support file:///path/pkgname.deb syntax

[Martin Eve]

Binary package hint: software-center

Downloaded the dropbox deb file and attempted to open with software center.

Expected result: installer launches.

Actual result: "There isn't a software package called "File:" in your current software sources."

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: software-center 3.1.25
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-7.39-generic 2.6.38
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-7-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Apr 6 11:36:28 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Alpha i386 (20100831.2)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: software-center
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-05 (1 days ago)

[Daniel Holbert (dholbert)]

This appears to be because Software-Center doesn't accept file:/// URIs, which appears to be is the type of URI that Firefox passes to it, when you do "Open With: [Ubuntu Software Center]" in the file-download dialog.

Simpler steps to reproduce:
 1. Download a deb to e.g. /tmp/foo.deb
 2. Run in a terminal: "software-center file:///tmp/foo.deb"
 3. Close software-center
 4. Run in a terminal: software-center /tmp/foo.deb"

Step 2 is broken, step 4 works.

[Daniel Holbert (dholbert)]

(Compare to e.g. "file-roller" and "eog", both of which handle file:/// URIs just fine.)

[Daniel Holbert (dholbert)]

(For anyone hitting this, a simple workaround is just to double-click the file in a file manager like nautilus.)

FWIW, I filed https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=652863 for this on the Mozilla side -- I'm not sure what will result of that though - it may end up being resolved as not-a-bug-in-Firefox.

[Philip Wright (kinsago)]

I get this error when I download and try to install a .deb in LXDE. If I change from pacman to nautilus I don't have the same problem. I've changed to using Gdebi for installing from .deb files but I don't count this as a 'fix'

[Bryan Quigley (bryanquigley)]

Note to Lubuntu users, it appears PCManFM hits this case (as does Chromium). So you can just do software-center debname.deb

[John Drinkwater (johndrinkwater)]

Triggered this installing SpiderOak.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

software-center (5.3.1) quantal; urgency=low

  [ Robert Roth ]
  * lp:~evfool/software-center/lp752376:
    - Updated the code to also work with file:// style deb filenames
      (LP: LP #752376)
  * lp:~evfool/software-center/lp1011605:
    - update copyright date in the About window (LP: #1011605)
  * lp:~evfool/software-center/lp1011567:
    - add F1 key as accelerator for opening Help (LP: #1011567)

  [ Gary Lasker ]
  * debian/control:
    - remove recommends for gir1.2-launchpad-integration-3.0 as it is no
      longer needed (many thanks Robert Ancell)

  [ Natalia Bidart ]
  * lp:~nataliabidart/software-center/the-organizer:
    + Tests cleanup:
      - Renamed test/ dir to tests/.
      - Moved the testutils module to tests/utils.py.
      - Removed all unnecessary logging setup per test file.
      - Removed all unnecessary shebangs in test files.
      - Isolated test code into tests/ directory, including moving all the
        get_test_window_foo from the gtk3 production modules to
        tests/gtk3/windows.py module.
      - Removed all the calls to Gtk.main() in gtk3 tests since that blocks the
        execution of the suite.
      - Pep8 and pyflakes fixes in the files already modified in this branch.
      - Minor bug fix in the softwarecenter/log.py module when trying to
        create a log dir with proper perms.
  * lp:~nataliabidart/software-center/cant-stop-the-music.trunk:
    - Stop the video if user navigates away from an app details page
      (LP: #1003954).
    - Refactored ViewManager so page displaying calls a leave_page before
      changing a page, and a enter_page when navigating into a page.

  [ Adam Conrad ]
  * xz-lzma has been rolled into xz-utils, as of 5.1.1alpha+20120614-1

  [ Michael Vogt ]
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/python-apt-0.8 :
    - fix some leftover python-apt 0.7 API usage that will get removed
      in quantal
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/add-profile-cmdline
    - add new --profile option to the app that writes out a cProfile
      logfile
    - add new dbus method com.ubuntu.SoftwarecenterIFace.writeMemoryDump
      to write meliae memory dump for analyizing memleaks/cycles
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/more-performance-measurement:
    - add more fine grained data in --measure-startup-time and
      suppresses times <0.1s in the output

[Cameron (camthemusician)]

Is a fix being released for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (precise)?