Comment 27 for bug 1920836

Thank you for this submission. I was awaiting feedback on this bug to determine if you'd like to solve the outstanding issue that Extend... links aren't presented on the software-properties-gtk UI for unattached machines (and/or) dropping the error messages from the console. But, as you mentioned error console messaging isn't presented to the UI so this is a non-issue that we can remedy in future uploads.

That said, I also discovered that changes in ubuntu-advantage-tools 27.2 which have already SRU'd into xenial, bionic, focal and render this current logic broken.

I've filed LP: #1939732 to capture upcoming features needed in the UI to better inform about Extending your support if desired on Bionic/Focal etc.

LP 1939732 could be fixed by this diff:

--- /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/gtk/utils.py.old 2021-08-12 13:56:59.695413561 -0600
+++ /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/gtk/utils.py 2021-08-12 14:12:28.597659801 -0600
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 gi.require_version("Gtk", "3.0")
 from gi.repository import Gio, Gtk
 import json
+import os
 import subprocess

 import logging
@@ -79,24 +80,20 @@
     # which has already run `ua status`. Calling ua status directly on
     # network disconnected machines will raise a TimeoutException trying to
     # access contracts.canonical.com/v1/resources.
- try:
- # Success writes UA_STATUS_JSON
- result = subprocess.run(['ua', 'status', '--format=json'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
- except Exception as e:
- print("Failed to call ubuntu advantage client:\n%s" % e)
- return {}
- if result.returncode != 0:
- print("Ubuntu advantage client returned code %d" % result.returncode)
- return {}
-
- try:
- status_file = open(UA_STATUS_JSON, "r")
- except Exception as e:
- print("No ua status file written:\n%s" % e)
- return {}
-
- with status_file as stream:
- status_json = stream.read()
+ if os.path.exists(UA_STATUS_JSON):
+ with open(UA_STATUS_JSON) as stream:
+ status_json = stream.read()
+ else:
+ try:
+ # Success writes UA_STATUS_JSON
+ result = subprocess.run(['ua', 'status', '--format=json'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+ except Exception as e:
+ print("Failed to call ubuntu advantage client:\n%s" % e)
+ return {}
+ if result.returncode != 0:
+ print("Ubuntu advantage client returned code %d" % result.returncode)
+ return {}
+ status_json = result.stdout
     try:
         status = json.loads(status_json)
     except json.JSONDecodeError as e:

 The UX "updates" tab no longer can correctly determine that the machine is attached because a new field "available" has been published in status.json.

Current utils.py:get_ua_service_status relies on a now incorrect check:

            if service.get("available"): # then we are not attached
                if service["available"] == "yes":
                     available = True
                     service_status = "disabled" # Disabled since unattached

Since ua status output on attach machines now provides "available": "yes" in version 27.2 it broke the assumption that "available" keys represented a detached system.

This 2nd issue could be fixed by this diff

--- /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/gtk/utils.py.old 2021-08-12 13:56:59.695413561 -0600
+++ /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/gtk/utils.py 2021-08-12 13:57:13.951629355 -0600
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@
     service_status = "n/a"
     for service in status.get("services", []):
         if service.get("name") == service_name:
- if service.get("available"): # then we are not attached
+ if status.get("attached", False) == False: # we are not attached
                 if service["available"] == "yes":
                      available = True
                      service_status = "disabled" # Disabled since unattached

the third issue is that the contract expiry date format of v 27.2 doesn't conform to software-properties-gtk expectations: with the above patches, we still see issues with ability to decode the expiry string in the console

unconverted data remains: +00:00 (<--- added print of the exception msg)
Unable to determine UA contract expiry

this patch would be needed to suport expiry datestring formatting for ua-tools 27.2 in bionic focal etc
--- /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/gtk/SoftwarePropertiesGtk.py.old 2021-08-12 14:43:33.570530853 -0600
+++ /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/gtk/SoftwarePropertiesGtk.py 2021-08-12 14:43:50.594751621 -0600
@@ -394,8 +394,11 @@
                 # gives software properties dialogs a chance to interact about
                 # renewals if needed.
                 try:
+ # Ignore timezone to simplify formatting python < 3.7
+ # 3.7+ has datetime.fromisoformat()
+ dt, _sep, _tz = status.get("expires").partition("+")
                         eol_date = datetime.datetime.strptime(
- status.get("expires"), "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"
+ dt, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"
                         ).date()
                 except ValueError:
                         print("Unable to determine UA contract expiry")

The combined patches required against this upload is as follows:
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/cgC56mTZ6g/