ubuntu-bug, software-center and update-manager crashing

[Hannah Eppler]

Just yesterday I updated from 14.04 to 14.10 and noticed, that the update-manager shows a Stop-sign in the notification bar.
Tried to open it via the launcher, no success.

Then I tried starting the update-manager via console:

dsfsfs@linux:/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages$ update-manager
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/update-manager", line 38, in <module>
    from UpdateManager.UpdateManager import UpdateManager
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/UpdateManager/UpdateManager.py", line 36, in <module>
    import apt_pkg
ImportError: /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt_pkg.cpython-34m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13pkgSrcRecords4StepEv
dsfsfs@linux:/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages$

Tried the same with software-center:

dsfsfs@linux:/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages$ software-center
ERROR:root:DebFileApplication import
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/db/__init__.py", line 4, in <module>
    from debfile import DebFileApplication, DebFileOpenError
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/db/debfile.py", line 21, in <module>
    from apt.debfile import DebPackage
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apt/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    import apt_pkg
ImportError: /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apt_pkg.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13pkgSrcRecords4StepEv
Speicherzugriffsfehler
dsfsfs@linux:/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages$

And, last but not least, after reading the FAQs on how to file in a bug, I tried to run ubuntu-bug, which gave me this:

dsfsfs@linux:/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages$ ubuntu-bug
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/apport/apport-gtk", line 24, in <module>
    import apport
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/__init__.py", line 5, in <module>
    from apport.report import Report
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/report.py", line 30, in <module>
    import apport.fileutils
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/fileutils.py", line 23, in <module>
    from apport.packaging_impl import impl as packaging
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apport/packaging_impl.py", line 20, in <module>
    import apt
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    import apt_pkg
ImportError: /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/apt_pkg.cpython-34m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13pkgSrcRecords4StepEv
dsfsfs@linux:/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages$

Please help.
Thanks in advance

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1385689/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Hannah Eppler (6-hannah)]

attached logfiles from the upgrade

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Try reinstalling the python-apt package e.g. sudo apt-get install --reinstall python-apt.

[Hannah Eppler (6-hannah)]

Thanks for your answer, Brian.
Unfortunately this didn't fix the problem for me

[Conrad Knight (iestynapmwg)]

I'm having exactly the same problems and error messages. I also got warnings/errors of some sort during the update from 14.04 to 14.10. Are these recorded somewhere so that i can review these messages?

[Wawrzyniec Niewodniczański (wawrzek)]

I had to remove python-apt (what removed some other packages) and then install again. Error seems to go away.

[Conrad Knight (iestynapmwg)]

Any updates about this bug? I'd like to upgrade to 15.04, but i still can't run update-manager... Please help!

[David Hazel (dhazel)]

On my system, "do-release-upgrade" was failing silently from this bug. I had to run pudb3 on it in order to find the error. There may be many others who have the bug but may not have found this bug report because they are experiencing the silent failures.

[David Hazel (dhazel)]

Here are several related threads from support sites:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/620137/do-release-upgrade-is-failing-silently-first-steps-to-troubleshoot

http://chiedi.ubuntu-it.org/questions/36248/ubuntu-software-center-non-parte

https://askubuntu.com/questions/607063/ubuntu-software-center-is-not-working-on-14-10 (possibly the same problem)

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

Seems like an unintended ABI break in APT.

[Peter Flynn (frisket)]

This also happens in 15.04; I just posted a comment to that effect in #1429235.

Is there a workaround? I cannot currently upgrade to 15.10