option :stuck_out_tongue:

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