software-center crashed with MemoryError in _dump_bsddbm_for_unity(): (12, 'Cannot allocate memory -- Lock table is out of available locker entries')

[John Hagerman]

It seems Software Centre opens, crashes with the usual "unexpectedly" note, then restarts and works. If it helps, bittorrents of Ubuntu isos I have downloaded will not upload, but are rejected as corrupt.
System Ubuntu 11.10 alt64.

ProblemType: Crash
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: software-center 5.0.6
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-19.33-generic 3.0.27
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-19-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat May 12 19:00:05 2012
ExecutablePath: /usr/share/software-center/software-center
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.7
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/software-center
PythonArgs: ['/usr/bin/software-center']
SourcePackage: software-center
Title: software-center crashed with MemoryError in _dump_bsddbm_for_unity(): (12, 'Cannot allocate memory -- Lock table is out of available locker entries')
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout fax lpadmin netdev plugdev sambashare scanner video

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[John Hagerman (handj949)]

This bug disappeared after a set of updates was installed shortly after it occurred. I noted other people in our Linux users group had the same problem, and it disappeared at the same time. Mirror error in the original download on that same day?

[John Hagerman (handj949)]

I think this bug should be closed.
As noted in comment #3, it seems to have been solved by an almost immediate update.
It has not recurred.

[Timo Jyrinki (timo-jyrinki)]

Just got this one in quantal.

[Ivan Brasil Fuzzer (ivanbrasil)]

same in quantal

[William (bthomas-akld)]

Another one after upgrade to quantal. Not sure if it was happenning before upgrade as I rarely use SC. I only launched it to see if it was much different to the precise version.

[Hendrik Schrieber (hennekn)]

Removed tag "amd64" because it also affects 32bit systems.

[Hendrik Schrieber (hennekn)]

Happens to me every time I open USC.

[David Agudo (dagudoj)]

I started happening to me after an update some moths ago.

It has not been fixed by any further update, nor reinstalling software-center.

I solved the problem removing the folder:

rm -rf ~/.cache/software-center

[G.C. Hassink (gchassink)]

slightly different error for me:

2013-02-08 18:10:55,109 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - setting up proxy 'None'
2013-02-08 18:10:55,227 - softwarecenter.db.database - INFO - open() database: path=None use_axi=True use_agent=True
2013-02-08 18:10:59,027 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - show_available_packages: search_text is '', app is None.
2013-02-08 18:10:59,077 - softwarecenter.db.pkginfo_impl.aptcache - INFO - aptcache.open()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/backend/reviews/rnr.py", line 183, in _on_review_stats_data
    self.save_review_stats_cache_file()
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/backend/reviews/__init__.py", line 315, in save_review_stats_cache_file
    t.run()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 504, in run
    self.__target(*self.__args, **self.__kwargs)
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/backend/reviews/__init__.py", line 326, in _save_review_stats_cache_blocking
    self._dump_bsddbm_for_unity(outfile, outdir)
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/backend/reviews/__init__.py", line 357, in _dump_bsddbm_for_unity
    flags=bdb.DB_CREATE)
MemoryError: (12, 'Onvoldoende geheugen beschikbaar -- unable to allocate memory for mutex; resize mutex region')
2013-02-08 18:11:27,475 - softwarecenter.db.update - INFO - skipping region restricted app: 'Bulleti d'esquerra de Calonge i Sant Antoni ' (not whitelisted)
2013-02-08 18:11:28,799 - softwarecenter.db.update - INFO - skipping region restricted app: 'Comentarios Web' (not whitelisted)
2013-02-08 18:11:41,477 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - software-center-agent finished with status 0
2013-02-08 18:11:42,646 - softwarecenter.db.database - INFO - reopen() database
2013-02-08 18:11:42,647 - softwarecenter.db.database - INFO - open() database: path=None use_axi=True use_agent=True

but same solution:
rm -rf ~/.cache/software-center

hope it won't come back