Synaptic dies when pressing Apply

[Marius B. Kotsbak]

"Pango-WARNING **: Invalid UTF-8 string passed to pango_layout_set_text()" appears at output when running Synaptic.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: synaptic 0.75.2ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-16.28-generic-pae 3.0.17
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-16-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Mar 8 11:54:26 2012
DpkgHistoryLog.txt:
 Start-Date: 2012-03-08 11:53:27
 Remove: libpackagekit-glib2-14:i386 (0.6.18-1), libportaudio2:i386 (19+svn20110326-2), libkadm5clnt-mit7:i386 (1.8.3+dfsg-5ubuntu2.1), libsilc-1.1-2:i386 (1.1.10-2build1), libgraphite3:i386 (2.3.1-0.2), libsmokeqt1:i386 (3.5.10-1ubuntu4), libevview3:i386 (2.32.0-0ubuntu12.3), libmp4v2-0:i386 (1.6dfsg-0.2ubuntu9), libindicate-gtk2:i386 (0.5.0-0ubuntu2), libktorrent2:i386 (1.0.5-2), libdbi0:i386 (0.8.3-0ubuntu2), libcamel1.2-14:i386 (2.30.3-2ubuntu2.1), librpmio1:i386 (4.8.1-6ubuntu1), libpostproc51:i386 (0.6.2-1ubuntu1.1), libgnustep-gui0.16:i386 (0.16.0-2build1), librasqal2:i386 (0.9.20-1), libdvbpsi6:i386 (0.1.7-1), libido-0.1-0:i386 (0.3.0-0ubuntu4), libbrlapi0.5:i386 (4.2-8ubuntu5.1), libplasmaclock4b:i386 (4.6.5-0ubuntu1), libkwineffects1a:i386 (4.6.5-0ubuntu1), libaiksaurus-1.2-data:i386 (1.2.1+dev-0.12-6.1), libnm-glib2:i386 (0.8.4~git.20110319t175609.d14809b-0ubuntu3), openoffice.org-thesaurus-en-au:i386 (2.1-5.3), libsolidcontrol4a:i386 (4.6.5-0ubuntu1), libavfilter1:i386 (0.6.2-1ubuntu1.1), libgnome-window-settings1:i386 (2.32.1-0ubuntu15), libkadm5srv-mit7:i386 (1.8.3+dfsg-5ubuntu2.1), libsigsegv0:i386 (2.5-3), libnl1:i386 (1.1-6ubuntu1), libmaa2:i386 (1.2.0-1), libsilcclient-1.1-3:i386 (1.1.10-2build1), ttf-arabeyes:i386 (2.1-3), libisc60:i386 (9.7.1.dfsg.P2-2ubuntu0.2), libavdevice52:i386 (0.6.2-1ubuntu1.1), libntfs-3g79:i386 (2010.8.8-0ubuntu1)
 End-Date: 2012-03-08 11:54:18
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=nb_NO.UTF-8
 LANGUAGE=nb_NO:nb:no_NO:no:nn_NO:nn:en
SourcePackage: synaptic
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Marius B. Kotsbak (mariusko)]

This is possible relateted to bug #787173. I did not reproduce it when running it with english locale (was running "nb_NO.UTF-8").

[labanjunk (labanjunk-deactivatedaccount)]

The same problem also occurs in Linux Mint 13 Maya, Cinnamon edition 64-bit, and Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin 64-bit. I do believe that the problem also occurred in Xubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot 64-bit because I had the same problems using synaptic right after I had installed Xubuntu.

To reproduce the problem, one can make a fresh installation of one of the distributions mentioned, with the Norwegian Language Pack (Norsk Bokmål) on a computer. Then start Synaptic, and for example make an attempt to uninstall Libre Office or OpenJDK and IcedTea. When you click the "Apply"-button ("Bruk"), this will result in Synaptic terminating unexpectedly, with no tasks being performed. If Synaptic was started from a terminal emulator, one would get some output. (I am unable to reproduce the output now, as I have had a large headache getting my distro configured the way I want it, and I don't want to mess things up now.)

The problem will not occur when using english language pack (en_US).

Bug #787173 has some similarities as the cause in that case is also related to the Norwegian language pack (nb_NO). But I do not think it's quite the same bug, because the program does not perform the same task when it crashes in that case.

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug #839219, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.