debianpackage-managementsoftware-center
Not that I mind or anything, just out of curiosity. But I noticed today that the Software Center in Ubuntu is actually an upstream package?.
In the description it says
To install or remove software using USC, you need administrator access on the computer.
So, it is referred to Ubuntu Software Center and the screen-shot on the right is taken from Ubuntu.
So, why would it be available in the Debian repositories, what is its use there?
If, by mistake, you have something like in /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.debian.apt.policy file:
...
<action id="org.debian.apt.install-or-remove-packages">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Install or remove packages</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To install or remove software, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>no</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>no</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
...
you will get the following warning when you try to install something from Ubuntu Software Center:
You can check also the details from the warning.
So, check /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.debian.apt.policy file and be sure that is looking like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE policyconfig PUBLIC
"-//freedesktop//DTD PolicyKit Policy Configuration 1.0//EN"
"http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/PolicyKit/1.0/policyconfig.dtd">
<policyconfig>
<vendor>Apt Daemon</vendor>
<vendor_url>http://launchpad.net/aptdaemon/</vendor_url>
<icon_name>package-x-generic</icon_name>
<action id="org.debian.apt.get-trusted-vendor-keys">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">List keys of trusted vendors</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To view the list of trusted keys, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.clean">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Remove downloaded package files</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To clean downloaded package files, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>yes</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.change-config">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Change software configuration</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To change software settings, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.change-repository">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Change software repository</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To change software repository settings, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.install-file">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Install package file</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To install this package, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.update-cache">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Update package information</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To update the software catalog, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>yes</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.install-or-remove-packages">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Install or remove packages</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To install or remove software, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.install-packages.high-trust-repo">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Install software from a high-trust whitelisted repository.</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To install software, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.install-packages-from-new-repo">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Add a new repository and install packages from it</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To install software from a new source, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.install-purchased-packages">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Add a new repository of purchased software and install packages from it</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To install purchased software, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.upgrade-packages">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Upgrade packages</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To install updated software, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.cancel-foreign">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Cancel the task of another user</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To cancel someone else's software changes, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
<action id="org.debian.apt.set-proxy">
<description gettext-domain="aptdaemon">Set a proxy for software downloads</description>
<message gettext-domain="aptdaemon">To use a proxy server for downloading software, you need to authenticate.</message>
<defaults>
<allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
<allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>
</policyconfig>
To edit it, switch to the root user in terminal with:
sudo -i
then run the following command:
gedit /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.debian.apt.policy
and close that root session with CTRLD or by typing exit.
However the Software Center is full of proprietary software. How come? I thought Ubuntu is all about Open Source
Definition of "universe":
Universe – Community-Maintained, Open-Source Software The vast majority of the software in the Ubuntu Software Center comes from the Universe repository. These packages are either automatically imported from the latest version of Debian or uploaded and maintained by the Ubuntu community.
Canonical does not provide official support or updates for these packages.
I would consider the tag "proprietary" a bug for chromium. It is FLOSS so should be tagged as such.
How to filter those out?
Do you have more examples of the tag proprietary in universe? Since I would believe it should not be in there.
On how to filter out what is currently installed and is proprietary you can use:
sudo apt install vrms
and you get a list of what is installed in your system
$ vrms
Non-free packages installed on schijfwereld
amd64-microcode Processor microcode firmware for AMD CPUs
fonts-ubuntu sans-serif font set from Ubuntu
i965-va-driver VAAPI driver for Intel G45 & HD Graphics family
intel-microcode Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs
Contrib packages installed on schijfwereld
iucode-tool Intel processor microcode tool
4 non-free packages, 0.2% of 1852 installed packages.
1 contrib packages, 0.1% of 1852 installed packages.
$ which chromium
/snap/bin/chromium
Bug report on debian (from June 2nd) that might be related: third_party/swiftshader/third_party/llvm-subzero/lib/Support/ConvertUTF.cpp in chromium seems to be proprietary. In the link there is mentioning of a fix.
There is a command called lintian to check DEB packages. It does not complain when I scan chromium 37.
Best Answer
As you may know, Ubuntu is built upon Debian. LTS releases are based on Debian Testing, while regular releases are based on Debian Unstable. Ubuntu packages are therefore almost always compatible with the respective Debian release.
Ubuntu Software Center is a nice front-end for browsing and searching for packages, and it uses standard .deb downloads/installation on the back-end. It works just as well on Debian as on Ubuntu, and is there as an alternative to Synaptic, etc. for Debian users.