update-software-center fails on every .desktop file

[Matt Zimmerman]

Binary package hint: software-center

On the most recent update, I got a spew of errors from software-center.postinst:

2011-03-22 17:53:04,286 - softwarecenter.db.update - WARNING - The file: '/usr/share/app-install/desktop/gdebi.desktop' could not be read correctly. The application associated with this file will not be included in the software catalog. Please consider raising a bug report for this issue with the maintainer of that application
2011-03-22 17:53:04,299 - softwarecenter.db.update - WARNING - The file: '/usr/share/app-install/desktop/gmult.desktop' could not be read correctly. The application associated with this file will not be included in the software catalog. Please consider raising a bug report for this issue with the maintainer of that application
2011-03-22 17:53:04,302 - softwarecenter.db.update - WARNING - The file: '/usr/share/app-install/desktop/horgand.desktop' could not be read correctly. The application associated with this file will not be included in the software catalog. Please consider raising a bug report for this issue with the maintainer of that application
2011-03-22 17:53:04,304 - softwarecenter.db.update - WARNING - The file: '/usr/share/app-install/desktop/gmchess.desktop' could not be read correctly. The application associated with this file will not be included in the software catalog. Please consider raising a bug report for this issue with the maintainer of that application
2011-03-22 17:53:04,307 - softwarecenter.db.update - WARNING - The file: '/usr/share/app-install/desktop/yabause-qt.desktop' could not be read correctly. The application associated with this file will not be included in the software catalog. Please consider raising a bug report for this issue with the maintainer of that application
2011-03-22 17:53:04,310 - softwarecenter.db.update - WARNING - The file: '/usr/share/app-install/desktop/crawl-tiles.desktop' could not be read correctly. The application associated with this file will not be included in the software catalog. Please consider raising a bug report for this issue with the maintainer of that application
2011-03-22 17:53:04,313 - softwarecenter.db.update - WARNING - The file: '/usr/share/app-install/desktop/eqsl.desktop' could not be read correctly. The application associated with this file will not be included in the software catalog. Please consider raising a bug report for this issue with the maintainer of that application

...and so on for every .desktop file on the system. This is because the catch-all exception handler in softwarecenter/db/update.py is being triggered. If I disable that handler, this is the crash that I get.

That exception handler should preferably be more specific so that it doesn't hide errors like this one.

ProblemType: Crash
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: software-center 3.1.24 [modified: usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/db/update.py]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-7.36-generic 2.6.38
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-7-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Mar 22 18:22:44 2011
ExecutablePath: /usr/share/software-center/update-software-center
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.7
ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/sbin/update-software-center
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LC_COLLATE=C
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
PythonArgs: ['/usr/sbin/update-software-center']
SourcePackage: software-center
Title: update-software-center crashed with TypeError in index_app_info_from_parser(): argument of type 'NoneType' is not iterable
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-02-10 (39 days ago)
UserGroups:

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

axi_values = parse_axi_values_file()

...

perseus:[~] PYTHONPATH=/usr/share/software-center python
Python 2.7.1+ (r271:86832, Feb 24 2011, 15:00:15)
[GCC 4.5.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from softwarecenter.db.database import parse_axi_values_file
>>> print parse_axi_values_file()
None

...

def parse_axi_values_file(filename="/var/lib/apt-xapian-index/values"):

...

perseus:[~] less /var/lib/apt-xapian-index/values
/var/lib/apt-xapian-index/values: No such file or directory

...which is because I don't have apt-xapian-index installed.

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks, I fixed the crash in bzr now but I wonder why apt-xapian-index is not installed/no logner installed. Could you please have a look in /var/log/apt/history.log when it was removed?

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 08:48:08PM -0000, Michael Vogt wrote:
> Thanks, I fixed the crash in bzr now but I wonder why apt-xapian-index
> is not installed/no logner installed. Could you please have a look in
> /var/log/apt/history.log when it was removed?

I believe I removed it explicitly, because I don't use it and the cron job
takes a long time and bogs down my system.

Thanks for fixing the crash.

--
 - mdz

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package software-center - 3.1.24.1

---------------
software-center (3.1.24.1) natty; urgency=low

  [ Michael Vogt ]
  * softwarecenter/db/database.py:
    - return empty dict instead of None if axi is not installed
      (LP: #740372)

  [ Gary Lasker ]
  * softwarecenter/view/softwarepane.py,
    softwarecenter/view/widgets/actionbar.py:
    - visual improvements for the action bar (LP: #644454)
    - display buttons in the action bar as gtk buttons
      rather than as links (LP: #635062)
 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:00:39 +0100