Comment 17 for bug 1085425

Clarifying dobey's response. dobey represents Ubuntu (Canonical), but I do not, so I could be wrong.

Canonical does not always offer support if you have installed software using other than Ubuntu Software Center (or an equivalent, just as command line apt-get.) For example, if you are a 'developer' and download source code from a website and build and install it yourself. (Let's call that an unsupported install.)

If Ubuntu Software Center does not start, it is likely you have unsupported installed for example: python, zope, sip, PyQt, or other. Ubuntu Software Center is an app written in Python that seems to depend on the example modules. In other words, you have stepped into dependency hell.

One strategy for a fix is: undo whatever you unsupported installed last, and reinstall using supported channels . Another strategy is: upgrade your Ubuntu version.