Unable to install Win font on Ubuntu. couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'

Question

I am trying to install Windows font on Ubuntu 16.04. It says package has installed when I try to reinstall the same package but fonts are not found on LibreOffice. Also, while installing it gives some error.

$ sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Reading package lists...
Done Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
   ttf-mscorefonts-installer
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/29.5 kB of archives.
After this operation, 134 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously unselected package ttf-mscorefonts-installer
(Reading database ... 208570 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.4+nmu1ubuntu2_all.deb ...
mscorefonts-eula license has already been accepted
Unpacking ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for fontconfig (2.11.94-0ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for update-notifier-common (3.168.2) ... ttf-mscorefonts-installer: processing...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe Get:1
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe [198 kB]
Fetched 198 kB in 5s (35.9 kB/s)                                      
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/andale32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe Get:1
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe [554 kB]
Fetched 554 kB in 4s (124 kB/s)                                       
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/arial32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied) ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe Get:1
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe [969 B] Err:1
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe               
Hash Sum mismatch Fetched 969 B in 2s (367 B/s)                       
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/arialb32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
E: Failed to fetch http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mirrorproblem?failedmirror=excellmedia.dl.sourceforge.net Hash Sum mismatch
E: Download Failed

I followed this step. There still some Warning (W) was visible but No Error (E). Warning is basically this:

W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/webdin32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

But after the steps mentioned in the link, I can see Window Font appear in LibreOffice font selection list.

Old Update Information Dialog Box still came. Not sure if it is coming due to old process or due to this one.

Do I need to take any more steps or everything is fine?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 16 '16 at 18:27

1

It's two things mixed up:

"Can't drop privileges..." is a warning, which you can just ignore. That warning is usually followed by a confirmation that the file was downloaded.

However, the attempt to fetch arialb32.exe was a real failure ("Hash Sum mismatch"). May be caused by a temporary server glitch; you can try again by reinstalling:

sudo apt install --reinstall ttf-mscorefonts-installer

answered Nov 16 '16 at 18:27

Gunnar Hjalmarsson

33,540
3
64
94

After that I followed a link (http://askubuntu.com/a/785330/118354) which I have mentioned above. That has installed all. – Satya Prakash Nov 16 '16 at 18:43
@SatyaPrakash: Aha, missed that. Then all is well. – Gunnar Hjalmarsson Nov 16 '16 at 18:45

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 17 '16 at 00:46

1

Regarding ttf-mscorefonts-installer I thought I'd share since I spent a few minutes on it when upgrading to yakkety. I experienced both the the not-signed EULA, lack of priviliges and hash sum mismatch, strangely not all at the same time. All cured by :

chown _apt /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads
chown _apt /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial
rm /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/*
apt install --reinstall ttf-mscorefonts-installer

What package maintainer that has the key to get this right I don't know.

answered Nov 17 '16 at 00:46

Mattias Sandgren

26

As regards the privileges warning, it's the maintainer of apt. He does not seem very keen on fixing it, though. – Gunnar Hjalmarsson Nov 17 '16 at 01:28
This should be helpful. – Satya Prakash Nov 20 '16 at 08:03
No warning etc now after following above steps. Added sudo in every steps. – Satya Prakash Nov 20 '16 at 08:07
@GunnarHjalmarsson What to do! I install Linux every time as a replacement of Windows. But 10 years back also I need to fix it and now also Linux is linux. Fixing required for common things as well. After all that still graphics/fonts etc doesnot match. – Satya Prakash Nov 20 '16 at 08:10
@SatyaPrakash: "Does not match" sounds like a new question to me. – Gunnar Hjalmarsson Nov 20 '16 at 10:01
Yes, that is. But that is more of unpleasure that Linux don't work like a layman destop. I used this fix for that- layout.css.devPixelsPerPx – Satya Prakash Nov 26 '16 at 14:18

score -1 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:25

As I said in the question itself that following link has solved but few warning was there so I wanted to get reply.

Main problem for me was Firefox. Font was looking very small. Unity Tweet tool has not proved useful for me. This tips has worked it seems. Text are looking better. There layout.css.devPixelsPerPx has made text readable. I am using value = 1.2 instead of suggested value 2.

Unable to install Win font on Ubuntu. couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'

3 Answers3