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Gregory Opera
Asked: 2016-08-16 00:34:46 +0800 CST

Can't start Ubuntu Software!

  • 772

Ever since I did a "clean" install of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS ("Xenial Xerus") on my son's Lenovo G50-45, he cannot start (the new) Ubuntu Software...

We launch the program from the Dash, the "Ubuntu Software" icon appears on the Launcher, then disappears; "gnome-software" is usually shown in System Monitor, however this sometimes disappears after a bit.

How do I fix this issue, so that my Son may actually use Ubuntu Software?

When I enter:

gnome-software

Nothing happens. The cursor simply moves to the next line, there are no error messages, nothing appears to be happening (even after waiting for a bit), "Ubuntu Software" is not shown in System Monitor and no new Terminal prompt is shown.

The same also applies when I enter:

sudo gnome-software

I wasn't expecting "sudo" to make a difference, but I figured there's no harm in trying.

I've already tried, just in case there were any bugs which were addressed in an update:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Which made no difference after a restart.

I also did this with the following commands, restarting in-between each one.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

I also tried updating using the following commands, which made no difference.

sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt full-upgrade

Again, I restarted between each attempt.

I have even tried re-installing the Software Center, however this makes no difference.

sudo apt-get --purge remove gnome-software
sudo apt-get install gnome-software

Interestingly, when Ubuntu Software re-installs, it's listed in the Dash as just "Software" with what appears to be the GNOME/generic (unbranded) icon.

For clarification, when I try to launch (the now re-installed) GNOME Software, it does exactly the same thing as was happening in the first place (except with the new logo, this time around)... The same is also true if I try to launch (the now re-installed) GNOME Software using Terminal.

When I enter:

gksudo software-center

I get the Enter your password to do administrative tasks prompt pop-up, but then nothing... Just a brand new prompt (i.e. just like when you first open Terminal).

To be sure, I went through all the steps above again, with a restart in-between purging Software Center and re-installing it.

Also, when I entered:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

It opens a Terminal-based sources list, but there is no reference to "cairo" or "gusty" (?), only a dozen or so Xenial sources over 54 lines (including spaces)... As I said, this was a "clean" install and courtesy of this Software Center issue, we haven't been able to install anything else.

When I enter:

dpkg -l | grep gnome-software

I get:

ii  gnome-software                              3.20.1+git20160617.1.0440874.ubuntu-xenial-0ubuntu1~16.04.1 amd64        Software Center for GNOME
ii  gnome-software-common                       3.20.1+git20160617.1.0440874.ubuntu-xenial-0ubuntu1~16.04.1 all          Software Center for GNOME (common files)

The output of:

strace -e trace=open gnome-software

Can be found here.

The output of:

gnome-software --verbose >~/gnome-software.log 2>&1

Can be found here.

It all means nothing to me, but hopefully it means something to one of you guys.

The output of:

which gnome-software

is:

/usr/bin/gnome-software

and the output of:

ls -l /usr/bin/gnome-software

is:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 639568 Jun 21 15:57 /usr/bin/gnome-software

--

The output of:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Can be found here.

The output of:

ls -lR /etc/apt/ | grep -v '~'

Can be found here.

package-management

7 Answers

  1. I just had the same problem with the same symptoms. Apparently I had a package queued up to install. I needed to reset this by deleting the install-queue file found in the ~/.local/share/gnome-software/ directory. To do this open a terminal window and type this command:

    rm ~/.local/share/gnome-software/install-queue

    If this doesn't fix your problem, you may have a corrupted configuration file, in which case, I'd simply delete all the files in that directory and let them be rebuilt. That can be done using this command:

    rm -r ~/.local/share/gnome-software
    • 3

  2. I think the highest-voted answers definitely relevant, but I also want to add that for me, old PPA's were causing issues and slowing down Ubuntu Software, even after I removed them from sources.list using add-apt-repository --remove and checked that they were no longer in sources.list. This was because their .list files were still in /etc/apt/sources.list.d and their keyrings were in /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d.

    To remove the .list files one by one:

    ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d
sudo rm -i /etc/apt/sources.list.d/<PPAName>.list
sudo apt-get update

    Or, to delete ALL PPA's from the sources.list directory:

    cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d && sudo rm -i *list*

    To remove keys one by one:

    sudo apt-key list
sudo apt-key del <KEY_ID>
sudo apt-get update
    • 2

  3. Maybe reinstall the software center?

    sudo apt-get --purge remove gnome-software
sudo apt-get install gnome-software
    • 0

  4. Possible Workaround: Try the Synaptic package manager, it provides similar functionality.

    sudo apt-get install synaptic
    • 0

  5. Possible corrupt media or RAM error. Download new media and re-install. Try another device to confirm a fresh install works fine from the new media on the same network on another device.

    • 0

  6. i have the same issue and for now i fixed my problem with installing the old ububtu-software-center with this command and it works well :

    sudo apt install software-center
    • 0

  7. I have exactly the same problem. Removing the gnome-software under home directory absolutely resolves my problem.

    rm -r ~/.local/share/gnome-software

    Update: As Mostafa Ahangarha commented, it is safer if you make a backup of gnome-software first.

    cp -r ~/.local/share/gnome-software ~/.local/share/gnome-software-BAK

    Then, remove the gnome-software folder by:

    rm -r ~/.local/share/gnome-software

    Restart ubuntu-software. Ubuntu Software should be able to start now.

    If you still cannot see Ubuntu Software started, you can undo the above process by:

    rm -r ~/.local/share/gnome-software
mv ~/.local/share/gnome-software-BAK ~/.local/share/gnome-software
    • 0