Failure to download extra data files - ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Question

This is an old problem that deserves a bugfix, but it's getting beyond a joke now and I can't seem to work around it.

I keep getting the dreaded failed To download extra data files error in relation to ttf-mscorefonts-installer:

screenshot1

Repeatedly asking it to try again doesn't help, additionally, repeatedly trying-

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/*
sudo apt-get --purge --reinstall install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Isn't working either. I just get at least one 404 error from one of the sourceforge links that stops it working-

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 20 not to upgrade.
Need to get 0 B/29.5 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 352049 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) over (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 0s (339 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 0s (575 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 [168 kB]
Fetched 168 kB in 0s (306 kB/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)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/comic32.exe
Err:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/comic32.exe
  404  Not Found
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/comic32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
E: Failed to fetch https://netix.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/comic32.exe  404  Not Found

E: Download Failed
Setting up ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2) ...

The specific point at which it fails to download changed - it seems to be a sourceforge reliability problem, but this has now been going on weeks and results in annoying popups as above all the time.

How do we get this fixed and/or how can I work around it for now.

It's a SourceForge issue; related discussion in bug #1607535. — Gunnar Hjalmarsson, Nov 22 '16 at 13:49
@Anwar: Not a duplicate. The answer in the linked question doesn't seem to work any more — user000001, Nov 23 '16 at 08:50
You can check my answer to the source of the issue here: https://askubuntu.com/a/857970/585518 The above solution will only work if the download location will respond properly, which it still does not seem to. The link explains how to rerun the package with the files downloaded locally. — Vincent Gerris, Dec 07 '16 at 09:52

David Foerster · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-16T15:05:58.360

98

Launchpad bug ~~#1607535~~ #1651923 is fixed in the “updates” repositories of Apt for Xenial and Yakkety.

If you're on Ubuntu Xenial or later (16.04+) make sure that the “updates” repository is enabled and update the repository information and your packages:
```
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -f
```
This tells Apt to
- upgrade all packages that can be replaced trivially by a new version, and
- try to fix all inconsistent packages in the process (-f).
If the fixed versions are not available for your Ubuntu release you can download the Debian version of ttf-mscorefonts-installer which doesn't suffer from this bug and install it with Software Center or on the command-line.

edited May 16 '17 at 15:05

answered Nov 23 '16 at 14:54

David Foerster

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1

Thanks! For 16.04 LTS installing the 3.6 deb file (with gdebi) does seem to work. :) – Julie Brandon Dec 05 '16 at 10:56
2

Nope: ttf-mscorefonts-installer is already the newest version (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2). it's so annoying! – mdesantis Dec 12 '16 at 13:28
3

@mdesantis: Yes, like I said there's no new version available in Canonical's repositories yet. Did you read any further than step 1? – David Foerster Dec 12 '16 at 13:40
No i didn't notice step 2 :P anyway, I solved with this solution https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/msttcorefonts/+bug/1607535/comments/17 – mdesantis Dec 12 '16 at 14:47
1

@mdesantis: I'm aware of that work-around but I found it to be more difficult and fragile than a simple manual package installation. – David Foerster Dec 12 '16 at 14:51
After completing these steps, what is the surest way to verify that the fonts are installed? – Erel Segal-Halevi Dec 16 '16 at 09:37
(the way I used was to open LibreOffice and see that the fonts are there. But this may require another step of refreshing LibreOffice). – Erel Segal-Halevi Dec 16 '16 at 09:51
@ErelSegal-Halevi: Could you please open a new question if you have a new or follow-up question? The comment section is not suitable or meant for new questions or extended discussion. Thanks. – David Foerster Dec 16 '16 at 10:16
@DavidFoerster for me, as a programmer, testing is an integral part of programming... the answer provides a "program" for solving a problem, so I think it should include a procedure for testing that the program really works. – Erel Segal-Halevi Dec 16 '16 at 11:04
1

@ErelSegal-Halevi: In short, watch the output of the package manager (or its status code if you wish) and ultimately look for the fonts in the list of installed fonts. gnome-font-viewer is the default for that on Unity- or Gnome-based Ubuntu systems. – David Foerster Dec 16 '16 at 11:22
@DavidFoerster Please take a look at Bug #1607535, comment #65. There it is mentioned that bug #1651923 tracks the fix for that bug, there is also a mention, that bug #1607535 is actually a duplicate of bug #1651923 but that duplicate flag has been temporarily removed. – lanoxx Jan 17 '17 at 12:17
I have APT 1.3.4 on Yakkety and the problem persists – Mark Thornton Feb 04 '17 at 09:06
How did you know that -f is a "fix option"? Could you please say, where had you got the docs, because there is no mention of keys neither in the apt upgrade -h nor man apt – d.k Oct 27 '17 at 10:03
while I was writing the question, I found, that it had already been asked here. If you can answer it, please, do. – d.k Oct 27 '17 at 12:11
1

@user907860: Good find! See this answer which cites a manual section that defers to the manual of apt-get(8) which in turn lists the -f option. Could you please remove your comments to relieve this comment section of some clutter (hover the cursor over them to reveal the delete button with the cross mark symbol)? Thanks. – David Foerster Oct 27 '17 at 12:28
Repost your answer on the duplicate: https://askubuntu.com/questions/766491/failure-to-download-extra-data-files-with-ttf-mscorefonts-installer-on-ubuntu – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Dec 16 '18 at 10:08

score 94 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 25 '16 at 10:01

94

Had the same problem, found a solution in the web that worked for me, the other "solutions" did not work:

wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/msttcorefonts/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb

sudo dpkg -i ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb

edited Dec 25 '16 at 10:01

muru

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answered Dec 16 '16 at 19:29

Hsquare

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11

Generally using gdebi is a better idea as it'll install dependencies (if there are any.) :) – Julie Brandon Dec 19 '16 at 00:32
15

This should be the accepted answer – Joao Carlos Dec 19 '16 at 09:37
This is the case of debian, but I would suggest to download from ubuntu site for ubuntu. – TorokLev Jan 06 '17 at 16:08
8

@Toroklev: the whole of Ubuntu is based on Debian. As other answers have noted, the Ubuntu repos don't have the latest version (only 3.4), so if you want this fixed, you either a) wait until they do, or b) grab the 3.6 version directly from the Debian repo and install it manually. – Scaine Jan 07 '17 at 12:57
the wget command resulted in a 404 page not found – user3629249 Jan 31 '17 at 18:16
@user3629249 Did you copy it right? I just tried and it works. – ThisIsNotAnId Jan 31 '17 at 18:37
I did a highlight and paste into a terminal window. using the mouse – user3629249 Jan 31 '17 at 19:29
@user3629249 I can also confirm that the link still works. – Synergist Feb 24 '17 at 21:43
4

TorokLev it would be nice to do so but ubuntu keeps breaking their package. it is broken again in 18.04 sadly the debian package still works splendidly. – Kendrick Jul 13 '18 at 00:08
2

Also broken in 18.10 and 19.04 ... seriously ! – jplandrain Jun 06 '19 at 12:10
1

get the latest version wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/msttcorefonts/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.7_all.deb – Shayan Sep 04 '19 at 16:32
@JulieBrandon I used gdebi, and it still fails the download from sourceforge. And also dpkg -i, same issue. – Shayan Sep 04 '19 at 23:12

Failure to download extra data files - ttf-mscorefonts-installer

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