dowload of ttf-mscorefonts-installer failed

[Peter Parzer]

One may get a GUI prompt noting:
Information available
Update Information
Failure to download extra data files

The following packages requested additional data downloads after package installation, but the data could not be downloaded or could not be processed.

ttf-mscorefonts-installer

The download will be attempted again later, or you can try the download again now. Running this command requires an active Internet connection.

One clicks the button "Run this action now", then puts their password in the GUI prompt, and then the download of ttf-mscorefonts-installer fails with the following message:
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: processing...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
Fehl:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
  404 Not Found
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: Keine Berechtigung)
E: Fehlschlag beim Holen von https://vorboss.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/andale32.exe 404 Not Found

E: Herunterladen fehlgeschlagen

Another error message permutation:
cat /var/log/apt/term.log
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: processing...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
Err:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
  400 Bad request
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://svwh.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/andale32.exe 400 Bad request

E: Download Failed
Setting up update-notifier (3.168.3) ...

However, one may download the file fine via wget:
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
--2017-01-09 12:28:22-- http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
Resolving downloads.sourceforge.net (downloads.sourceforge.net)... 216.34.181.59
Connecting to downloads.sourceforge.net (downloads.sourceforge.net)|216.34.181.59|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 301 Moved Permanently
Location: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the%20fonts/final/andale32.exe [following]
--2017-01-09 12:28:22-- http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the%20fonts/final/andale32.exe
Connecting to downloads.sourceforge.net (downloads.sourceforge.net)|216.34.181.59|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: https://superb-dca2.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the%20fonts/final/andale32.exe [following]
--2017-01-09 12:28:22-- https://superb-dca2.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the%20fonts/final/andale32.exe
Resolving superb-dca2.dl.sourceforge.net (superb-dca2.dl.sourceforge.net)... 209.61.193.20
Connecting to superb-dca2.dl.sourceforge.net (superb-dca2.dl.sourceforge.net)|209.61.193.20|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 198384 (194K) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘andale32.exe’

andale32.exe 100%[===================>] 193.73K 160KB/s in 1.2s

2017-01-09 12:28:25 (160 KB/s) - ‘andale32.exe’ saved [198384/198384]

Still get this problem with:
apt policy apt
apt:
  Installed: 1.2.19
  Candidate: 1.2.19
  Version table:
 *** 1.2.19 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.2.15ubuntu0.2 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 Packages
     1.2.10ubuntu1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: ttf-mscorefonts-installer 3.4+nmu1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-57.78-generic 4.4.35
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-57-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.4
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Fri Jan 6 15:23:18 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-10-26 (803 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: msttcorefonts
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2016-07-30 (159 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Peter Parzer (peter-parzer)]

This is not a duplicate of bug #1324721. This bug is about failure of downloading the fonts because 'Protocol "http" not supported or disabled in libcurl', whatever that means. What bug #1324721 is about I could not find out.

[Tanner Blomster (blomstertj)]

Software Updater keeps telling me to download additional files for this package and I believe it's due to this bug.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Cross listing this against apt as the msttcorefonts package for Xenial hasn't been updated since 2015-10-22 but this started happening recently, correlated to apt update for Xenial.

[Steve Karg (steve-karg)]

Sourceforge.net recently asked developers if they wanted to update their sites to use HTTPS rather than HTTP. Perhaps this bug is related to that change in the corefonts project on sourceforge.net

[T. Meyer (tm-an)]

This is most likely caused by Bug #1651923

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Duplicate of #1651923

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Unduping from LP#1651923 as the fix for it did not address the problem here.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Did you upgrade libapt-pkg5.0? No? This bug has been fixed. If you already have a partial file, it fails due to bug 1657567 - but the space -> %20 encoding in the redirect *has* been fixed.

[Naël (nathanael-naeri)]

See also bug 1607535 for more details and instructions

[penalvch (penalvch)]

After upgrading apt I still got the GUI prompt over and over, and /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial was found empty.

However, I removed and installed ttf-mscorefonts-installer and while I didn't get any failed to fetch errors, and still got the:
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file 'FILE' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

The fonts installed without errors as per below. Hence, my root cause issue seems to have been I didn't go through a remove/install cycle of ttf-mscorefonts-installer.

sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ttf-mscorefonts-installer
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 29.5 kB of archives.
After this operation, 134 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/multiverse amd64 ttf-mscorefonts-installer all 3.4+nmu1ubuntu2 [29.5 kB]
Fetched 29.5 kB in 0s (93.8 kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package ttf-mscorefonts-installer.
(Reading database ... 281292 files and directories currently installed.)
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) ...
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 10s (18.2 kB/s)
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)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe [554 kB]
Fetched 554 kB in 3s (145 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/arial32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe [168 kB]
Fetched 168 kB in 7s (22.2 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/arialb32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/comic32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/comic32.exe [246 kB]
Fetched 246 kB in 3s ...

[Naël (nathanael-naeri)]

@Christopher: thanks for the clarification. I have added this detail (that reinstallation is necessary) to bug 1607535's description, section [Fix].

The warnings about user _apt have been reported in a number of specific bugs. No idea what's causing this. Will have to investigate one day.