fonts cannot be downloaded

[Peter Pasedach]

I keep getting the following 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.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: ttf-mscorefonts-installer 3.6ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-23.24~18.04.1-generic 5.0.15
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-23-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.7
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu Aug 15 02:17:18 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-09-25 (323 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: msttcorefonts
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.

How are you downloading the fonts?

The microsoft fonts installer requires that you accept the microsoft EULA (end user license agreement) and the installer fails intentionally if the EULA was not accepted. My guess is you're not accepting the required EULA and thus failure to install is mandated by microsoft.

It requires you to accept with the enter key (in most cases, why I asked how you are installing it)

I have marked this incomplete, if you believe I'm in error, please return it to new and leave a comment marking why. I suspect you're not accepting the EULA and thus install cannot be complete according to license terms.

[Peter Pasedach (q-p-d)]

No, it's not the EULA.

Uninstalling (dpkg --purge) and reinstalling it (sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer), accepting the EULA again, here the relevant snippet:

ttf-mscorefonts-installer: processing...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
Err:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
  Redirection from https to 'http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mirrorproblem?failedmirror=netcologne.dl.sourceforge.net' is forbidden [IP: 78.35.24.46 443]
E: Failed to fetch https://netcologne.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/andale32.exe Redirection from https to 'http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mirrorproblem?failedmirror=netcologne.dl.sourceforge.net' is forbidden [IP: 78.35.24.46 443]
E: Download Failed
Setting up ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.6ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for fontconfig (2.12.6-0ubuntu2) ...

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Thank you for taking the time to help make Ubuntu better, and responding.

If you open up the url http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe on that machine, do you get a download? (in a browser)

I just tried and the file downloaded for me.

I now suspect you have a firewall, or site rules that restrict your ability to download .exe files or has restrictions on certain sites (such as sourceforge)

Are you on a private LAN? corporate LAN? or school or other restricted site?

I booted up a Lubuntu 18.04 LTS machine that didn't have the ttf-mscorefonts-installer package installed, apt installed it without issue. I do believe you have a LAN or local network restriction blocking you.

This may be better handled as a question; ie. it's not a bug in the software I still believe, but a restriction for your site you need help working your way around.

[Peter Pasedach (q-p-d)]

Opening the link in a browser works, downloads the font, but from a different mirror site, https://vorboss.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the%20fonts/final/andale32.exe .

I think I got the error message while connected to several networks, I don't think the restriction is on my side. Maybe some mirrors of sourceforge.net, which I don't know how they get chosen, do not work?

Here another try, giving me a different result:

Processing triggers for update-notifier-common (3.192.1.7) ...
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 3s (72,3 kB/s)
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 2s (244 kB/s)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe
Err:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe
  Redirection from https to 'http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mirrorproblem?failedmirror=netix.dl.sourceforge.net' is forbidden [IP: 87.121.121.2 443]
E: Failed to fetch https://netix.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/arialb32.exe Redirection from https to 'http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mirrorproblem?failedmirror=netix.dl.sourceforge.net' is forbidden [IP: 87.121.121.2 443]
E: Download Failed
Setting up ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.6ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for fontconfig (2.12.6-0ubuntu2) ...

This time the andale font gets downloaded, arial gets downloaded, and then it fails with arial bold I assume.

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue and helping to make Ubuntu better.

Examining the information you have given us, this does not appear to be a bug report so we are closing it and converting it to a question in the support tracker. We understand the difficulties you are facing, but it is better to raise problems you are having in the support tracker at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu if you are uncertain if they are bugs.

You can also find help with your problem in the support forum of your local Ubuntu community http://loco.ubuntu.com/ or asking at https://askubuntu.com or https://ubuntuforums.org. For help on reporting bugs, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs.

I converted to a question as I believe it's a network or firewall issue, and specific to your network/machine/area/etc

[Peter Pasedach (q-p-d)]

To me it now looks to be the same problem like this bug here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/msttcorefonts/+bug/1713615 . There people are reporting that the newer debian package does not have the problem with the mirrors. I've downloaded http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/msttcorefonts/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.7_all.deb and installed it, it succeeds in downloading all the fonts.