pkgAcquire::Run warnings ("Can't drop privileges for downloading...") during font-file downloads

[Daniel Richard G.]

Installing ttf-mscorefonts-installer 3.4+nmu1ubuntu2 on Xenial, I see the following in the output of apt-get(8):

[...]
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe [198 kB]
Fetched 198 kB in 1s (134 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/andale32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe [554 kB]
Fetched 554 kB in 4s (130 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/arial32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe [168 kB]
Fetched 168 kB in 3s (43.9 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/arialb32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/comic32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/comic32.exe [246 kB]
Fetched 246 kB in 3s (65.4 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/comic32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/courie32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/courie32.exe [646 kB]
Fetched 646 kB in 4s (140 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/courie32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/georgi32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/georgi32.exe [392 kB]
Fetched 392 kB in 0s (572 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/georgi32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/impact32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/impact32.exe [173 kB]
Fetched 173 kB in 0s (179 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/impact32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/times32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/times32.exe [662 kB]
Fetched 662 kB in 1s (413 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/times32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/trebuc32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/trebuc32.exe [357 kB]
Fetched 357 kB in 1s (327 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/trebuc32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/verdan32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/verdan32.exe [352 kB]
Fetched 352 kB in 0s (430 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/verdan32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/webdin32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/webdin32.exe [185 kB]
Fetched 185 kB in 0s (321 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/webdin32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

These fonts were provided by Microsoft "in the interest of cross-
platform compatibility". This is no longer the case, but they are
still available from third parties.
[...]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Coenraad Loubser (dagelf)]

Still present in latest image of Ubuntu 16.04 x64 Desktop install

[Ads20000 (ads20000)]

I get this error window as well (attached).
It's strange because the last three lines when installing the ttf-mscorefonts-installer are:
'All done, no errors.
All fonts downloaded and installed.
Setting up ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2) ...'
So it has installed the fonts? But it spits out lots of errors beforehand and, I think, causes the 'data files for some packages could not be downloaded' window to appear.

[Amelia Rose Khan (shawn-khan)]

I am using Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS and still see the error happening.

[Daniel Richard G. (skunk)]

Update: This bug is NOT a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1607535

(Bug #1607535 is about unreliable SourceForge servers; this is about warnings from the package scripts)

[Alex Burdu (alex.burdu)]

I'm also getting the update window on each restart starting this week for ttf-mscorefonts-installer and it always fails.
I manually ran the package-data-downloader and I get the same errors.
I'm on Ubuntu 16.04
Linux 4.4.0-51-generic #72-Ubuntu x86_64

$ sudo /usr/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloader
[sudo] password for burfee:
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: processing...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe [198 kB]
Fetched 198 kB in 1s (186 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/andale32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe [554 kB]
Fetched 554 kB in 1s (381 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/arial32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe [168 kB]
Fetched 168 kB in 1s (162 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/arialb32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/comic32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/comic32.exe [969 B]
Err:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/comic32.exe
  Hash Sum mismatch
Fetched 969 B in 1s (863 B/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/comic32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
E: Failed to fetch http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mirrorproblem?failedmirror=kent2.dl.sourceforge.net Hash Sum mismatch

E: Download Failed

[Alex Burdu (alex.burdu)]

Solved mine using this solution:
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2344990

[Daniel Richard G. (skunk)]

Hi Alex, the failure to download is actually bug #1607535. This bug is about the "Can't drop privileges" warnings, which are ultimately harmless to package installation.

[Daniel Richard G. (skunk)]

This appears to be a duplicate of bug #1522675, which more broadly addresses the "_apt" user permissions issue.

[kkivi (kkivi)]

Yes,and that bug was marked as invalid 2 weeks later

Lorenzo (nakis) on 2016-12-19

Changed in msttcorefonts (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
no longer affects: msttcorefonts (Ubuntu)