`&` in french translaction "Logiciels & mises à jour" should be escaped as `&`

[Natim]

When running update-manager in French the "Logiciels & mises à jour" sentence make the update-manager to fail with an empty dialog.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

I fail to find that string. Can you please explain the context more exactly? What's the English equivalent? In which Ubuntu version does it happen?

[Natim (site-remy)]

I think the english translation should be "Software and upgrade" or something like that. It might be the name of the application maybe the translation is in the .desktop file?

It happens with the update-manager. I had it in 16.04 → 16.10 but I remember I had it also from 15.10 → 16.04

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

The string exists in the software-properties package (which you can call from update-manager by clicking the "Paramètres" button). However, I can't reproduce the problem, so whatever is causing the problem for you, it's probably not that string.

Can you please open a terminal window, run:

software-properties-gtk

and show us any error messages.

[Natim (site-remy)]

I guess you are correct and that string is used by software-properties-gtk but also from the update-manager command during the upgrade process.

To reproduce install Ubuntu 16.04 in french add some other sources in /etc/apt/sources.list.d and then try to upgrade to 16.10 you will see an alert with an error.

Would it be possible to change in the software-properties-gtk translation the & into & ?

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

The original string is "Software & Updates", so if you are right, a lot of users (not only French) ought to run into the issue and there would be a need to either change the original string or make whatever uses the string when upgrading Ubuntu via update-manager capable of dealing with an unescaped '&' character.

What makes you think that the single '&' character is the culprit? What does the error alert say?

[Natim (site-remy)]

I am able to reproduce the error every time in a VirtualMachine.
I am available for a demo through a video conf tool if you need help to reproduce.

Steps
=====

1. Install Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS in French
2. Add Google Chrome sources for instance in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list
3. `apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade`
4. In Software & Update accept to get distribution update even when it is not a LTS
5. Run `update-manage -d` and accept to upgrade.

You should see the following error and screenshot.

[Natim (site-remy)]

I don't have the problem with English

[Natim (site-remy)]

It talks about software-properties tool rather than "Logiciels & mises à jour"

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Thanks for the additional info, Natim!

I tested with escaping the French string and, as you can see at the attached screenshot, doing so would not be a proper fix.

Somehow we need to track down which code is causing the issue you have demonstrated.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

I think I found it. It seems to be a translation issue after all, but in the ubuntu-release-upgrader package:

https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/yakkety/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+pots/ubuntu-release-upgrader/fr/57

So replacing & with & there ought to fix it.

[Olivier Febwin (febcrash)]

Gunnar, have you tried "Certaines entrées de votre fichier sources.list, concernant des tierces parties, ont été désactivées. Vous pouvez les réactiver après la mise à niveau avec l'outil «[nbsp]Logiciels & mises à jour[nbsp]» ou avec Synaptic." ?

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

No, I haven't. But the error message in the screenshot which Natim attached in comment #6 suggests & explicitly.

[Olivier Febwin (febcrash)]

OK, i'll try to reproduce the problem et correct it

[Olivier Febwin (febcrash)]

and! not "et"

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

I used zenity to trigger the unescaped ampersand error, and could that way confirm that replacing & with & fixes the problem (see attached screenshot).