Firefox and Krita (and possibly others) recently lost their AppStream metadata

[Nate Graham]

I just noticed that my Kubuntu 17.10 production machine has lost AppStream Metadata for Firefox and Krita. I'll use Firefox as an example:

My apt repos are up-to-date:

$ sudo apt update
Get:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-security InRelease [78.6 kB]
Hit:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful InRelease
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-updates InRelease [78.6 kB]
Hit:4 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu artful InRelease
Hit:5 http://ppa.launchpad.net/gnumdk/lollypop/ubuntu artful InRelease
Get:6 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-backports InRelease [72.2 kB]
Hit:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu artful InRelease
Hit:8 http://ppa.launchpad.net/nilarimogard/webupd8/ubuntu artful InRelease
Hit:9 http://ppa.launchpad.net/videolan/master-daily/ubuntu artful InRelease
Fetched 229 kB in 2s (112 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.

...And the firefox package is available, installed, and looks sane:

$ apt show firefox
Package: firefox
Version: 58.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.17.10.1
Priority: optional
Section: web
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Mozilla Team <email address hidden>
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Installed-Size: 175 MB
Provides: gnome-www-browser, iceweasel, www-browser
Depends: lsb-release, libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.12.4), libc6 (>= 2.18), libcairo-gobject2 (>= 1.10.0), libcairo2 (>= 1.10.0), libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.9.14), libdbus-glib-1-2 (>= 0.78), libfontconfig1 (>= 2.11.94), libfreetype6 (>= 2.2.1), libgcc1 (>= 1:4.2), libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.31.8), libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.4), libpango-1.0-0 (>= 1.22.0), libpangocairo-1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0), libstartup-notification0 (>= 0.8), libstdc++6 (>= 6), libx11-6, libx11-xcb1, libxcb-shm0, libxcb1, libxcomposite1 (>= 1:0.3-1), libxdamage1 (>= 1:1.1), libxext6, libxfixes3, libxrender1, libxt6
Recommends: xul-ext-ubufox, libcanberra0, libdbusmenu-glib4, libdbusmenu-gtk3-4
Suggests: fonts-lyx
Replaces: kubuntu-firefox-installer
Task: ubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-usb, kubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-full, edubuntu-desktop, edubuntu-usb, xubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-gtk-desktop, lubuntu-desktop, ubuntustudio-desktop, ubuntu-gnome-desktop, ubuntukylin-desktop, ubuntu-mate-core, ubuntu-mate-desktop
Xul-Appid: {ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}
Supported: 9m
Download-Size: 45.0 MB
APT-Manual-Installed: yes
APT-Sources: http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-updates/main amd64 Packages
Description: Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla
 Firefox delivers safe, easy web browsing. A familiar user interface,
 enhanced security features including protection from online identity theft,
 and integrated search let you get the most out of the web.

N: There is 1 additional record. Please use the '-a' switch to see it

...But there's no AppStream data for it!

$ appstreamcli search firefox
Identifier: kdocker.desktop [desktop-application]
Name: KDocker
Summary: Docks any application into system tray
Package: kdocker
Homepage: http://kdocker.com
Icon: kdocker_kdocker.png
---
Identifier: bleachbit-root.desktop [desktop-application]
Name: BleachBit (as root)
Summary: Free space and maintain privacy
Package: bleachbit
Icon: bleachbit_bleachbit.png
---
Identifier: bleachbit.desktop [desktop-application]
Name: BleachBit
Summary: Free space and maintain privacy
Package: bleachbit
Icon: bleachbit_bleachbit.png
---
Identifier: firefox-esr.desktop [desktop-application]
Name: Iceweasel
Summary: Browse the World Wide Web
Package: xul-ext-iceweasel-branding
Icon: xul-ext-iceweasel-branding_iceweasel.png
---
Identifier: uget-gtk.desktop [desktop-application]
Name: uGet
Summary: Download multiple URLs and apply it to one of setting/queue.
Package: uget
Icon: uget_uget-icon.png
---
Identifier: gnome-do.desktop [desktop-application]
Name: GNOME Do
Summary: Do things as quickly as possible (but no quicker) with your files, bookmarks, applications, music, contacts, and more!
Package: gnome-do
Icon: gnome-do_gnome-do.png
---
Identifier: ubuntu-online-tour.desktop [desktop-application]
Name: Ubuntu Tour
Summary: Experience Ubuntu in your web browser
Package: ubuntu-online-tour
Icon: ubuntu-online-tour_ubuntu-online-tour.png
---
Identifier: iceweasel.desktop [desktop-application]
Name: Iceweasel
Summary: Browse the World Wide Web
Package: xul-ext-iceweasel-branding
Icon: xul-ext-iceweasel-branding_iceweasel.png

This prevents Firefox from showing up in GNOME Software and KDE Discover.

[Matthias Klumpp (ximion)]

For Firefox, this looks like it's the fault of Firefox (or rather the firefox package) itself (I guess someone symlinked an icon again), see http://appstream.ubuntu.com/artful/main/issues/firefox.html

Krita on the other hand should show up, and I can see it. Can you check for that again? Maybe it was just temporarily unavailable. See http://appstream.ubuntu.com/artful/universe/metainfo/krita.html

[Nate Graham (pointedstick)]

Looks like this is a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1639863.

If I'm not imagining that Firefox and Thunderbird showed up in Discover recently, then that means that Ubuntu users have been unable to use GNOME Software or KDE Discover to install the FOSS world's most popular web browser and email client for over a year.