6

After installing Ubuntu 16.04, the Gnome Software Center was working. I then started to have issues with it freezing. I decided to uninstall it through the terminal, and then reinstall it through the terminal. If I try to open the software through Unity, the icon opens, but after a time disappears. If I type in gnome-software in the terminal, the command just hangs until I kill it. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling using various commands I've found on this forum and others, but nothing will successfully reinstall the software. All other software seems to be working fine.

Can anyone help? Thank you.

cmsrw
  • 73
  • The resolution might be the same. However, the description of this issue and the one marked as duplicate is different. The other one doesn't freeze. It actually gives an error message. This issue with gnome-software, there's not error message... nothing. The system just hangs and will not feedback. The terminal stays hung until you kill the process. – L. D. James Sep 17 '16 at 18:21
  • L.D. James is correct. There are no error messages displayed. I tried any and all solutions I previously found related to this topic before creating a new one. – cmsrw Sep 17 '16 at 21:43
  • 1
    @cmsrw If you had tried answers from a particular question on this site, you should write in your post explicitly what those answers and question are. How else are we supposed to know exactly what you have tried? – edwinksl Sep 17 '16 at 21:55
  • @L.D.James Okay, noted. I voted to reopen this question based on your comment. – edwinksl Sep 17 '16 at 21:57

1 Answers1

11

There is more than one Software "Center". I'm seeing that some people have problems with certain ones. Since you say Gnome Software Center isn't working for you, then you can install ubuntu-software-center. You can do this by running these commands from the terminal.

(Please note, the $ symbol is the terminal prompt. The command is what following the prompt.)

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-software

You can decide which one will be your default by right clicking on a *.deb package and choosing the one that works best. Then click on Set as Default.

Note: ubuntu-software and gnome-software are the same on Ubuntu 16.04. ubuntu-software is a symbolic link to gnome-software. If one is broken it's unlikely the other will work.

The system updates above may resolve the issue. If they don't, install an alternate software installer:

$ sudo apt-get install software-center

Perform these steps to fix gnome-software/ubuntu-software

Rename or remove the ~/.local/share/gnome-software. In the steps below it's removed and will be recreated when you start gnome-software. It currently has a list of what has been installed.

The first line will ensure the locked up instances are removed from memory. It might not be necessary.

$ killall gnome-software
$ rm -r ~/.local/share/gnome-software

Now run ubuntu-software or gnome-software from the Unity Launch Button.

L. D. James
  • 25,036
  • This does not work. I received the following error message after running the command on the third line: Unable to locate package ubuntu-software-center. I am wanting back the same software center that originally came with Ubuntu 16.04. Thank you. – cmsrw Sep 17 '16 at 01:29
  • @cmsrw I'll correct the typo. I was thinking software center the way it looks in the dash. However, leave the center off. The package name is ubuntu-software. – L. D. James Sep 17 '16 at 01:32
  • Okay, I typed in the proper package name for the install. No errors come up during the install. Yet, I still can't open it. I've tried typing both ubuntu-software and gnome-software in the terminal, and it just hangs as before. – cmsrw Sep 17 '16 at 13:55
  • The older software-center does work - but i'd really like to get the one that came with 16.04 working again as it should. – cmsrw Sep 17 '16 at 13:56
  • @cmsrw Look at the new section in the answer, fix gnome-software. – L. D. James Sep 17 '16 at 18:10
  • Upon running the rm command, it returns the following message: "cannot remove '(local computer)/.local/share/gnome-software': Is a directory", and then returns me to the command line prompt. – cmsrw Sep 17 '16 at 21:45
  • @cmsrw Sorry. I correct the command. I left off the-r which will remove the directory. – L. D. James Sep 17 '16 at 21:47
  • Okay, that seemed to finally fix it. Sorry for all the difficulties. – cmsrw Sep 17 '16 at 21:50
  • @cmsrw It's not problem. It's a pleasure. You might consider clicking the checkmark on the answer so that others can see a workable solution. This problem is discussed all over the Internet, with many people trying to find a solution that works. Those two lines can probably save people lots of grief. – L. D. James Sep 17 '16 at 21:56
  • Have done. Thank you for helping me solve this. It is much appreciated. – cmsrw Sep 17 '16 at 22:08
  • 1
    rm -r ~/.local/share/gnome-software worked for me like a charm! thx – domih Feb 25 '17 at 13:41