Ubuntu Software Center, sync between computers hangs due to UnicodeEncodeError

Hi Timothy, and thank you for your bug report. Could you please try running Software Center from a terminal window as follows:

  $ software-center

And then try again to access your software list from the other computer. If it hangs again, please paste any output in the terminal to this bug report. That will help us to investigate this bug further.

Thanks! Your help is much appreciated!

2012-03-27 09:36:14,931 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.em - INFO - EM's: 17 15 21
2012-03-27 09:36:17,270 - softwarecenter.backend.reviews - WARNING - Could not get usefulness from server, no username in config file
2012-03-27 09:36:17,480 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.utils - INFO - Softwarecenter style provider for ambiance Gtk theme: /usr/share/software-center/ui/gtk3/css/softwarecenter.css
2012-03-27 09:36:23,031 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - software-center-agent finished with status 0
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/panes/installedpane.py", line 443, in rebuild_oneconfview
    display_name=cat_title)
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/models/appstore2.py", line 504, in set_nocategory_documents
    len(documents))
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/models/appstore2.py", line 72, in __init__
    None, pkg_count)
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/models/appstore2.py", line 54, in __init__
    self.display_name = GObject.markup_escape_text(display_name)
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\u201c' in position 10: ordinal not in range(128)

Thanks Timothy, that looks like what we needed!

I had the same problem caused by curly quotes (\u201c, \u201d) around the computer name. I'm not familiar with GObject, but it seems to be happy with utf-8 (inserted before line 54 of appstore2.py):

    display_name = display_name.encode('utf-8')

Thanks eryksun! I have implemented a variant of your suggestion as the fix in the attached branch (we have a generic utility function that we use for these sorts of errors).

Thanks again!

This bug was fixed in the package software-center - 5.1.14

---------------
software-center (5.1.14) precise; urgency=low

  [ Michael Vogt ]
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp962580:
    - add locking to the expunge helper process to fix bugs that are triggered
      if multiple expunge cache processes are run (LP: #962580)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/cache-refresh-glitch:
    - ensure that we get a full refresh if a pkg was not available before
      show_app is called
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp940482:
    - fix crash if the debfile does not return proper utf8 for the
      description (LP: #940482)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp966514:
    - properly handle network disconnect conditions with the Ubuntu
      SSO dialog (LP: #966514)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp966879:
    - fix for crashes in the installed view treeview (LP: #966879,
      LP: #950899)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp846204:
    - fix ValueError crashes in get_iter due to invalid tree paths
      (LP: #846204)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp964433:
    - disconnect the model from the view before calling set_from_matches
      (LP: #964433)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/treeview-keep-state-on-db-cache-change:
   - restore the state of the installed view treeview when the
     the db or cache changes, such as on an app install or remove
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/946393:
   - fix installing multiple apps when in a custom list view (LP: #946393)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp969050:
   - disconnect the view when the model is cleared to avoid a furry of
     cursor_changed signals as the rows get removed (LP: #969050)

  [ Gary Lasker ]
  * lp:~gary-lasker/software-center/installed-pane-refresh:
    - avoid rebuilding the treeview in the installedpane if its not
      required (LP: #828887)
  * lp:~gary-lasker/software-center/fix-crash-lp967036:
    - Small branch to fix a crash due to a UnicodeDecodeError when accessing
      the short description for H/W requirements (LP: #967036)
  * lp:~gary-lasker/software-center/fix-crash-lp935930:
    - fix a crash due to a UnicodeDecodeError (LP: #935930)
 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:00:50 +0200