Troubleshooting Ubuntu Application Manager. Installing programs in Ubuntu - methods
This is the error I get when I open the software center. I tried rebooting and running sudo apt-get update but I don't see any improvement. It worked before, but I don't know what has gone wrong since then. I'm using the final release of Ubuntu 16.04 on a Dell Inspiron 15R. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
EDIT: The problem magically resolved itself, without me doing anything special (or maybe unintentionally doing something, I don't know). So I'd still like to get to the root of it.
This problem simply arose after using bleachbit to clean the system when moving from beta to the official release. Clearing all cache data also jams the software center (re: user533424 above).
Everything seems to “magically” reappear to regenerate this data. So…
settings>region languages>...and changing or reinstalling the current language
…. also worked for me.
Happens after you have used BleachBit with root access and cleared application cache data
- Ubuntu Open Software Center
- Click the updates tab.
- Click on the small update button located in the top left corner
- To wait for him
See Fig. For the update button.
Everything will return to normal 
I think it has to do with the /var/cache directory, at least that's what I suspect based on my own experience.
Workaround that worked for me:
Sudo apt purge gnome-software ubuntu-software sudo apt autoremove sudo apt install gnome-software ubuntu-software
I like. Change Language Support > Regional Formats to English (US), and then restart your computer. Now the software center works correctly.
Yes, this is a language configuration issue. A ridiculously impossible bug-free glitch, but there it is in the LTS release. :\
Even if your system is already in English, reinstall it under System Settings > Language Support, reapply system-wide, and restart your computer. The new app store is now actually operational.
I have the same problem. But my problem was not related to the language setting or anything related to that. My problem was caused by the GoGui program; game from UI interface, which can connect to various models. I found the solution to my problem via launchapad's post: #28 and #29. So basically the problem was that gogui is registering *.xml file types for x-go+xml, which I believe Ubuntu Software is trying to open , but could not be found. Deleting /var/cache/app-info/xmls/fwupd.xml and unregistering the generated Gogui strings to /usr/local/share/mime/globs and /usr/local/share/mime/globs2 solved the problem for me!
I got my software center by changing the language to English. But I see that you are already in English, so this probably won't help...
Ubuntu Software Center on my PC also shows "No application data" but showed up right after I mounted /var/cache as tmpfs. I ran into this issue with previous versions of the Ubuntu Software Center software as well, so I decided to no longer use tmpfs for /var/cache, but I also couldn't figure out how to restore those files... Anyway, the definition of /var/cache is for cached ones data from applications. Such data is locally generated through time-consuming I/O or computation operations. The application must be able to regenerate or restore data. Unlike /var/spool, cached files can be deleted without losing data. The data must remain valid between application calls and system reboots.
Files located in /var/cache may be expired depending on the specific application, by the system administrator, or both. The application should always be able to manually recover from the deletion of these files (usually due to lack of disk space). There are no other requirements for the cache directory data format. see http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#THEVARHIERARCHY
In this particular case, this is not true, since after deleting these files, Ubuntu Software Center will not work correctly.
Hopefully this is a good hint to the root cause, but may not solve the problem.
I started by installing synaptic-package-manager. Several events appeared, but the actual installation did not start. I used bleachbit (as root) a few times since the installation was bleachbit (as root) and used sudo apt-get update for each application installation. bleachbit remove apt files from bleachbit. I was able to install the synaptic package manager from the command line after a reboot using sudo apt-get install syanptic-package-manager . Used it to reinstall ubuntu-software. All applications are now listed.
Application Center- an old GUI program for managing installed software, used in Ubuntu until 16.04. Later it was decided to abandon its further development in favor of Application Manager from the Gnome Project. Ubuntu comes with a very modified version, fortunately the internal architecture of this program is designed for this. It itself is written in C and works quite quickly (unlike the previous application center in Python), and has a developed system of plugins.
However, these programs differ radically in their approach. The Gnome (and Ubuntu) application manager uses AppStream, a database with metadata about program components in the open source software ecosystem, as a source of software information. Apt regularly downloads it from the update mirror using the apt update command or automatically. Debian-based distributions use the DEP-11 format.
For some reason, at the moment this database mainly contains information about programs that have a graphical user interface. And due to the fact that for the most part this database is collected by the automated appstream-generator tool based on .desktop files, the implication is true: “If the program package installs a .desktop file with an icon for the menu, this application can be found in AppStream.”
But in fact, in application manager the filter is still applied - it displays only programs with GUI in the list, that is, those marked with type=desktop-application . It is assumed that if you need a console program, it is much easier to install it directly using Apt.
conclusions
Application Manager uses AppStream - a distribution-independent list of applications in the world of Linux and open source software. However, packages are installed from their regular repositories that Apt uses.
Application Center uses the Debian or Ubuntu archive infrastructure directly, without resorting to AppStream or DEP-11.
Utilities
You can access the AppStream database stored on your computer from the command line using the utility appstreamcli from the appstream package.
The lists themselves in DEP-11 format are stored in the /var/lib/app-info/yaml directory.
However, you won’t find user reviews there (there are only descriptions). Program ratings are downloaded from the reviews.ubuntu.com server once every three months, all available at once, comments - when opening the page with the application. The plugin /usr/lib/gs-plugins-9/libgs_plugin_ubuntu-reviews.so is responsible for this.
Regarding gksu: I have the Debian unstable repository connected, and gksu.desktop is listed in yaml from there, so Application Manager finds it in search. However, you should refrain from using this utility - it is considered obsolete in the future
This article contains several recommendations, following which you can then get an excellent, fully functional, secure operating system. I tried to make the article as short as possible so as not to bore you with a long list. But you can be sure that everything you need is here to use the system freely and comfortably.
As stated earlier, to have a secure system, you need to keep it up to date and install all security updates and tool patches on time. This is especially important for beta versions.
You can update the system using a GUI utility or in a terminal. We will look at updating the system in the GUI.
First you need to update the software repositories. Open the Dash menu and type in search Software update.
Open the application and go to the tab Other software. Check both boxes:
Then close the application, you will be asked to enter a password, then the updates will download:
Run it again Software update from Dash, and this time the program should show available updates and prompt you to install them:
To update Ubuntu 16.04, just enter the following two commands in the terminal:
sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
2. Installing basic applications
Setting up Ubuntu 16.04 after installation includes installing additional applications to improve the usability of the system. This is an Internet browser, various editors, viewers and utilities. By default, Ubuntu comes with Firefox, but it is not the most used browser in the world, it still lags behind Chrome even in terms of features and functionality.
You can find Chromium in the Gnome application manager, which now ships by default with Ubuntu 16.04.
In addition, you may also need the following applications:
- Skype- the world's most popular IP telephony service
- Pidgin- the best messenger for Linux
- Deluge- one of the best torrent clients
- Mega- excellent cloud storage
- CrashPlan- backup system
- Telegram- secure cross-platform messenger
- Uget- one of the best download managers
- Tor- provides anonymity on the Internet.
3. Installing the Clementine player
Clementine is one of the best music players for Linux today with the widest range of features. It is comparable in functionality to applications such as VLC, Rthythmbox, Audacious, etc. Setting up Ubuntu 16.04 after installation cannot occur without installing a normal player.
One of the most distinctive features of this player is the ability to connect to online music streaming services without having to launch a browser or other third-party application. You can easily connect Spotify, last.fm, sky.fm, Google drive, Onedrive and other services. It also has its own equalizer.
You can install the program using the following command:
sudo apt-get install clementine
Other media apps worth your attention:
VLC- universal media player with a very large list of media formats and huge functionality
Audacity is a simple, minimalistic audio editing tool for both beginners and professionals. Supports quite a lot of functions.
Kodi (XBMC) - open source home cinema. It has extended support for media formats from mp3 to the most incredible. You can open music, videos or photos.
Handbrake- another application for working with media files, namely converting.
Spotify - official Spotify client for Linux.
OpenShot one of the best simple video editors for Linux. The program interface is very simple, and in most cases the functions are quite sufficient.
Ubuntu-restricted-extras- codecs and various plugins, install if you do not want problems with playing various formats.
Gimp is one of the best photo editing tools for Linux.
To install Spotify, type the following commands:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys BBEBDCB318AD50EC68650906
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install spotify-client
All other programs can be installed from official repositories.
4. Installation of Synaptic and AppGrid
It's always nice to have backup options when it comes to installing software, especially if you're a bit of a fan of the new App Center.
Synaptic also supports a graphical interface without all the extra stuff - just the functions you need. To install Synaptic, press Ctrl+Alt+T and run:
sudo apt-get install synaptic
You can also install it from the Application Center. AppGrid can only be installed using the terminal by running these commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:appgrid/stable
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install appgrid
Now you have four ways to install applications in Ubuntu: through the terminal, in the application center, in Synaptic and AppGrid.
5. Disable online search
Dash Menu Search still includes internet search results from sites like Amazon, Wikipedia, etc. These may pose some security risk to your system.
Disabling this feature is very easy. Open the utility Settings, go to item Security and privacy and on the Search tab disable Online search results:
6. Install Ubuntu Tweak Tool to customize your system
The Ubuntu interface is quite beautiful by default, and the system has a minimal number of settings. But, if you need more fine-tuning of Ubuntu 16.04, you can install additional utilities.
Unity Tweak Tool is a great tool that allows you to change Unity and make it your own. You can install from the application center:
7. Install the graphics driver
If you want to get the best performance from your graphics card, the initial setup of Ubuntu 16.04 will not be complete without installing a graphics driver. This will ensure smoother GUI rendering, and will also allow you to play Steam games on Linux, edit videos, etc.
Search for Dash Programs and updates, run the utility, go to the tab Additional drivers and select the components you want, then click apply.
8. Keyboard customization
By default, only Russian and English layouts are available. If you need a different one, click on the switch layout icon on the panel and select Text input options.
In this window you can add an additional language or change the keyboard shortcut key.
9. Disable crash reporting
If you are not going to inform developers about errors and failures that have occurred in the system, you can disable reports about them. It's better, of course, to send data, especially in beta, - this will help developers fix bugs.
There are many ways to install programs on Ubuntu Linux. Here you can use the application store built into the system, and the package manager, and install programs from repositories using commands in the terminal, as well as download software packages from the Internet, and then install them - also in various ways. And in this article I want to talk in detail about each method of installing programs on Ubuntu Linux.
Ubuntu Application Center
The Ubuntu Application Center is what is usually called the "App Store" on other systems, for example, on Android it is the equivalent of Google Play. You can find it in the main menu of Ubuntu if you start typing the word “center” in the search bar.
In the application center, everything is quite simple: on the left there are categories ("Games", "Office", "Internet" and so on), on the top there is a search bar. We find the desired application, click “Install”, enter the administrator password, wait a little and everything is ready to use the newly installed program.
The Application Center contains all the programs that are available in the official Ubuntu repositories (i.e., "repositories"), as well as paid and free programs and games from third-party sources. If you want to install a free program from third-party sources, then despite the fact that the price of the program will be indicated as zero, instead of the “Install” button you will still see the “Buy” button - do not be alarmed, feel free to click. And know that in any case, without your knowledge, they will never take money from you here, even if you try to install paid programs - before you buy it, you will have to fill out your payment information (credit card number, etc.), so it’s an accident here definitely excluded.
Be aware that not all existing programs for Ubuntu can be found in the Ubuntu Application Center, but nevertheless, beginners should start looking for the applications they need from here.
Synaptic package manager
Synaptic is a graphical package management utility that was used in Ubuntu long before it had an "App Center". Today, by default, this program is not available in Ubuntu at all, but you can install it, for example, by clicking here. Let me remind you that all installed programs can be found in the main menu of Ubuntu by starting to enter its name or what it is for in the search bar, as shown above in the image with the “App Center”.
With Synaptic, you can very easily and conveniently view which packages you already have installed, remove them, update them (if updates are available), and also search the repositories for the required packages by name or description. For all this, Synaptic has a very good set of filters by category ("Games", "Administration", "Internet", etc.), by status ("Installed", "Not installed", "Manually installed", "Updating" ", etc.), by origin (i.e. from what source this or that program is installed or can be installed) and others.
Synaptic is a much more "professional" program, so to speak, compared to Application Center. For finding the necessary packages, it can be simply irreplaceable.
ِapt-get - manage packages from the terminal
The next method for installing programs is apt-get. By the way, apt-get can not only install them, but also remove, update, download lists of packages from the Internet, and much more. In general, everything that Synaptic can do, but only from the command line. And at first glance, it may look scary, especially for beginners, but don’t rush - in most cases, apt-get is the easiest and fastest way to install something in Ubuntu, and that’s why in most instructions for installing something in Ubuntu , which you will find on the Internet, contain commands for the terminal using apt-get.
Using apt-get assumes that you know exactly what you want. For example, you want to install the Geany text editor, then you need to run the following command in the terminal:
sudo apt-get install geany
Let's look at what was written briefly:
sudo- means that the commands following it will be executed on behalf of the system administrator (since only the administrator has the right to install or delete anything);
apt-get- the apt-get package manager itself, which we are talking about, actually calls;
install- command to install the package. There are also many other commands, some of which I will list below in examples;
geany- the name of the package that needs to be installed, and in this case, it is the Geany text editor. You can specify multiple packages by simply putting a space between them.
Here are some other examples of using apt-get:
Download lists of available applications from the Internet (roughly speaking, “check for updates”):
sudo apt-get update
Install all available updates:
sudo apt-get upgrade
Install the vlc player and the gimp graphic editor with one command:
sudo apt-get install vlc gimp
You can also remove the above mentioned ones with one command, saving their settings in the system:
sudo apt-get remove vlc gimp
The same thing, but with all settings cleared:
sudo apt-get purge vlc gimp
Also, when working with apt-get, you can use one nice feature in the Ubuntu terminal: autocompletion. Assuming you don't know the full package name, for example, if you want to install add-ons in Gimp, then you can type "sudo apt-get install gimp" in the terminal and press the "Tab" key - you will automatically be offered various packages starting with " gimp*".
Here's how to install anything very easily using the command line and apt-get in Ubuntu. Now imagine that if I were explaining to you, as a newbie to Ubuntu, how to install Gimp, I would give you just one command: “sudo apt-get install gimp”, as opposed to a whole saga about what you need to find in the main menu of Ubuntu Ubuntu Application Center, write “Gimp” in the search bar, select the appropriate package and click on the “Install” button, not taking into account the speed of launching the application center itself and running several meters across the table.
GDebi package installer
If the required program was not found in the Ubuntu repositories, or it was found, but not the latest version (and this often happens), then most likely you will go to the website of the program or game developer and download the installation package in *.deb format. When you double-click on no, the “Ubuntu Application Center” will open and you can easily install it by clicking on the corresponding button. However, if you do this procedure quite often, then you will probably get tired of the very slow startup and operation of the Application Center. And then the very small and fast GDebi utility will come to your aid, which can be installed by clicking or using the command in the terminal:
sudo apt-get install gdebi
After it is installed, right-click on the downloaded package and select "Open with - GDebi package installer". GDebi will open the package and install it faster than Ubuntu Application Center.
Installing downloaded packages from the terminal
In addition to the GDebi graphical utility, you can install packages downloaded from the Internet in Ubuntu with a simple command in the terminal. To do this you need to run the command:
sudo dpkg -i package_name
For example, if you downloaded a package from VirtualBox from the official website, and most likely now it is in the “Downloads” folder in your home directory, then you can install it from the terminal like this:
sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/virtualbox-4.3_4.3.8-92456~Ubuntu~raring_amd64.deb
ٌBy the way, auto-completion also works here, so you can just start entering the name of the file with the package and press Tab - the rest of the file name will be completed by itself. dpkg also supports templates, that is, you can write it like this:
sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/virtualbox*.deb
Which is very convenient if you downloaded a program that comes in the form of many packages (for example, many games or LibreOffice downloaded from the official website) - you can simply put all the packages in one folder, and then run something like this command:
sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/*.deb
(this example will install ALL packages from the Downloads folder).
Installing programs from third-party repositories
Most of the required programs are stored in the official Ubuntu package repositories ("repositories"), from where they are downloaded whenever you install something through the Ubuntu Application Center or apt-get in the terminal. However, some applications (for example, narrow-profile, rarely used or recently appeared) are not in the official Ubuntu repositories, or they are, but in older versions. In such cases, it is usually necessary to add a new application source ("repository") to the system.
Usually, articles with instructions for installing something already contain ready-made commands, which you just need to copy into the terminal and execute. I want to give an example of such commands here with comments to clarify them for new Ubuntu users.
For example, to install the classic menu ClassicMenu-Indicator, you must first connect its repository, i.e. add to your system's application sources the source from where it should be installed and updated. The developer's website provides a ready-made command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diesch/testing
sudo- run as system administrator;
add-apt-repository- add a repository;
ppa:diesch/testing- repository name.
Once the repository is added, it is necessary for the Ubuntu system to download the list of applications that are in this source. To do this, use the command:
sudo apt-get update
and finally, installing the package:
sudo apt-get install classicmenu-indicator
We talked in detail about how apt-get works at the beginning of this article, so if these commands are not clear to you, return to the corresponding heading above.
Installing programs from source
Today you can often hear from people who are very far from Linux that if you switch to Ubuntu or other Linux distributions, “you will install programs from source codes.” Of course, such a possibility exists, but the necessity is very doubtful. And just 10 years ago, the average Linux user installed programs this way - compiled them from source code, often encountering many pitfalls. If you decide to install a program on Ubuntu from source today - I really don't think you need to. Read this article from start to finish to see that all existing modern Linux programs, with very rare exceptions, can be installed either from the repositories or by downloading the *.deb package and simply clicking on it.
If you still decide to take such a big step, read the INSTALL and README files, which are usually supplied in the archive with the source code, in which you will find instructions for compiling and installing the program - they can vary greatly from one program to another.
Installing applications on Ubuntu Linux, three methods on how to do it.
- Linux has become so popular in Russia that every year more and more articles and step-by-step instructions appear on the use of various images of this operating system. In this article I will tell you how you can install programs and remove them in the Ubuntu Linux operating system. I won’t make much of an introduction, but I’ll get to the point.
- This is probably the easiest way to install the program, since this option does not require an update, just installation. You can open the terminal by typing the key combination:
- Alt + Ctrl + T
- A terminal will open in front of you in which you need to type a single command:
- sudo apt-get install putty
- This command will automatically install the ssh client from the repository. Let's break it down piece by piece:
- sudo - Run with elevated super user rights. After typing this command, you will be required to enter the user password.
- apt-get - This is a package management tool, generally speaking.
- install - This says what needs to be installed.
- putty - The name of the program or package depending on what you are installing. At the moment we installed the putty ssh client.
- You can find the installed program by searching on your computer, the topmost icon in the sidebar.
- You can remove a program installed through the terminal by typing the opposite word Uninstall and so on, as in the installation example.
- This method is even simpler and does not require entering commands, only using the mouse. Go to the site from which you want to install the program, find the download link for your operating system, is it Linux? there may be a variety of distributions. Everything on the site is described, don’t worry, even some of them say Ubuntu or Debian, etc.
- We go to the download folder or go as usual through the browser as we downloaded to the folder. Right-click the downloaded file and select from the context menu: Open in program => Gdebi package installer. Next, a window will open showing which packages will be installed and an install button:
- As you can see, everything is simple and then we find the installed program again through the search. But in order for this method to work, you must first install the Gdebi package installer. Then this third method will tell you how to install other programs from the application manager, let’s kill two birds with one stone.
- The Ubuntu application manager is located on the sidebar and is similar to the Google Play market, although it is already on the computer and not on the Internet. But installation from there is not complicated at all and only requires selecting the required application with the mouse. I will give an example of installing the GDebi package installer from the application manager, which will subsequently be installed as shown in the second option in this article. We go to the application manager in the sidebar and in the system => other section, we find the GDebi package installer:
- Go in and click install, there will be only one button. If you wait until the installation is complete, you will be asked to enter a password during the process; this is normal in any installation case. Upon completion, you will see the following two buttons with which you can remove an already installed package if you do not need it, or any other program that was previously installed? having made a similar path to it. Or run an already installed application program.
- Of course, like in any other operating system, it may happen that the application manager will not work. If this happens, you can go to our forum where you will learn several options on how to fix it. Ask your question or share your skills and knowledge. The easiest way to get the application manager to work is to open a terminal and reinstall:
