software-center crashed with signal 5 with the GNOME3 PPA on 13.04

$ software-center
2013-04-10 23:18:18,940 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - setting up proxy 'None'
2013-04-10 23:18:28,376 - softwarecenter.region - WARNING - failed to use geoclue: 'org.freedesktop.Geoclue.Error.notAvailable: Geoclue master client has no usable Address providers'
2013-04-10 23:18:34,867 - softwarecenter.plugin - INFO - activating plugin '<module 'webapps_activation' from '/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/plugins/webapps_activation.pyc'>'
2013-04-10 23:18:35,649 - softwarecenter.fixme - WARNING - logs to the root logger: '('/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/importer.py', 51, 'find_module')'
2013-04-10 23:18:35,649 - root - ERROR - Could not find any typelib for LaunchpadIntegration
2013-04-10 23:18:35,965 - softwarecenter.db.pkginfo_impl.aptcache - INFO - aptcache.open()
2013-04-10 23:18:50,758 - softwarecenter.db.utils - INFO - software-center-agent finished with status 0

(software-center:30966): Gdk-ERROR **: The program 'software-center' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadDrawable (invalid Pixmap or Window parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 2144 error_code 9 request_code 62 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the GDK_SYNCHRONIZE environment
   variable to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Affected. How to roll away GNOME to 3.6?

It is not "fix" per se. But I have found a workaround, if you need to use software-center rather than just using terminal tools like dpkg and apt, which is what I do. Also, I use gdebi for GUI based installing of packages I download with my browser, as it is much more slim than the Ubuntu Software Center.

Anyway, the fix/workaround to get it to load for tyhe time being is to just give it elevated privleges. So like this: "sudo software-center" without quotes in the terminal, and it will launch that for you

This looks like an issue caused by one of the updates in the GNOME 3 PPA. Does this occur without the packages from the PPA? Does this still occur today?

Software Center is no longer crashing here with the GNOME3 PPA and all updates applied. Is anyone else still having Software Center crash when it starts?

Yes, software Center is still crashing here.
I have applied all the updates from the GNOME 3 PPA.

software Center is still crashing

Same here, I'm using ubuntu 13.04 with with gnome 3.8

Software Center is still crashing here, even with all updates from GNOME 2 PPA.
Ubuntu 13.04 with with gnome 3.8

same here just installed ubuntu gnome 13.04 with only gnome ppa (not staging) did updates and software center crushes.hope you solve it soon!thanks for your hard efforts!

I guess no need to say that it still crashes...just installed 13.04 with Gnome 3.8. I did NOT install the gnome staging

Ditto the above, also n0yd's suggestion to run the software centre with elevated privileges still produced a crash.

Stacktrace:
 #0 0x00007f104ac4f2c5 in ?? ()
 No symbol table info available.
 Cannot access memory at address 0x7fff92459230
StacktraceTop: ?? ()
ThreadStacktrace:
 .
 Thread 11 (LWP 16319):
 #0 0x00007f104c563ca4 in ?? ()
 No symbol table info available.
 Cannot access memory at address 0x7f1017021e40

Thank you for your report!

However, processing it in order to get sufficient information for the
developers failed (it does not generate a useful symbolic stack trace). This
might be caused by some outdated packages which were installed on your system
at the time of the report:

package libwebp2 does not exist, ignoring

Please upgrade your system to the latest package versions. If you still
encounter the crash, please file a new report.

Thank you for your understanding, and sorry for the inconvenience!

can this report help? i run software-center from terminal and this is the output

2013-05-09 22:28:34,457 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - setting up proxy 'None'
2013-05-09 22:28:35,058 - softwarecenter.region - WARNING - failed to use geoclue: 'org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Geoclue.Master was not provided by any .service files'
2013-05-09 22:28:35,313 - softwarecenter.backend.reviews - WARNING - Could not get usefulness from server, no username in config file
2013-05-09 22:28:35,315 - softwarecenter.plugin - INFO - activating plugin '<module 'webapps_activation' from '/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/plugins/webapps_activation.pyc'>'
2013-05-09 22:28:35,320 - softwarecenter.fixme - WARNING - logs to the root logger: '('/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/importer.py', 51, 'find_module')'
2013-05-09 22:28:35,320 - root - ERROR - Could not find any typelib for LaunchpadIntegration
2013-05-09 22:28:35,376 - softwarecenter.db.pkginfo_impl.aptcache - INFO - aptcache.open()

(software-center:10716): Gdk-ERROR **: The program 'software-center' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadDrawable (invalid Pixmap or Window parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 2185 error_code 9 request_code 62 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the GDK_SYNCHRONIZE environment
   variable to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
Παγίδα Trace/breakpoint (core dumped)

I get exactly the same output as described in post #17 (except for the word "Παγίδα" which I believe was introduced by mistake before "Trace/breakpoint" in the last line).

I'm currently not able to install any third-party software (.deb) which is not accessible from the repositories via terminal or I'm able to use Synaptic Package Manager, as the software-center is crashing all the time. Tried also Gnome-Packagekit, but albeit it works for installing software from the repositories, it also fails to install third-party .deb packages.

Sinde I've upgraded to Gnome 3.8 via Gnome3-Team PPA (not staging) I've had to fire software-center twice in order to use it (it used to crash once and then start normally on the second try, albeit some graphic problems related to the list of software categories for browsing). However, for since a couple of days ago, software-center is crashing all the time, totally unusable.

I would like to help, but I'm not experienced enough to do the debugging recommended by the terminal output described on post #17, that is:

   To debug your program, run it with the GDK_SYNCHRONIZE environment
   variable to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

The word παγιδα is trap.its because my setup is in Greek .Anyways even though gnome 3.8 is still not officially supported in ubuntu 13.04 i hope this bug and many other tha come (totem glich on full screen , adobe flash plalyer crach etc) will be fixed.Man i dont know about others but 3.8 is an awsome job for me and i cant wait use it.keep up the good work and bring open source to many people!

Same problem here... Experiencing same output as described in post 17. I also use gnome shell 3.8.1 installed through gnome3 ppa.
When I do "software-center --version" in terminal to check a version, it shows

(software-center:6420): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk-widgets.css:1584:16: 'border-style' is not a valid color name
software-center 5.6.0

What is the reason behind this message? Can other people see this message?

same error messages with the BadDraw error in the end. sudo does not work around this for me.

i suppose until next release that probably have gnome 3.8 installed by default no essential assistance would be given!so...patience for now!! :D

Re-opening this as a master bug since many people were affected by it.

I managed to reproduce this on raring with gnome3 ppa.

Crash appears to happen while loading the webkitframes.
Clearing out ~/.cache/software-center/download-cache/ seems to help with reproduction of crash.

Attaching traces

..anything I can do to help with this? ..it's happening for me, too, with the latest gnome3 ppa updates (non-staging).

I get this too.

One of the suggested solutions was to re-install software center.
I tried that, but it was no help.

Please advice.

I have tracked this down to what appears to be a race condition triggered by

http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/saucy/software-center/saucy/view/head:/softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/views/lobbyview.py#L162

It seems that somehow it is trying to render the banner ad before the download has completed. (Once the images are cached locally it is required to clear out the software center cache, to be able to reproduce the crash)

rm ~/.cache/software-center/piston-helper/*
software-center (crashes on startup)
software-center (loads correctly on the second run)

Removing that above line from the code will avoid the crash on startup.

I tried deleting the cache and the configuration, and also removing the software-center package and reinstalling it.
Still fails. Gnome PPA (3.8.2 as of today)

deleting the cache helps to reproduce the crash, not fix it!

If you want a work around, comment out the following line from lobbyview.py:

self.exhibit_banner.set_exhibits([FeaturedExhibit()])

Greetings! Just started getting this error. SAME EXACT OUTPUT as listed in Post #17 above this one. Running Ubuntu 13.04 with latest Gnome PPA . Software Center simply will not start. Even if I run it with elevated sudo permissions, as suggested in Post #5, it still crashes, and will not run.

The work around in comment #31, by Tim (darkxst), solved for me! software-center working again...

Thanks Tim - the workaround worked. Thanks!

The work around Tim (darkxst), solved for me!
Thanks Tim

rm ~/.cache/software-center/piston-helper/*

did it for me on one of my computers, will test it later on the other one.

The worked around in comment #31 by Tim work for me too! Thanks a lot!

..latest ppa update for gnome3 worked for me.

yes, latest update for gnome3 worked for me too. software center is working without any problem. Thank you all...!!!

still not working for me

I believe the solution offered by Kirill works for me as well. I haven't had any crashes since. Nothing was upgraded, one package was obsolete and removed.

solution provided by Tim (darkxst) (#31) worked for me. thanks Tim

Just tried the work-around provided by Tim (darkxst) in comment #31). Just installed a programme with the software center and it did nog crash. So, it seems, Tim's work-around is correct. Thanks Tim.

Everyone, if you don't have a new stack trace with debug symbols to add to the bug, please don't comment to say that it affects you or that a supposed workaround makes it usable for you. It is not at all helpful to discovering what is actually causing the bug.

I have tried every mentioned thing in this report which claims to result in a crashing software-center, but am unable to get it to crash. I'm sorry if it is crashing for some of you, but a bug which a developer cannot reproduce locally, or which is not obvious through other means (possibly with a full debugging stack trace, though not guaranteed to be, for example), the bug can't be fixed. If anyone who is seeing the crash, and has sufficient skills to understand the code in question, and has signed the Canonical CLA, can create a patch which does fix the problem, it is likely to be accepted. Attaching a patch which comments out a single line of code, which doesn't do what you think it does, however, is not an acceptable solution.

dobey,
  In _HtmlRenderer there is a call:
self.view.set_size_request(-1, ExhibitBanner.MAX_HEIGHT)

In the case where software-center crashes this results in a size request of (1,200). If I manually set the width in this line to >= 835 then the crash does not happen. I am not sure if the webkit view is failing to get the parent width or if the offscreen image has not finished rendering.

fwiw, I can reliably reproduce this on my slowish laptop, but not at all on my faster desktop. I will get you an updated stacktrace in a bit.

Thanks for your efforts dobey,
but:
workarounds help me getting this stuff to work and that's what it's all about, isn't it?
I am helping as good as I can sending a report EVERY time I experience a crash. If usable information is missing I'm sorry but I'm not the programmer - maybe the trigger to apport needs some rewiring?
I hope that the mere amount of crashes helps in assessing how hard bugs are hitting users and how urgent a fix is needed.

Keep up the good work. Thanks again.

I don't know if the attached file will help - it's a debug log from software-center obtained by running this:
software-center --debug 2>software-center.log

This has only affected me since using gnome 3 desktop.

Kudos to Herbert Junior, his suggestion above has resolved this issue for me.

 Herbert Junior, Thanks!

Running Ubuntu Gnome 13.10 Beta with Gnome 3.10 I get this bug.
Workaround from Herbert Junior seems to solve the issue.

I confirm that this error appear in a clean install Ubuntu Gnome 13.10 final release.
Workarround works fine. Thanks Herbet.

Also confirm this error is present in Ubuntu Gnome 13.10 final release. I just installed it, updated everything and, sometimes, software-center crashes. Only first time it crashed it offered to send a crash reports; following times it just crashes. This is what I get if run software-center on the prompt and it crashes:

2013-10-21 09:51:12,019 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - setting up proxy 'None'
2013-10-21 09:51:12,394 - softwarecenter.region - WARNING - failed to use geoclue: 'org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.UnmappedError.GeoclueErrorQuark.Code1: Geoclue master client has no usable Address providers'
2013-10-21 09:51:12,558 - softwarecenter.backend.reviews - WARNING - Could not get usefulness from server, no username in config file
2013-10-21 09:51:12,561 - softwarecenter.plugin - INFO - activating plugin '<module 'webapps_activation' from '/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/plugins/webapps_activation.pyc'>'
2013-10-21 09:51:12,567 - softwarecenter.fixme - WARNING - logs to the root logger: '('/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/importer.py', 51, 'find_module')'
2013-10-21 09:51:12,567 - root - ERROR - Could not find any typelib for LaunchpadIntegration
2013-10-21 09:51:12,597 - softwarecenter.db.pkginfo_impl.aptcache - INFO - aptcache.open()

(software-center:11780): Gdk-ERROR **: The program 'software-center' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadDrawable (invalid Pixmap or Window parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 2052 error_code 9 request_code 62 minor_code 0)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the GDK_SYNCHRONIZE environment
   variable to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

This is what I get when it does not crashes:

2013-10-21 09:52:51,043 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - setting up proxy 'None'
2013-10-21 09:52:51,239 - softwarecenter.region - WARNING - failed to use geoclue: 'org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.UnmappedError.GeoclueErrorQuark.Code1: Geoclue master client has no usable Address providers'
2013-10-21 09:52:51,416 - softwarecenter.backend.reviews - WARNING - Could not get usefulness from server, no username in config file
2013-10-21 09:52:51,417 - softwarecenter.plugin - INFO - activating plugin '<module 'webapps_activation' from '/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/plugins/webapps_activation.pyc'>'
2013-10-21 09:52:51,421 - softwarecenter.fixme - WARNING - logs to the root logger: '('/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/importer.py', 51, 'find_module')'
2013-10-21 09:52:51,420 - root - ERROR - Could not find any typelib for LaunchpadIntegration
2013-10-21 09:52:51,449 - softwarecenter.db.pkginfo_impl.aptcache - INFO - aptcache.open()
2013-10-21 09:52:52,911 - softwarecenter.fixme - WARNING - logs to the root logger: '('/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/utils.py', 271, 'get_title_from_html')'
2013-10-21 09:52:52,911 - root - WARNING - failed to parse: '<div style="background-colo...

What I did is went to updates and told it to install prerealease updates it
fixed it after I updated
On Oct 21, 2013 10:11 AM, "Vlad" <email address hidden> wrote:

> Also confirm this error is present in Ubuntu Gnome 13.10 final release.
> I just installed it, updated everything and, sometimes, software-center
> crashes. Only first time it crashed it offered to send a crash reports;
> following times it just crashes. This is what I get if run software-
> center on the prompt and it crashes:
>
> 2013-10-21 09:51:12,019 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - setting up
> proxy 'None'
> 2013-10-21 09:51:12,394 - softwarecenter.region - WARNING - failed to use
> geoclue: 'org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.UnmappedError.GeoclueErrorQuark.Code1:
> Geoclue master client has no usable Address providers'
> 2013-10-21 09:51:12,558 - softwarecenter.backend.reviews - WARNING - Could
> not get usefulness from server, no username in config file
> 2013-10-21 09:51:12,561 - softwarecenter.plugin - INFO - activating plugin
> '<module 'webapps_activation' from
> '/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/plugins/webapps_activation.pyc'>'
> 2013-10-21 09:51:12,567 - softwarecenter.fixme - WARNING - logs to the
> root logger: '('/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/importer.py', 51,
> 'find_module')'
> 2013-10-21 09:51:12,567 - root - ERROR - Could not find any typelib for
> LaunchpadIntegration
> 2013-10-21 09:51:12,597 - softwarecenter.db.pkginfo_impl.aptcache - INFO -
> aptcache.open()
>
> (software-center:11780): Gdk-ERROR **: The program 'software-center'
> received an X Window System error.
> This probably reflects a bug in the program.
> The error was 'BadDrawable (invalid Pixmap or Window parameter)'.
> (Details: serial 2052 error_code 9 request_code 62 minor_code 0)
> (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
> that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
> To debug your program, run it with the GDK_SYNCHRONIZE environment
> variable to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
> backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error()
> function.)
> Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)
>
> This is what I get when it does not crashes:
>
> 2013-10-21 09:52:51,043 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - setting up
> proxy 'None'
> 2013-10-21 09:52:51,239 - softwarecenter.region - WARNING - failed to use
> geoclue: 'org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.UnmappedError.GeoclueErrorQuark.Code1:
> Geoclue master client has no usable Address providers'
> 2013-10-21 09:52:51,416 - softwarecenter.backend.reviews - WARNING - Could
> not get usefulness from server, no username in config file
> 2013-10-21 09:52:51,417 - softwarecenter.plugin - INFO - activating plugin
> '<module 'webapps_activation' from
> '/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/plugins/webapps_activation.pyc'>'
> 2013-10-21 09:52:51,421 - softwarecenter.fixme - WARNING - logs to the
> root logger: '('/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/importer.py', 51,
> 'find_module')'
> 2013-10-21 09:52:51,420 - root - ERROR - Could not find any typelib for
> LaunchpadIntegration
> 2013-10-21 09:52:51,449 - softwarecenter.db.pkginfo_impl.aptcache - IN...

Steps to reproduce:

1) Download Ubuntu Desktop 13.10 i386 release (disk id 20131016.1), download links at
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/305/builds/55929/downloads

2) Using Virtual Machine Manager - set a VM to have little RAM, e.g. 798 MB, boot from the above iso.

3) Click try ubuntu

4) Enable repositories:
- edit /etc/apt/sources.list to add universe component
- Enable gnome3 ppa:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

4) update & dist-upgrade

5) Click on Ubuntu Software Centre icon from the launcher

It will appear to be loading, the UI will be fully rendered, but the full-width banner, which is white. The window goes gray, and disappears. There is a crash file generated for software-center in /var/crash/.

I can provide remote access to this VM, crash-files, and/or recompile packages with debug symbols as needed.

As this is blocking webkit and other updated software (LP: #1186558) from entering the archive, bumping importance as per https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Importance.

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1163886

In respect to duplicate

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/software-center/+bug/1251814

trusty is also affected.

Adding tag.

In respect to the comments above also adding saucy tag.

I'm having a Software Center crash; please see:
https://github.com/awesomeWM/awesome/issues/1828#issuecomment-307533174

Should I create a new issue for it?

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.