Software boutique and Welcome app do not launch after partial upgrade, forced to do 2 in last week alone

[Brian Bogdan]

After performing 2 Partial upgrades in a week, the MATE Welcome and Software Boutique apps will not start - Ubuntu MATE 24.04. Here is the output showing the error:

mickee@mickee-VirtualBox:~$ ubuntu-mate-welcome --boutique
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/snap/ubuntu-mate-welcome/726/usr/bin/ubuntu-mate-welcome", line 30, in <module>
    gi.require_version("WebKit2", "4.0")
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/__init__.py", line 125, in require_version
    raise ValueError('Namespace %s not available for version %s' %
ValueError: Namespace WebKit2 not available for version 4.0

[Ricardo Dias Marques (ricmarques)]

Hi, Brian Bogdan.

According to what I've found in the Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS ("Noble Numbat") Release Notes, the "Ubuntu MATE Welcome" app has been retired and the "Software Boutique" has been replaced by the "App Center", which probably explains why you got those errors when you tried to start those apps in a pre-release version of Ubuntu MATE 24.04 - which lead you to having reported this bug (on 26th March 2024).

From:

https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-noble-numbat-release-notes/

"
(...)
- Added App Center, that replaces Software Boutique.
- Retired Ubuntu MATE Welcome; although it is still available for Ubuntu MATE 23.10 and earlier."