ttf-mscorefonts-installer always complains about cannot download data because http is not support by libcurl

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt]]

I always get this:

Preparing to unpack .../ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.4+nmu1ubuntu2_all.deb ...
mscorefonts-eula license has already been accepted
Unpacking ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2) over (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for fontconfig (2.11.94-0ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for update-notifier-common (3.168.3) ...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: processing...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
Err:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
  Protocol "http" not supported or disabled in libcurl
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/andale32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
E: Failed to fetch https://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/andale32.exe Protocol "http" not supported or disabled in libcurl

E: Download Failed

Moveover it's quite annoying that I got a window time from time to try to download but always fails and window remains ... (surely it can be closed manually till the next update)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: ttf-mscorefonts-installer 3.4+nmu1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-53.74-generic 4.4.30
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-53-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Dec 12 08:04:54 2016
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-07-10 (520 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Release i386 (20150422)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: msttcorefonts
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Alex R (abr28)]

I can confirm this exact same bug on my 16.04, including the GUI window popup.

[Musbach (frank-musbach)]

I can confirm the error on 16.04 with 4.4.0-57-generic.

[Matthias Seidel (matthias-seidel-u)]

I can confirm this bug.
It did not surface until recently, now pops up every 2 days...

I can download andale.exe from SourceForge (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe) manually via browser. But what to do with it?

[vmerlet (vmerlet)]

I can confirm this bug on ubuntu 16.10 too.

[Naël (nathanael-naeri)]

NOT the same error message as in bug 1607535 ("http disabled in libcurl" vs. "404 not found") BUT a few users have seen this message too in bug 1607535 so both bugs MIGHT have the same cause (SourceForge servers are unreliable and not adapted to headless downloads).

As with bug 1607535, you might have success working around this bug by purging Ubuntu's 3.4 version of ttf-mscorefonts-installer and installing Debian's 3.6 version instead. Please consult bug 1607535, test, and report.

[Naël (nathanael-naeri)]

Further investigation indicates that this bug is indeed a duplicate of bug 1607535, although the error message is different (because the contacted mirror server is different, see bug 1655431).

The root cause for this bug (and several others) is in the program apt-helper from package apt, which handles the download of the fonts. It is explored in bug 1651923 (see also bug 1655431), which is being fixed for zesty, hopefully yakkety and xenial will follow.

[Naël (nathanael-naeri)]

(In the meantime that a fix for bug 1651923 lands in xenial and yakkety, you can still workaround this issue by installing Debian's 3.6 version instead, which uses wget instead of apt-helper for downloading the fonts, or you can download the fonts manually and point dpkg-reconfigure to them, see bug 1607535 for instructions.)

[rpr nospam (rpr-nospam)]

On xenial I've installed apt 1.2.19 which should fix bug #1651923 (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/1651923/comments/58):

$ dpkg -l apt | grep '^ii'
ii apt 1.2.19 amd64 commandline package manager

But when I try to install ttf-mscorefonts-installer, I still get the error reported in this bug:

...
Selecting previously unselected package ttf-mscorefonts-installer.
(Reading database ... 333057 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.4+nmu1ubuntu2_all.deb ...
Unpacking ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for fontconfig (2.11.94-0ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for update-notifier-common (3.168.3) ...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: processing...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe [198 kB]
Fetched 198 kB in 2s (77.9 kB/s)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe
Err:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe
  Protocol "http" not supported or disabled in libcurl
E: Failed to fetch https://freefr.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/arial32.exe Protocol "http" not supported or disabled in libcurl

E: Download Failed
Setting up ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2) ...

[Naël (nathanael-naeri)]

Did you upgrade apt-transport-https? The fix is in this binary package, not in the apt binary package (both being compiled from the same source package named apt, yes it is confusing). See bug 1651923 comments 39 to 45.

[rpr nospam (rpr-nospam)]

I have the latest apt-transport-https package:

$ dpkg -l apt-transport-https | grep '^ii'
ii apt-transport-https 1.2.19 amd64 https download transport for APT

But, I'm still getting an error while installing ttf-mscorefonts-installer.

$ sudo apt clean
$ sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
...
Selecting previously unselected package ttf-mscorefonts-installer.
(Reading database ... 333057 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.4+nmu1ubuntu2_all.deb ...
Unpacking ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for fontconfig (2.11.94-0ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for update-notifier-common (3.168.3) ...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: processing...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
Err:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
  The HTTP server sent an invalid Content-Range header
E: Failed to fetch https://netcologne.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/andale32.exe The HTTP server sent an invalid Content-Range header

E: Download Failed

[Naël (nathanael-naeri)]

That particular error ("The HTTP server sent an invalid Content-Range header"), contrary to the previous one ("Protocol "http" not supported or disabled in libcurl"), has a different cause than apt-transport-https being v < 1.2.19. It is due to Sourceforge not answering correctly to a request for partial download on a redirect, when the file has already been partially downloaded (if I understand correctly). See bug 1651923, comments 45 47 50.

That Content-Range issue with partial downloads on Sourceforge was fixed in bug 1657567 a few days ago, but the fix might only land in the next release of Ubuntu, it might not be backported to the current releases.

From what I understand you can solve this issue by deleting the partial downloads in /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/, and trying again. But I'm not 100% sure. If not perhaps try sudo apt-get purge ttf-mscorefonts-installer?

[rpr nospam (rpr-nospam)]

Nathanaël, thanks for the hint. After the following commands the ttf-mscorefonts-installer package installed successfully:

$ sudo apt purge ttf-mscorefonts-installer
$ sudo rm /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/*

[rpr nospam (rpr-nospam)]

Nathanaël, thanks for the hint. After the following commands the ttf-mscorefonts-installer package installed successfully:

$ sudo apt purge ttf-mscorefonts-installer
$ sudo rm /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/*