mintsources is missing a dependency on python-apt

[Przemek Wesolek]

After upgrade to 18.1 from 18.0 I can't add new PPA repositories with

    add-apt-repository ppa:some/repo

The reason is the error

    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintSources/mintSources.py", line 9, in <module>
        import aptsources.distro
    ImportError: No module named aptsources.distro

The mentioned module is in package python-apt (also in python3-apt, but mintsources uses Python 2), which is not installed as a dependency of mintsources.

Installing python-apt solves the problem.

[MikeG (mikegriffin)]

Using lmde betsy I see a similar but different problem. Perhaps this problem and the one I reported last week are related to a transition from python2 to python3? Link https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1655210

It seems to mix python2 and python3 based on the backtrace, though apparently I do have some dependency on apt:

root@mg:~# mintsources
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintSources/mintSources.py", line 1558, in <module>
    Application().run()
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintSources/mintSources.py", line 716, in __init__
    if self.config["general"]["use_ppas"] == "false":
KeyError: 'general'

root@mg:~# which python
/usr/bin/python
root@mg:~# ls -l /usr/bin/python
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Dec 20 04:15 /usr/bin/python -> python2.7

root@mg:~# head -1 /usr/bin/mintsources
#!/usr/bin/python3

root@mg:~# dpkg -l | grep -i apt | grep -i python
ii python-apt 1.1.0~beta5 amd64 Python interface to libapt-pkg
ii python-apt-common 1.1.0~beta5 all Python interface to libapt-pkg (locales)
ii python3-apt 1.1.0~beta5 amd64 Python 3 interface to libapt-pkg

root@mg:~# dpkg -l | grep -i mintsources
ii mintsources 1.6.3 all Software Sources configuration tool

root@mg:~# add-apt-repository ppa:some/repo
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintSources/mintSources.py", line 1551, in <module>
    codename = config_parser.get("general", "base_codename")
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/ConfigParser.py", line 330, in get
    raise NoSectionError(section)
ConfigParser.NoSectionError: No section: 'general'

Testing removal of deps:

root@mg:~# apt-get autoremove --purge python-apt --simulate
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  python-apt*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Purg python-apt [1.1.0~beta5]

root@mg:~# apt-get autoremove --purge python3-apt --simulate
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  gdebi-core* gir1.2-appindicator3-0.1* mintupdate* python3-apt* python3-pycurl*
  unattended-upgrades*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 6 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Purg gdebi-core [0.9.5.7+nmu1]
Purg mintupdate [5.2.0]
Purg gir1.2-appindicator3-0.1 [0.4.92-4]
Purg unattended-upgrades [0.93.1]
Purg python3-apt [1.1.0~beta5]
Purg python3-pycurl [7.43.0-2]

root@mg:~# apt-get autoremove --purge $(deborphan --guess-all)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  python3-gi*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 958 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.

[Ryba (sepatel)]

Thank you so much for answering this problem for me. I had this exact same issue but your mention of

"Installing python-apt solves the problem."

was the issue. I don't know how it happened that I didn't have it but installing it fixed the problem for me as well.

[Vlad Orlov (monsta)]

Fixed several years ago