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I can't seem to get “Software & Updates” Application to appear after clicking on it. I don't know why. It's icon appears in the shortcut. What is the terminal command to activate this App?

I have tried this answer: “Software Updater” & “Software & Updates” not working, but it did not work.

$ uname -a
Linux Ubuntu 5.4.0-42-generic #46~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 10 07:21:24 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ gnome-shell --version
GNOME Shell 3.28.4

$ software-properties-gtk
ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on :1.228:/: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Message recipient disconnected from message bus without replying
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/software-properties-gtk", line 100, in <module>
    app = SoftwarePropertiesGtk(datadir=options.data_dir, options=options, file=file)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/gtk/SoftwarePropertiesGtk.py", line 173, in __init__
    self.backend.Reload();
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 70, in __call__
    return self._proxy_method(*args, **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 145, in __call__
    **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 651, in call_blocking
    message, timeout)
dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name :1.228 was not provided by any .service files

I also have the same msgs as in Ubuntu 18.04 software-properties-gtk failing with org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown. I used Synaptic to reinstall the package python3-size as was mentioned in this answer but to no avail.

I had also tried purging and reinstalling software-properties-gtk as was mentioned here but to no avail.

Update1:

I wonder if setuptools.py ver 50.0 broke software-properties-gtk's connection? I know that the system had this upgraded yesterday from ver 42.0.2. I just found this GitHub issue "setuptools 50 breaks pip installation" which was raised 22 hours ago. I have uninstalled it but to no avail.

Update 2: Using journalctl -e cmd in the terminal, I found this error msg:

Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime dbus-daemon[1303]: [system] Activating service name='com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties' requested by ':1.157' (uid=1000 pid=10808 comm="/usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/soft
Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties[1303]: Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties[1303]: Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime dbus-daemon[1303]: [system] Successfully activated service 'com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties'
Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties[1303]: Traceback (most recent call last):
Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties[1303]:   File "/usr/lib/software-properties/software-properties-dbus", line 68, in <module>
Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties[1303]:     server = SoftwarePropertiesDBus(bus, datadir=datadir)
Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties[1303]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/dbus/SoftwarePropertiesDBus.py", line 66, in __init__
Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties[1303]:     self._livepatch_service = LivepatchService()
Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties[1303]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/LivepatchService.py", line 93, in __init__
Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties[1303]:     self._session = requests_unixsocket.Session()
Oct 04 08:22:14 Prime com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties[1303]: NameError: name 'requests_unixsocket' is not defined

Also, the python package 'requests_unixsocket' is installed in the system(see below). Hence I don't understand the error msg NameError: name 'requests_unixsocket' is not defined:

$ pip list | grep requests
requests                2.24.0
requests-unixsocket     0.1.5
WARNING: You are using pip version 20.2.2; however, version 20.2.3 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the '/usr/bin/python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip' command.
$ pip3 list | grep requests
requests                2.24.0
requests-unixsocket     0.1.5
WARNING: You are using pip version 20.2.2; however, version 20.2.3 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the '/usr/bin/python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip' command.
$ pip3 list --user | grep requests
requests            2.24.0
WARNING: You are using pip version 20.2.2; however, version 20.2.3 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the '/usr/bin/python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip' command.

I have tried to import requests_unixsocket explicitly. It works. See below.

Python 3.6.9 (default, Jul 17 2020, 12:50:27) 
[GCC 8.4.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.
>>> import requests_unixsocket
>>> a = requests_unixsocket.Session()
>>> a
<requests_unixsocket.Session object at 0x7fb103952470>

I don't understand why I can import the package but /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/LivepatchService.py can't see it. It does exist:

$ ls /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ | grep request
requests_unixsocket
requests_unixsocket-0.1.5.egg-info
Sun Bear
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    Provide information on the desktop you use. Terminal command is `software-properties-gtk` – vanadium Aug 31 '20 at 18:23
  • @vanadium I had updated my question with the info you ad asked. – Sun Bear Aug 31 '20 at 20:02
  • @vanadium I found a similar question on my issue [here](https://askubuntu.com/q/1171211/541417). The 2 answers posted there could not solve my issue. – Sun Bear Oct 04 '20 at 00:40
  • Did you do something to your system's python installation? – Organic Marble Oct 04 '20 at 01:36
  • @OrganicMarble The closest activity I can recall was upgrading pip3 packages. Specifically, I mentioned this in Update1. If there is an issue with my system's Python installation, is there any way to fix it? Or is the brokeness irreparable and I have to reinstall Ubuntu 18.04? – Sun Bear Oct 04 '20 at 01:50

2 Answers2

6

I am on Ubuntu 20.04 and I experienced this problem. I tried the posts that recommended reinstalling python3-six and python3-certifi, but those didn't work for me. However, software-properties-gtk did start working again for me after I reinstalled python3-requests and python3-idna. So, to sum up the commands I ran:

sudo apt install --reinstall python3-six python3-certifi python3-requests python3-idna
sudo apt install --reinstall software-properties-gtk
software-properties-gtk

and I was back in business.

BeastOfCaerbannog
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Steve Landers
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  • Worked after correcting the typo in your command first line. It should be `sudo apt install --reinstall python3-six python3-certifi python3-requests python3-idna`. I have made the edit. Pls accept it. :) – Sun Bear May 13 '21 at 21:57
  • I experienced this problem on Ubuntu 20.04 too. I reinstalled all `python3-six`, `python3-certifi`, `python3-requests`, `python3-idna`, `python3-chardet`, `python3-urllib3` and `software-properties-gtk` but didn't work for me. Finally I tried `software-properties-qt` and worked for me (`sudo apt install software-properties-qt`). In appearance and performance it is almost like `software-properties-gtk`. – Amir Dadkhah May 25 '21 at 14:09
  • Thanks, worked for me too! (ubuntu 20.04) – ForeverLearning May 09 '22 at 18:30
  • None of these solutions worked for me. What worked, amazingly, was directly modifying the affected Python code, saving it, testing it (which worked), and then *undoing* the changes, after which `software-properties-gtk` *still* worked. Very strange. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/software-properties/+bug/1830914/comments/14 – Martin Spacek Dec 29 '22 at 13:14
2

Same problem on Ubuntu 20.10... I had a look to dbus messages:

sudo systemctl status dbus.service

and saw this line:

.../... com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties[8310]: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'chardet'

So I reinstalled chardet:

sudo apt install --reinstall python3-chardet

and software-properties-gtk is back.

The log shows:

dbus-daemon[1130]: [system] Successfully activated service 'com.ubuntu.SoftwareProperties'

Hope it helps.