Ubuntu Software Center takes a long time to open

[Tarek]

After upgrading from Ubuntu 11.04 to 11.10, I've noticed the Software Center takes an unusually long time (30 seconds) to open.

Notebook: Qosmio X505
Ubuntu: 11.10 Oneiric x86_64
Kernel: 3.0.0-12-generic
Package: software-center 5.0.1.4

Error displayed when running software-center from the terminal:

2011-10-22 08:27:23,048 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.em - INFO - EM's: 17 15 21
2011-10-22 08:27:25,478 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.utils - INFO - Softwarecenter style provider for ambiance Gtk theme: /usr/share/software-center/ui/gtk3/css/softwarecenter.css
2011-10-22 08:27:48,715 - softwarecenter.backend.reviews - WARNING - error creating bsddb: '(11, 'Recurso temporariamente indispon\xc3\xadvel -- unable to join the environment')' (corrupted?)
2011-10-22 08:27:48,903 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - software-center-agent finished with status 0

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

Hello tarek, and thank you for your report. We are tracking this issue over at bug 876210, so I will mark this one a duplicate of that one. Please follow that bug for the status of a fix, and to make any further comments, etc.

Note that we do have good news in that we have a much faster Software Center version currently undergoing the SRU process. Please let my comment #3 in bug 876210 for for details about that.

Thank you again!

[Lars Karlitski (larsu)]

This is not a duplicate of bug #876210.

The warning about not being able to create a bsddb seems to cause software-center to hang for a long time (> 10 seconds on my system). Deleting ~/.cache/software-center/software-center-agent.db/ solves that issue. The warning is gone and software-center starts *much* faster.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Tarek (tarek-said-info)]

Lol that reminds me that I had to remove .Xauthority to login after upgrade...

Anyway I'm going to try to remove the cache to see if it works when I get home!

[Tarek (tarek-said-info)]

problem solved!

[Tarek (tarek-said-info)]

just delete ~/.cache/software-center/software-center-agent.db/ by opening a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and typing:

    sudo rm -fr ~/.cache/software-center/software-center-agent.db/

[Lars Karlitski (larsu)]

Nice that it works for you now, but this is just a workaround, not an actual fix.