Software sources crasch with UnicodeDecodeError on start

[Nikke]

The software sources (software-properties-gtk) crasch on startup when DavMail 4.1.0-2042-1 is installed (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/davmail/davmail/4.1.0/davmail_4.1.0-2042-1_all.deb).

When I uninstalled davmail all is fine, reinstalling will crasch Software Sources again with the same error.

The following is the console output:
gpg: /tmp/tmpjca54y/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/UbuntuDrivers/detect.py", line 163, in packages_for_modalias
    cache_map = packages_for_modalias.cache_maps[apt_cache_hash]
KeyError: 5119329

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/software-properties-gtk", line 103, in <module>
    app = SoftwarePropertiesGtk(datadir=options.data_dir, options=options, file=file)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/gtk/SoftwarePropertiesGtk.py", line 178, in __init__
    self.init_drivers()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/gtk/SoftwarePropertiesGtk.py", line 1097, in init_drivers
    self.devices = detect.system_device_drivers()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/UbuntuDrivers/detect.py", line 416, in system_device_drivers
    for pkg, pkginfo in system_driver_packages(apt_cache).items():
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/UbuntuDrivers/detect.py", line 320, in system_driver_packages
    for p in packages_for_modalias(apt_cache, alias):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/UbuntuDrivers/detect.py", line 165, in packages_for_modalias
    cache_map = _apt_cache_modalias_map(apt_cache)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/UbuntuDrivers/detect.py", line 130, in _apt_cache_modalias_map
    m = package.candidate.record['Modaliases']
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/package.py", line 429, in record
    return Record(self._records.record)
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xeb in position 114: invalid continuation byte

The header stuff in the davmail DEB contains (check the Maintainer's name, I'm guessing that's what may be causing the problem):

davmail_4.1.0-2042-1_all.deb:
 new debian package, version 2.0.
 size 5054942 bytes: control archive=1784 bytes.
    1510 bytes, 26 lines control
    1763 bytes, 24 lines md5sums
 Package: davmail
 Version: 4.1.0-2042-1
 Section: mail
 Priority: extra
 Architecture: all
 Depends: openjdk-7-jre|openjdk-6-jre|sun-java6-jre,libswt-gtk-3-java|libswt-gtk-3.6-java|libswt-gtk-3.5-java|libswt-gtk-3.4-java
 Installed-Size: 5410
 Maintainer: Micka<EB>l Guessant <email address hidden>
 Description: DavMail POP/IMAP/SMTP/Caldav/Carddav/LDAP Exchange Gateway
  Ever wanted to get rid of Outlook ? DavMail is a POP/IMAP/SMTP/Caldav/Carddav/LDAP exchange
  gateway allowing users to use any mail/calendar client (e.g. Thunderbird with Lightning or
  Apple iCal) with an Exchange server, even from the internet or behind a firewall through
  Outlook Web Access.
  DavMail now includes an LDAP gateway to Exchange global address book and user personal
  contacts to allow recipient address completion in mail compose window and full calendar
  support with attendees free/busy display.
  The main goal of DavMail is to provide standard compliant protocols in front of proprietary
  Exchange. This means LDAP for global address book, SMTP to send messages, IMAP to browse
  messages on the server in any folder, POP to retrieve inbox messages only, Caldav for
  calendar support and Carddav for personal contacts sync.
  Thus any standard compliant client can be used with Microsoft Exchange.
  DavMail gateway is implemented in java and should run on any platform. Releases are tested
  on Windows, Linux (Ubuntu) and Mac OSX. Tested successfully with the Iphone
  (gateway running on a server).
  .
  http://davmail.sourceforge.net (....)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: software-properties-gtk 0.92.9
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-17.28-generic 3.5.5
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-17-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Oct 20 15:56:03 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64 (20120417)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: software-properties
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2012-10-19 (1 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[iMac (imac-netstatz)]

Thanks, removing davmail resolved for me too. Noting that with evolution-ews now present, davmail is also no longer required for my usecase (evolution + exchange ews).

[anna van puijenbroek (anna-vanpuijenbroek)]

purging davmail did the trick
thanks

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

It's 100% that the culprit is the strange character in the Maintainer field, as after rebuilding the package with Mickael ... as a maintainer name and installing it will make software-properties work.

[Mircea (tramir)]

Any solution other than purging Davmail? I actually need that running...

[Ben Oliver (benoliver999)]

Also a problem with scrivener, which is what was giving me grief.

Here's a solution if you still want davmail/scrivener: nip into /var/lib/dpkg/available and /var/lib/dpkg/status then correct the bum characters - I just removed them.

Protip: using gedit (sudo gedit) is not a bad idea: it highlights the bad characters in red, plus you can do a search to get to davmail/scrivener. Just select 'edit anyway' when it gives you a warning.

[Wouter Vandenneucker (woutervddn)]

this made software sources crash fixed it like said in: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=207787&p=12348175

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

seems similar to bug #1053749

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

 Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug #1053749, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.