Ubuntu
software-center package

Software Center and Update Manager will not start after downloading Full Circle Magazine, Ubuntu 11.10

Asked by Frederick L Shope

After a routine software update via the update manager and after downloading Full Circle Magazine, I found that neither the software center nor the update manager would start when clicked on the launcher. The software center seemed to have hung during the Full Circle Magazine install, and I killed it after about 15 min. Afterwards, Full Circle Magazine opened OK and seemed to readable.

Now when I run the update manager, it reports the following error message:

"Could not initialize the package information
 An unresolvable problem occurred while initializing the package information.
 Please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include the following error message:

'E:Opening /etc/apt/sources.list.d/private-ppa.launchpad.net_commercial-ppa-uploaders_fullcircle-issue-56_ubuntu.list - ifstream::ifstream (13: Permission denied)'"

I tried both warm and cold reboots.

I tried running 'ubuntu-bug update-manager' in terminal, but only received the following message:

"Could not determine the package or source package name."

I also tried running ubuntu-bug with the process ID for the update manager from the system monitor, but just received the following message.

"The specified process ID does not belong to a program."

All of the above error conditions are repeatable.

I am reporting this as a bug per instructions from the above error message -- Bug #929910.

At present, I cannot install or update software (using the update manager and the software center). If the software center and update manager need to be replaced, I do not know how to do this. Request assistance.

Thank you.

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Frederick L Shope
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Revision history for this message
bob barker (urbanka0s) said : 		#1

are you running them with proper permissions?

Reason i ask is because of "(13: Permission denied)"

Revision history for this message
Frederick L Shope (flshope) said : 		#2

Prior to this problem, I was always asked to enter the password for a superuser to either update software or install a package, and that always worked. Now, neither software gets that far. The software center does not open at all, and the update manager gives the indicated error message. I did not change any permissions, as far as I know.

Revision history for this message
Frederick L Shope (flshope) said : 		#3

I found that the file

 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/private-ppa.launchpad.net_commercial-ppa-uploaders_fullcircle-issue-56_ubuntu.list

only had root read permission, unlike the rest of the files in that directory. When I added universal read permission, the software center and the update manager started running again. This solved my problem.

Thank you for the hint regarding permissions. That's just what I needed. Have a good day. I appreciate your help.

Revision history for this message
bob barker (urbanka0s) said : 		#4

No problem at all.

That was an honest shot in the dark there. Glad i could help :)