software-center crashed with AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Element'

[halfling]

Binary package hint: software-center

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu karmic (development branch)
Release: 9.10

Ubuntu Software Center 0.4.1

Just started Ubuntu Software Center

it did continue

ProblemType: Crash
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Sep 28 22:01:08 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/share/software-center/software-center
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.6
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: software-center 0.4.1
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/software-center
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_DK.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.36-generic
PythonArgs: ['/usr/bin/software-center']
SourcePackage: software-center
Title: software-center crashed with AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Element'
Traceback: AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Element'
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks for your bugreport.

This comes from one of the imports:

python
>>> import gst
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Element'

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

To reproduce:

$ python
Python 2.6.2+ (release26-maint, Sep 24 2009, 01:17:06)
[GCC 4.4.1] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import pygst
>>> pygst.require("0.10")
>>> import gst
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Element'

[Peter Tillemans (pti-snamellit)]

maybe relevant.

I got the same problem right after installing quickly. Software center was running fine before

sudo apt-get install quickly

afterwards crashes. In a terminal :

pti@pti-ubuntu:~$ software-center
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Element'

hope it helps

[Michael Terry (mterry)]

I could not reproduce. software-center runs for me. The import pygst/gst sequence works for me, with or without quickly installed.

[Paul Smith (psmith-gnu)]

software-center worked for me when I first installed Karmic (brand new 64bit system loaded using the Karmic beta CD). Then I customized my system by installing a LOT of new stuff, including dev packages, etc.

Now I get this message whenever I start it. Surely there's some kind of debug flag for Python that will give more information about exactly where this problem is coming from? I'm a Perl hacker myself so I don't know much about debugging Python but if there's anything I can do let me know.

[rfurgy (rfurgy)]

I just got this error myself. Didn't have it before and this is the first I saw it. I had just installed glade and glade-gnome through synaptic and Anjuta IDE through software center. Now Ubuntu Software Center gives this error everytime.

I removed Anjuta IDE first using software center, but problem remains.

Now I removed glade, glade-gnome and anjuta-common (uninstall seems to have missed it) from synaptic, but problem still remains.

[rfurgy (rfurgy)]

Ok, just thought of something and gave it a try.

SYSTEM > ADMINISTRATION > COMPUTER JANITOR

There was a much longer list there since the last time I ran it. I went through it and made sure to uncheck the ones I knew I wanted to keep then clicked 'Do Selected Tasks'

This solved the problem for me, I no longer get the error when starting Ubuntu Software Center.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

I can no longer reproduce this here, I used to get the warning, but now I don't anymore.

[rfurgy (rfurgy)]

It almost reminds me of the way Vista acts when there are software compatibility issues.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

@rfurgy: I'm not sure what your comment about Vista is aiming at. I would be interessted in your /var/log/apt/term.log if removing some packages fixed the bug for you.

[rfurgy (rfurgy)]

Michael, the comment about Vista is simply me saying I've seen Windows Vista act similar after installing programs/software that is incompatible with it or other installed software. Yeah, I dual boot Vista x64 and Ubuntu x64 and have been running Vista since the day it came out. Boy was that fun, one example I have from that is I had to force Vista to install some sound drivers. Once I actually got them installed, I couldn't actually remove them and the incompatibility caused other programs to act goofy. Unfortunately I had to use the drivers otherwise I had no sound so I left them in and dealt with it. Hope that clarifies a bit.

I'll attach /var/log/apt/term.log

Which by the way was being quite stubborn while retrieving.

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

Like rfurgy (#7) i have the same problems after installing anjuta ide and glade yesterday.

All applications using gstreamer (rhythmbox, exaile, totem, ...) are not able to start any more and abort with above error message "AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Element'" and "RuntimeError: can't initialize module gst: Fehler beim erneuten Einlesen der Registry , child terminated by signal".

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

Very similar is bug: https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pitivi/+bug/473599 !

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

"sudo apt-get remove --purge gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad"

and everything went OK again ;)

[Owen Williams (ywwg)]

I only get this bug while root. Regular users can run python gstreamer programs just fine.

[Emmanuel Briche (studiocricket)]

Thanks Axel,
sudo apt-get remove --purge gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad solved the problem!

[Leberwurscht (pbmaxi)]

python -c "import gst" gives me
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Element'

for all user, not only for root.
I get the bug only with python-dev installed, without it the problem doesn't occur.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

Karmic is past End of Life, and is no longer supported. As such, this bug is being marked "Won't Fix" against the Karmic bug task.