Ubuntu – Does Ubuntu Software Center not show every package available

16.04aptpackage-managementsoftware-center

The Software Center in Ubuntu 16.04 (Gnome Software) shows only part of the packages available. While e.g. apt list qtcreator correctly lists the corresponding package a search in Software Center finds nothing.

Is there something misconfigured? I upgraded from 15.10. Until now I have used the old Ubuntu Software Center which worked fine.

Best Answer

This issue persists even in 19.04:

The image below shows that I have installed rofi but the Software Center doesn't find it. It doesn't even show it in the "Installed" tab (not shown).

Software Center doesn't find rofi

Lubuntu, an official flavor, uses Openbox as its window manager. Again, the Software Center doesn't list it.

Software Center doesn't find Openbox

There are more examples.

In this answer, there's a link to a bug from 2016 that could explain why some packages aren't listed. I'm copy/pasting some of what I think are points to note:

  • From comment #2: gnome-software is meant to list graphical softwares only, technical items like samba are for more technical users and can be installed from the command line or synaptic

  • From comment #7: the fact that some are not shown is a bug in the metadata generator or (more likely) the packaging or upstream software.

  • From comment #9: the packages must match some criteria, and meeting those is the job of the individual package maintainers.

  • From comment #12: Yeah, the old Ubuntu Software Center was designed to also replace Synaptic, while the new GNOME Software is for applications / fonts / other visible stuff only (the same as KDE Discover does).
    Advanced users are encouraged to use Synaptic, Muon or the command-line directly.

Comment #7 above referred to a metadata generator. If you're interested to know more, you'll could look at Appstream and Help make Gnome Software beautiful. From the former link:

AppStream is a cross-distro XML format to provide metadata for software components and to assign unique identifiers to software.

and

The metadata can for example be used by software centers like GNOME Software or KDE Discover to display a user-friendly application-centric way on the package archive.

To my mind, then, there could be (at least) two reasons why packages aren't listed in software centers:

  • metadata hasn't been generated at all for the package, possibly due to non-availability of human effort.

  • issues with the metadata. See http://appstream.ubuntu.com/ for more.

The Help make Gnome Software beautiful blog post explains how you and I can help move things along.

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