"The package is of bad quality" error message is bad

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

As shown in <https://launchpadlibrarian.net/110649564/Screenshot%20from%202012-07-20%2015%3A53%3A47.png>, when double-clicking some packages Ubuntu Software Center opens with an error message overlaid:

    The package is of bad quality

    The installation of a package that violates quality standards isn't allowed. This could cause serious problems on your computer. Please contact the person or organization who provided this package file and include the details beneath.

> Details

                                           ( OK ) ( Ignore and install )

Many things can be fixed here.

a. Why are two windows being presented here (the background one already containing the usual .deb warning) rather than one? Might this error also appear when installing updates? If so, maybe the USC window shouldn't open at all, just the error alert. And if not, probably the error should be embedded into the software item screen instead.

b. The primary text isn't a complete sentence.

c. "Violates quality standards" sounds needlessly violent.

d. "Serious problems on your computer"? What kind of problems? It could be more specific.

e. "The person or organization? Unless the Maintainer field is unreadable, it knows who that person or organization is, and should say so.

f. The secondary text refers to "the details beneath" (beneath what?), but by default no details are shown.

g. If installation "isn't allowed", why am I being given the option to ignore and install? Make up your mind.

h. If it does make sense to have the option to install, it should be "Ignore and Install", not "Ignore and install".

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Next steps:
* Find answers to the questions in (a), (d), and (g).
* Redesign the error presentation.

Not to be confused with bug 1020742, where the error message fails to contain any details, or bug 1027092, where the message is possibly appearing for packages where it shouldn't.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

I'm reassigning to aptdaemon since that's where the "bad quality" code is. See also bug 712377.

[Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor)]

Hopefully some first answers:

(a) If you click on a package s-c is opened to install it. the second dialog is just an error message that the installation tiggered. The error only appears if you install a package file - it will never appear if installing from a repository.

(d) The worst kind of problems: unpredictable problems :) And very technical ones. The quality problems are violations of the Ubuntu/Debian packaging policy. The user could see failures to install or update software or strange behavior of applications and crashes.

(g) "Isn't allowed" isn't true anymore. That is correct.

Thanks for your input!

[Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor)]

a.) S-C should perform a simulate() before showing the default local .deb file installation warning

b.)

e.) makes it a little bit more compliacted. only the details in the error dialog contain translation specific information. Both the title and the message are only error specific - so they are always the same for every package that creates the same error. It would require a re-design of the API to change this.

Matthew, could you provide a better wording so far?