Cannot configure Software Sources in Settings

[Gordon Lack]

If I open Discover (click on the Updates button in the System Tray) and select Settings then next to the Default source is a "Software Sources" button.
Hovering over this it says, "Configure the sources for installable software and updates"

Clicking on this is supposed to produce a new window allowing me to configure various things (based on pre-23.04 releases).
BUT this one does nothing.

Probably because of this:
==========
[gmllaptop]: pkexec /usr/bin/software-properties-qt
qt.qpa.xcb: could not connect to display
qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "" even though it was found.
This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

Available platform plugins are: eglfs, linuxfb, minimal, minimalegl, offscreen, vnc, wayland-egl, wayland, wayland-xcomposite-egl, wayland-xcomposite-glx, xcb.

Aborted (core dumped)
==========

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 23.04
Package: plasma-discover 5.27.4-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.2.0-20.20-generic 6.2.6
Uname: Linux 6.2.0-20-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Fri Apr 28 22:59:23 2023
InstallationDate: Installed on 2022-06-23 (309 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 22.04 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish" - Release amd64 (20220419)
SourcePackage: plasma-discover
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to lunar on 2023-04-28 (0 days ago)
mtime.conffile..etc.xdg.autostart.org.kde.discover.notifier.desktop: 2023-04-06T09:36:56

[Erich Eickmeyer (eeickmeyer)]

The terminal output is a red herring because that woudln't work anyhow as some recent changes to policykit wouldn't allow that.

Behind the scenes, discover uses kdesu, not pkexec, so that might be worth investigating.

[Gordon Lack (gordon-lack)]

OK, thanks.

   /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libexec/kf5/kdesu /usr/bin/software-properties-qt

works and produces the Software Sources window I'd expect to get to via Discover Updates (so at least I can add a personal desktop item for easy access to this....)

(I'm sure I strace'd a working 22.10 system to get that pkexec command, so perhaps something odd happened at the change?).

[Gordon Lack (gordon-lack)]

The process seems to run out of a systemctl user session.

If you click on Updates in the System Tray and find the process running plasma-discover you can track it down using systemctl --user status.

This is what I see once I click on Settings:

[gmllaptop]: systemctl --user status app-org.kde.discover-b6ad4ccf939247e2b7d6ab273552ae02.scope
● app-org.kde.discover-b6ad4ccf939247e2b7d6ab273552ae02.scope - Discover - Software Centre
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/share/applications/org.kde.discover.desktop; transient)
  Transient: yes
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2023-04-29 00:28:19 BST; 2min 15s ago
      Tasks: 27 (limit: 18639)
     Memory: 278.5M
        CPU: 2.777s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-4410.slice/[e-mail]/app.slice/app-org.kde.discover-b6ad4ccf939247e2b7d6ab273552ae02.scope
             └─3307 /usr/bin/plasma-discover --mode update

Apr 29 00:28:22 gmllaptop DiscoverNotifier[3307]: took really long to fetch KNSBackend(0x562127ab7870, name = "/usr/share/knsrcfiles/plasma-themes.knsrc")
Apr 29 00:28:22 gmllaptop DiscoverNotifier[3307]: file:///usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qml/org/kde/kirigami.2/private/globaltoolbar/ToolBarPageHeader.qml:80:13: QML Binding: Binding loop detected for property "value"
Apr 29 00:30:18 gmllaptop DiscoverNotifier[3307]: file:///usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qml/org/kde/kirigami.2/templates/InlineMessage.qml:257:13: QML SelectableLabel: Binding loop detected for property "implicitWidth"
Apr 29 00:30:18 gmllaptop DiscoverNotifier[3307]: file:///usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qml/org/kde/kirigami.2/templates/InlineMessage.qml:257:13: QML SelectableLabel: Binding loop detected for property "implicitWidth"
Apr 29 00:30:18 gmllaptop DiscoverNotifier[3307]: kf.kirigami: Could not create delegate for ToolBarLayout
Apr 29 00:30:18 gmllaptop DiscoverNotifier[3307]: kf.kirigami: file:///usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qml/org/kde/kirigami.2/ActionToolBar.qml: Object or context destroyed during incubation
Apr 29 00:30:18 gmllaptop DiscoverNotifier[3307]: kf.kirigami: Could not create delegate for ToolBarLayout
Apr 29 00:30:18 gmllaptop DiscoverNotifier[3307]: kf.kirigami: file:///usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qml/org/kde/kirigami.2/ActionToolBar.qml: Object or context destroyed during incubation
Apr 29 00:30:18 gmllaptop DiscoverNotifier[3307]: kf.kirigami: Could not create delegate for ToolBarLayout
Apr 29 00:30:18 gmllaptop DiscoverNotifier[3307]: kf.kirigami: file:///usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qml/org/kde/kirigami.2/ActionToolBar.qml: Object or context destroyed during incubation

Also, once this happens and you close the Updates window you cannot open it again from the System Tray until you kill it (the System Tray will report it has crashed).

[Gordon Lack (gordon-lack)]

Although the:

  /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libexec/kf5/kdesu /usr/bin/software-properties-qt

command works, when I shut it down an email is sent (everytime) to the root account:

gmllaptop : Apr 30 12:43:06 : <<my_login>> : a password is required ; TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/local/users/<<my_login>> ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libexec/kf5/kdesu_stub -

Is this a bug?
Can it be configured to not happen?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Gordon Lack (gordon-lack)]

In mantic things are even worse!

Now the Settings for Updates just contains.

 A Flatpak section (with an unchangeable tick)
 A button saying "* Make default" (with no indication of what would be made default).
 A Ticked "Snap" (with no option to unset the tick)
 A Firmware Updates section (with 3 entries)

and that is it. The "Software Sources" section has disappeared completely!

How is one supposed to configure things?

[Darin Miller (darinmiller)]

I have multipe Kubuntu systems running 23.10, software-properties-qt fails to recognize the sources.list on 2 of the 5 systems. Yet apt and Discover are both definitely recognize the sources.list settings.

[Scarlett Gately Moore (scarlettmoore)]

I cannot reproduce this on 22.04.4 with backports enabled. Please enable backports, update and let me know if still an issue. thanks

[Gordon Lack (gordon-lack)]

Not sure how "works for me on 22.04" is taken to be a solution for a problem reported on 23.04.

I've just looked on 2 of my systems (both 23.10).

The one which has been upgraded from 22.04 is OK.

The one which was a fresh install (new system) of 23.10 is not. In fact it doesn't show any sources at all.

That issue seem to be related to have *.sources files in sources.list.d/ (which works fine with apt, and is how launchpad now sets things up for, e.g., grub-customizer *and* backports).
These entries do not show up in Settings. And it seems that if you have enough of them (I had 5 of them) the entire Default Source section is missing from Settings (and, oddly, the Firmware Updates, Snap and Flatpak section then show in the reverse order).

So, it looks as though the Software Sources issue is now OK, but there are other issues.

I'll open a new bug report for that.