To reproduce, either:
1) Go to any yet-to-be-installed piece of software in the Ubuntu Software Center, and click the Install button
2) Go to any piece of already-installed software and click the Remove button
In both cases, the button will simply gray out and absolutely nothing else happens.
The More Info... button still works, but the Install/Remove button shown on the next page does nothing, either.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: software-center 5.1.2.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-2.5-generic 3.2.0-rc3
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-2-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.90-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Nov 29 22:09:26 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha amd64 (20111122)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
PATH=(custom, no user)
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: software-center
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2011-11-30 (0 days ago)
A workaround is to use the terminal to install/remove the packages yourself using apt-get install/remove.
I have also recently encountered a similar bug in the Update Manager that prevents updates from being installed (bug 898807).