Buying software is impossible

[Jimmy Merrild Krag]

I am trying to buy some software in the Software Center (free games from EA)

When trying to do this, first it says that it's contacting the payment service. Then it says:
    """"
    Processing your request for “Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances”…
    Information received
    """"
with some loading animation above. It blinks now and then, but nothing happens.

Installation of non-commercial software works fine.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: software-center 5.2.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.37-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu May 10 02:00:03 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=da_DK.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: software-center
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Jimmy Merrild Krag (beruic)]

Today when I opened my mail, I had a bunch of mails about my purchases. All the purchases had furthermore appeared in the section of the Software Center where you can reinstall previous purchases (I'm not sure of the English title, as my system is Danish). This means that I can install all the things, but I still find it annoying that it didn't just work. I'd say importance of this one is low or medium, unless a lot of users are affected.

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

Hello Jimmy, and thank you for your report. Indeed, we had a short period yesterday where our servers experienced an unusually high load due to the release of the EA games, and so it appears that a small number of people (including yourself) were affected by intermittent outages in the purchase servers. I'm glad that you were able to get the games after all, but I certainly agree that it's not a good experience to not get something you purchased right at the time of purchase.

Note that we are in the process of investigating the issue on the server side and we will update this bug accordingly.

Thanks again for your report, and many apologies for the trouble you experienced! I hope you are enjoying the games. :)

Best regards,
Gary

[Michael Nelson (michael.nelson)]

Hi Jimmy and Gary. This seems to be a repeat of an issue that we also experienced on Monday - in short, our database server is getting stuck for period of time, in which the purchases can't be processed. The bug for the original issue on Monday is bug 996686 - but I'll not yet mark this as a duplicate as the other bug is private and there may be more info to collect and share here.

[Chris Perry (csperry-2802)]

I seem to have been experiencing this problem today, while trying to install Ryzom (free to purchase) from the Software Centre. Message read:

Processing your request for "Ryzom"...
Information received.

I let this hang for about an hour, but the game does not seem to have installed.

Using Ubuntu 12.04. Please let me know if I can provide any further information.

[Gary Lasker (gary-lasker)]

Hi Chris, and thanks for your comment. The last time we had reports of this issue, it was due to a temporary outage on the server side, which was soon resolved. I wonder if you experienced something similar here. Please check your email to see if you've got a notification for your purchase, and if you would, please try again today to download it and let us know if you still encounter the problem.

Many thanks for your help!

[Chris Perry (csperry-2802)]

Hi Gary, thanks for your quick response. I have received the notification email, and when I return to Software Centre I have the option to install. However, when I try to do so I get the error: "Install requires installation of untrusted package"

I have then followed the instructions here: [url=https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Pay/FAQs/Missing_GPG_Key]https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Pay/FAQs/Missing_GPG_Key[/url]

But this gets me a further error - gksudo: unrecognised option '--keyserver' - followed by a list of command options.

[Chris Perry (csperry-2802)]

Additional: the notification email gave me a link to "Technical details about your purchase", and I added the software source linked prior to attempting installation.

[Chris Perry (csperry-2802)]

Problem now resolved, steps taken as follows:

1. Ran terminal command : sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys XXXXXXXX (sudo rather than gksudo - I'll confess that I don't really know what the difference is, but decided to take a punt)

2. Ran sudo apt-get update, and received error message:

W: GPG error: https://private-ppa.launchpad.net precise Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (not sure if this information is important, so I've removed it - can provide if necessary)

3. Ran sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

4. Ran sudo apt-get update, no error message.

Game has now installed. As might be obvious, I'm pretty hazy as to what any of this actually means, but I'll be happy to provide any further information if you let me know what's useful. :)

All the best,

- Chris.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Wojciech Gajewski (gawoj1)]

Hi,

I am a total idiot probably :D:D
How can I change this f. status from New to confirmed? status of what?

Cheers and super thanks,
Wojtek

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Wojciech Gajewski, the problem was solved for the reporter of this bug. If you're having a similar problem, please enter "ubuntu-bug software-center" in a terminal to make a separate bug report. It's very likely that the problem you're having has a different cause.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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