Ubuntu – Software-center crashes: bug or configuration error

13.04software-center

For several weeks, I've been having trouble with software-center under Ubuntu 13.04. It crashes silently, just a few seconds after execution. After each crash, syslog records a cryptic error:

Oct  3 23:14:11 mattbuntu kernel: [24085.941708] traps: software-center[20640] trap int3 ip:7f9ac3880135 sp:7fffaf98bf60 error:0

Software-center emits the following error when executed from the terminal:

[matt@mattbuntu:~]$software-center

** (software-center:4114): WARNING **: Couldn't connect to accessibility bus: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-QORifKNTUU: Connection refused
2013-10-04 18:18:21,219 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - setting up proxy 'None'
2013-10-04 18:18:21,991 - softwarecenter.plugin - INFO - activating plugin '<module 'webapps_activation' from '/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/plugins/webapps_activation.pyc'>'
2013-10-04 18:18:22,001 - softwarecenter.fixme - WARNING - logs to the root logger: '('/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/importer.py', 51, 'find_module')'
2013-10-04 18:18:22,000 - root - ERROR - Could not find any typelib for LaunchpadIntegration
2013-10-04 18:18:22,062 - softwarecenter.db.pkginfo_impl.aptcache - INFO - aptcache.open()
2013-10-04 18:18:25,068 - softwarecenter.fixme - WARNING - logs to the root logger: '('/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/utils.py', 271, 'get_title_from_html')'
2013-10-04 18:18:25,068 - root - WARNING - failed to parse: '<div style="background-color: #161513; width:1680px; height:200px;">
 <div style="background: url('/site_media/exhibits/2013/09/AAMFP_Leaderboard_700x200_1.jpg') top left no-repeat; width:700px; height:200px;"></div>
</div>' ('ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xa0' in position 70: ordinal not in range(128))
2013-10-04 18:18:25,069 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.views.lobbyview - WARNING - skipping exhibit for: 'u'amnesia-amfp'' not available
2013-10-04 18:18:25,070 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.views.lobbyview - WARNING - skipping exhibit for: 'u'wakfu'' not available

(software-center:4114): Gdk-ERROR **: The program 'software-center' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadDrawable (invalid Pixmap or Window parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 2575 error_code 9 request_code 62 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the GDK_SYNCHRONIZE environment
   variable to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

I have tried reinstalling the package, but that did not work. Any help will be appreciated.

Best Answer

This is an error in software-center. The bug report is here.

To fix the issue, you must patch the bug yourself:

  • open /usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/views/lobbyview.py
  • add a # before the line self.exhibit_banner.set_exhibits([FeaturedExhibit()])
  • restart software-center
Related Question