Can't download purchased Humble Indie Bundle with Ubuntu Software Center

[Bernie Innocenti]

I found a simple workflow that leads to confusion and frustration for users purchasing software for Ubuntu:

1) purchase the humble indie bundle from http://www.humblebundle.com/

2) Pay online with one of the supported methods

3) you get an email with a link which contains a key and takes you to the download page on humblebundle.com.

4) click on the big "Download for Ubuntu" button to get to http://software-center.ubuntu.com with the same key in the URL parameters

5) Now click on any of the games and allow Software Center to handle the apt:// url.

6) Software Center displays the correct product, but it offers you to buy the game once again :-(

As a work-around, I clicked on a troubleshooting link in a second email I received from @canonical.com, which took me to a page with the details of the password-protected PPA. I manually added the PPA to my system, so I could finally download the package.

[Evan Peck (colors)]

Thank you so much for including stept to reproduce.
Remember to always use ubuntu-bug to create LP bug reports.
Also (in a terminal) please run:
apport-collect 1008309
Thank you!

[Evan Peck (colors)]

Set Status-
(Confirmed, steps to reproduce)

[Jason Conti (jconti)]

Not disagreeing that this is confusing, but it does say right at the bottom of the 'Download your Humble Bundle' software center page:

To install the app once Ubuntu Software Center has opened click on the "Buy..." button, don't worry you won't be charged for it.

So just click Buy, no need to manually add the PPAs.

[Bernie Innocenti (codewiz)]

> So just click Buy, no need to manually add the PPAs.

Indeed, this also worked. However, I had to log in with my Launchpad account. What if the user who purchased the Humble Bundle does not happen to have an account?

[hoderlump (odlgroum)]

Affects me also. This whole aptfile-install software with a mouse click shit does not work here. It took me hours to install the humbe indie bundle games. I had to register on several sites websites including this one to get a step ahead... Stupid!

I got Kubuntu 12.04 here.

When I want to click on "install" on the ubuntu software center website in Firefox, it says "Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because the protocol (apt) isn't associated with any program". Solutions on the wiki don't work. Assigning the apt-protocoll to aptfile in Opera works better but installing is also not possible there because the system does not have the sources for installing software.

After that last step, I get an email form ubuntu thanking me for installing software with the right ppa sources like written in the bug description above.

What is this bullshit?? Why do you ubuntu people need to install software via mouse clicks in a browser? And if you need stuff like that why doesn't it work? Why is a workaround so complicated?

[Evan Peck (colors)]

Hoderlump,

The APT: protocol is for use with Ubuntu Software Centre. Sice you're on Kubuntu, and you don't have USC, Firefox couldn't open the link. So, you would either get USC:
sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install software-center
or manually add PPAs(Personal Package Archives) for the Humble Indie Bundle and download as a secondary solution.
Also, please remember to be kind and courteous to all on Launchpad.
"What is this bullshit?? Why do you ubuntu people need to install software via mouse clicks in a browser? And if you need stuff like that why doesn't it work? Why is a workaround so complicated?"
My personal opinion:
Hay, Ubuntu is free, and we are all volunteers. Yes, there's going to be problems, deal with it.

Thank you just a little.
Evan Peck :~(

[Giovanni Mellini (merlos)]

This affect me too.
I installed just 2 games via USC (Amnesia and Superbrothers). When I try to install other games I'm asked to buy again...

[Giovanni Mellini (merlos)]

One more comment.
Seems to me that the problem happened after humblebundle added more games to the bundle. I installed the two games before the addition

[hoderlump (odlgroum)]

"The APT: protocol is for use with Ubuntu Software Centre. Sice you're on Kubuntu, and you don't have USC, Firefox couldn't open the link. So, you would either get USC:
sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install software-center"
Why isn't this solution mentioned anywhere?

"or manually add PPAs(Personal Package Archives) for the Humble Indie Bundle and download as a secondary solution."
The PPAs are hidden. It took me hours to get them.

Also, please remember to be kind and courteous to all on Launchpad.
Sorry for that. I was just very upset.

[Giovanni Mellini (merlos)]

Still cannot install the games I purchased due to problem with Ubuntu payment service.
There is a chance to get this fixed? I paid for the entire bundle, not just 2 games and I cannot download via USC
Pls any developer here?

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

Hi Giovanni! I'm very sorry that you are having trouble downloading the games you purchased. Rest assured that we will do whatever is needed so that you can get the games you paid for (and, of course, on the small chance that we can't resolve the issue you are encountering, we will issue a refund).

Could you please explain in detail the steps you are taking and exactly how things are not working? This will help us to narrow down the problem.

In addition, so that we can try to gather more information to help us to debug this issue, could you please try running Software Center in debug mode from a terminal window as follows:

  $ software-center --debug 2> /tmp/software-center-debug.log

Then follow the steps to reproduce the issue, and then attach the file /tmp/software-center-debug.log to this bug report.

Thanks! Your help is much appreciated! And we will get this fixed up for you!

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

Hi hoderlump! There's no reason to apologize. It's completely understandable to feel upset when you have such a frustrating experience getting these games that you paid for. Please be assured that we are committed to making this process exactly the opposite of what you experienced! Hopefully next time you buy something, you will be delighted with the experience. That's what we are working toward.

So my apologies for your frustration.

Also, I wanted to know, do you still have problems outstanding, or have you managed to get all the games? Please let us know.

And thank you for your patience!!

Best regards,
Gary

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

Oh, and Evan, thank you for your help and advice too!! :D

[Bernie Innocenti (codewiz)]

Why is this bug marked as incomplete? It's easily reproducible.

The fixes I'd propose are:

1) Pass a URL parameter to the Software Center to make it know that the product has already been purchased and update the UI to reflect this.

2) Since the user agent is presumably already logged into the Ubuntu SSO, also pass an auth cookie to the software-center so that users don't have to login one more time. Or maybe make the software-center store auth info in the user's keychain.

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

Hi Bernie, it's marked incomplete because I have asked for further information from Giovanni. It seems likely, however, that his bug is a separate one from what you originally reported, but we need further information from him to determine what the issue is for him.

Just fyi, indeed the Ubuntu SSO auth is already stored in your keychain. You can check it by running Seahorse and filtering for "Software Center". Everything you need to download your purchased apps is there for you.

So just to be clear, the bug that you are reporting is: when you are brought back to Software Center, the button still says "Buy". Is that correct? Because if you click that button, you will be able to download the game (you will not have to buy it again). Please see comment #3 of this bug. I agree that this is not ideal, but that's why it is explicitely stated in the instructions to download page.

Thanks and best regards!
Gary

[Anthony Lenton (elachuni)]

@giovanni,

Just checking...

To download the games once you've purchased the Humble Bundle you need to use the download link you got sent by email, then click on the orange "Download for Ubuntu" button on that page to arrive on a page with an orange "Download for Ubuntu" button for each game. Here you should click on these buttons to download each game. Searching for the game on USC without going through the Humble Bundle download page *will* attempt to charge you for the games, because software-center doesn't know that you have already purchased the bundle.

Please let us know if using these steps it doesn't work for you, and sorry for the far-from-ideal workflow; we're working on improving this.

[Bernie Innocenti (codewiz)]

> Just fyi, indeed the Ubuntu SSO auth is already stored in your keychain. You can check it by
> running Seahorse and filtering for "Software Center". Everything you need to download your
> purchased apps is there for you.

Ok, then we may have found another bug: the Software Center password is not in my "login" keyring.
Passwords from Chromium and Evolution are being stored regularly.

I do not have an account specific to the Software Center. I'm using my existing Launchpad account to
login and it seems to be accpeted, but maybe this is part of the problem?

[Giovanni Mellini (merlos)]

@Anthony you where right.
I installed the first 2 games like you said and tried to install the others directly via USC not using the oange buttons in the web page.
Now I'm installing BRAID :)

Tks for support and I hope that in the future you should improve this, is confusing.
Tks again
Giovanni

[Bernie Innocenti (codewiz)]

> I do not have an account specific to the Software Center. I'm using my existing Launchpad account to login and it seems to be accepted, but maybe this is part of the problem?

Ok, I created a new account and now I see the password stored in the keychain. Shall I file a new bug about this or is this one ok?

[Thorne Olinger (thorne-olinger)]

so does everybody need a new account on launch pad to be able to install paid for games? If so how can one get all the other games back that have been paid for already?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for software-center (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[LogicalDash (logicaldash)]

I've got a Launchpad account. Same one I'm using to post here, actually.

I've bought several Humble Indie Bundles. The ones that I can get thru the software center are:
Humble Indie Bundle for Android 3
Humble Indie Bundle for Android 4
Humble Indie Bundle 6

First I installed the Software Center. I had to do this manually because I'm on Kubuntu 12.10.

Then I went to the Software Center page for each bundle and clicked each game's Install button, opening the link with Ubuntu Software Center. (browser is Firefox, for whatever that matters) The software center opened the corresponding game's page each time, with a few exceptions for games that apparently aren't in the software center anymore--Shatter and Osmos, namely. Each time, before moving on to the next game, I clicked the Buy button.

At first I was asked for my Launchpad credentials, and provided them. That only happened once.

Thereafter, when I clicked Buy, I was taken to a page with a little spinner and some text that changed too fast to read, except for the final message, "Subscription complete (end state)".

Then it kicked me back to the game's page. Nothing had changed. The game was neither installed nor installing; it looked just like before.

Clicking Buy again got me to the little spinner again, and the same thing happened.