Error alert with no text

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

Binary package hint: software-center

Neil Patel and Charline Poirier have both seen this bug in Natty. I have not yet.

1. Disconnect from the Internet.
2. Try to install something.

What happens: An alert appears containing an error icon and an "OK" button, but no text.
What should happen: The alert should contain an error message.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I was able to recreate this.

[Matthew McGowan (mmcg069)]

Hi,

I have a branch (i will link it to this bug) which desensitises the action buttons in the appview and detailsview and the addons table in the detailsview if the network state is disconnected. I think this is a reasonable stopgap measure for natty.

The branch thus far does not address the error dialog, but the need for this is mitigated.

Perhaps a label in the statusbar noting no network connection is a good idea?

I feel the best way to address this bug in natty+1 is to have an offline queue of packages awaiting installation the next time a net connection is available.

Cheers

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

Heya Matt! Thanks a lot for your branch. Definitely it's a cool approach. For Natty, however, I think we are just too close to final release to for a change like this one. Mainly, I think we don't want to simply disable the Install/Remove buttons without providing some kind of indication in the UI for why these buttons are disabled. As you note, a statusbar message or something would be needed. But since we are well past UI and string freeze, adding such an indication isn't really an option for Natty.

Let's revisit this for Oneiric though. I like your idea of building an offline queue, let's discuss that at UDS or sooner.

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

I have linked an alternate branch that addresses the empty dialog issue directly. As it turns out, the empty dialog occurs because of a bug in aptdaemon where it sometimes returns an empty value for error_code when a network connection is not available. This does not always happen, but when it does, it appears to only occur when a package install is attempted while the network connection is not available (this bug).

The fix in my branch checks for this empty return code and displays the correct error message for the case, prompting the user to "Check your internet connection". This will let the user know what they need to do to get things working. And since we display the same dialog text as when aptdaemon returns the error code, this fix avoids the need for a UI or string freeze exception (and accompanying impact on the docs and translations teams).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package software-center - 3.1.26.3

---------------
software-center (3.1.26.3) natty; urgency=low

  [ Michael Vogt ]
  * softwarecenter/db/reviews.py:
    - do not crash on multiple origins for the same version
      (LP: #756415)
  * softwarecenter/db/application.py:
    - ensure docid is updated on database reopen() (LP: #757054)
  * softwarecenter/models/appstore.py:
    - refresh docids in active searches if the database is reopend
      (LP: #710920)
  * softwarecenter/backend/aptd.py:
    - do not run update-apt-xapian-index in --update mode to avoid
      in-place database modfications (LP: #507836)
  * test/test_load_icons.py:
    - add test for the icon loader
  * merged lp:~glatzor/software-center/force-bad-quality, this
    fixes the missing ability to override the lintian warning
    (LP: #712377)
  * don't show reviews if we can't determine the origin
  * fix crash when enabling new components (LP: #636429)
  * fix missing details when a channel or a component just got added

  [ Gary Lasker ]
  * softwarecenter/app.py:
    - temporarily disable the deauth option until we have support
      for remove repository in aptdaemon (see LP: #723911)
  * softwarecenter/backend/aptd.py :
    - fix empty error dialog for the case where aptdaemon returns
      an error code with no value (LP: #747172)
    - fix intermittent crash when updating the a-x-i (LP: #657494)
  * softwarecenter/models/viewswitcherlist.py:
    - mark string "In Progress..." for translation, many thanks to
      Hendrik Knackstedt and Florian Greinus for finding this
      (LP: #759240)
  * softwarecenter/view/catview_gtk.py:
    - fix broken translation string (LP: #758656)
  * refresh .pot file
  * softwarecenter/db/update.py:
    - fix crash when reinstalling previous purchases (LP: #760353)
 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:59:42 +0200

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package aptdaemon - 0.43+bzr805-0ubuntu1

---------------
aptdaemon (0.43+bzr805-0ubuntu1) precise; urgency=low

  * New upstream snapshot:
    - Fix: Catch a possible exception in apt.cache.Cache.required_download
      which can occur if the user e.g. rebooted the system during a running
      debconf question (fixes LP: #659438)
      Furthermore raise ERROR_INCOMPLETE_INSTALL to signal the client
      that a call of FixIncompleteInstall() (basically a dpkg --configure -a
      call) fixes the issue
    - Fix: Sync all properties of the D-Bus transaction in the client before
      emitting the Finished signal (fixes LP: #747172) to ensure all changed
      properties are available (the order of received signals is not
      guranteed and the finished signal could be received before an error
      signal)
      Additionally raise the timeout before removing a transaction from
      D-Bus on the server side to give clients more time to sync
    - Fix wrong variable names in the download progress (fixes LP: #971839,
      LP: #976521)
    - Fix: Catch a possible pipe reading error (fixes LP: #733090)
    - Fix: Don't show the name of aptdaemon in crash reports
      (fixes LP: #973370)
      Aptdaemon is a system daemon and should work and fail silently
    - Fix: Fallback to a default terminal width of 80 chars (fixes LP: #948588)
      The width request could fail on standard input/output redirections
    - Fix: Don't use a reserved name for the simulate helper function
    - Fix: Convert exceptions to string before raising TransactionFailed()
    - Fix wrong variable name in the add license key failed error message
    - Fix: Don't overwrite the GObject.GObject.disconnect in
      aptdemon.client.Transaction by renaming the method to
      _disconnect_from_dbus()
    - Fix: Allow to cancel a transaction which hasn't been queued yet and
      is still in limbo
    - Fix: Raise NotImplementedError instead of ImplementedError
    - Add a test case for config file changes handling
  * debian/aptdaemon.install:
    - Don't ship the obsolete .desktop file anymore
 -- Sebastian Heinlein <email address hidden> Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:48:44 +0200