Software Manager Hangs on Gathering Information

[CFet]

Greetings,
I have just installed Linux Mint xfce on my friend's laptop. After trying to execute software manager, it hangs on the opening splash screen with icons and the rotating logo. It says "Gathering information for 32557 packages". I left it open over night and it was still frozen in this state.

I have tried removing mintinstall and re-installing it, no luck. I have also ran sudo apt-get update and then ran mintinstall, same issue.

Here is the output after running mintinstall via a root terminal. Please, any help is greatly appreciated!

Code: Select all

joe-laptop joe # mintinstall
/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/mintinstall.py:250: SyntaxWarning: import * only allowed at module level
  def get_status_description(self, transaction):
/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/mintinstall.py:258: SyntaxWarning: import * only allowed at module level
  def get_role_description(self, transaction):
add_categories took 20.264 ms
build_matched_packages took 0.368 ms
2325
add_packages took 3232.988 ms
add_reviews took 871.334 ms
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/mintinstall.py", line 1540, in <module>
    Application()
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/mintinstall.py", line 38, in wrapper
    res = func(*arg)
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/mintinstall.py", line 473, in __init__
    sans26  =  ImageFont.truetype ( self.FONT, 26 )
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PIL/ImageFont.py", line 218, in truetype
    return FreeTypeFont(filename, size, index, encoding)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PIL/ImageFont.py", line 134, in __init__
    self.font = core.getfont(file, size, index, encoding)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PIL/ImageFont.py", line 34, in __getattr__
    raise ImportError("The _imagingft C module is not installed")
ImportError: The _imagingft C module is not installed
Overwriting reviews file in /root/.linuxmint/mintinstall/reviews.li st
update_reviews took 444.246 ms


[Jolinar]

I'm having much the same issue but trying to retireve info on 32399 packages

I also ran through terminal and was left with the below mesasage and it just stays on screen with the animation, have to reset session to clear it!
Any help would be appreciated.
thank you

Code: Select all

ap40137@mint-desktop ~ $ mintinstall
/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/mintinstall.py:250: SyntaxWarning: import * only allowed at module level
  def get_status_description(self, transaction):
/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/mintinstall.py:258: SyntaxWarning: import * only allowed at module level
  def get_role_description(self, transaction):
add_categories took 1.912 ms
build_matched_packages took 0.242 ms
17026
add_packages took 4771.310 ms
add_reviews took 705.753 ms
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/mintinstall.py", line 1540, in <module>
    Application()
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/mintinstall.py", line 38, in wrapper
    res = func(*arg)
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/mintinstall.py", line 473, in __init__
    sans26  =  ImageFont.truetype ( self.FONT, 26 )
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PIL/ImageFont.py", line 218, in truetype
    return FreeTypeFont(filename, size, index, encoding)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PIL/ImageFont.py", line 134, in __init__
    self.font = core.getfont(file, size, index, encoding)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PIL/ImageFont.py", line 34, in __getattr__
    raise ImportError("The _imagingft C module is not installed")
ImportError: The _imagingft C module is not installed
Overwriting reviews file in /home/ap40137/.linuxmint/mintinstall/reviews.list
update_reviews took 464.411 ms
'NoneType' object is not callable
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/mintinstall.py", line 217, in run
    self.status_label.set_text(_("%d ongoing actions") % num_transactions)
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable
A problem occured but the transaction loop was kept running


[UPDATE:] I had updated my repo to point to Sid repo and date Python-imaging to 1.1.7-4 Upgraded and now loads then crashes after a few seconds.
will try going backwards to 1.1.7-2

[andyfang]

I found the solution !
when package "pyhon-imaging" version is 1.1.7.3
this error will happen.
so .
get the "python-imaging" version 1.1.7.2 from Debian stable package ,
http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/python-imaging
than, remove python-imaging 1.1.7.3 and install 1.1.7.2
you can get the right result.
cheers

[geekboysk]

andyfang's solution appears to work. I did a slightly different version.
I added Debian stable to my repositories and used Force Version
in Synaptic to install the previous version of python-imaging.
It finally let me reinstall mintinstall and openshot, which it had
to remove, without trying to update python-imaging back to 1.1.7.3


So far it seems ok, but now I can't remember why I wanted to
use Software Manager when I discovered it was broken.

[michaelam]

I am having the same problem as I am quite new to this, could you please explain which file should be downloaded and how to add the downloaded package to appear in synaptics package manager?
thanks

[Mavigraph]

I'm in the same boat as well. I was able to remove the offending python-imaging and was able to down load the older python-imaging but am unable to install. Can someone tell us how or provide a link to where information is at?