Cannot access the Software Boutique after install

Hello,

I am new to Ubuntu Mate and Linux (and not a tech savvy person) For a week now, I have been distro hooping just to taste a bit from the different distros and flavors until I find the one that suits my needs and taste and settle with it. After a week of search I am back to install Ubuntu Mate again since it looks like what I want to keep using.

I just installed Ubuntu mate (17.04) on a drive that I dedicated to Linux only. After the restart the “Welcome” window did not appear at all . I went to the menu> System > Control Center > Administration>Welcome but nothing happened. Clicking the Welcome tab does not trigger the opening of the Welcome window.

I wanted to install Google Chrome so I clicked on “Software Boutique” (System > Control Center > Administration> Software Boutique) but that also did not trigger anything. Maybe something went wrong during the installation? A week ago, one the first distros that I tried was Mate 16.04.3 LTS and the Welcome and the Boutique worked fine then.

How to fix theses? Thank you very much.

@jwegier

Try opening up a terminal ( ctrl + t ) or through the menu and copy paste

ubuntu-mate-welcome --boutique

or press alt + f2 and enter in the above

and if that doesn’t open it, you could look in Synaptic to see if it is installed at all.
to install synaptic ( a lot like boutique but without the pretty GUI )
open terminal

sudo apt install synaptic -y

When you open Synaptic you will find a search icon. here you can look for

ubuntu-mate-welcome

if it doesn’t have a mark next to it (for some reason) you can right click and “Mark for Installation”
then press Apply

or you could just try and install it outright to see if that flys
once again open a terminal

sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-welcome -y

This will tell you if it is already installed or not. if it is, it will tell you

and if you find it already installed maybe try and fix the dependency

sudo apt-get install -f

1 Like

Thank you for helping

ubuntu-mate-welcome --boutique gave me

[Welcome] Starting in Software Boutique mode.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/bin/ubuntu-mate-welcome”, line 3595, in
trans = Translations(data_path)
File “/usr/bin/ubuntu-mate-welcome”, line 660, in init
self.locale = str(locale.getlocale()[0])
File “/usr/lib/python3.5/locale.py”, line 577, in getlocale
return _parse_localename(localename)
File “/usr/lib/python3.5/locale.py”, line 486, in _parse_localename
raise ValueError(‘unknown locale: %s’ % localename)
ValueError: unknown locale: en_IL

udo apt install synaptic -y gave me

Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Package synaptic is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package ‘synaptic’ has no installation candidate

sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-welcome -y gave me

Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
ubuntu-mate-welcome is already the newest version (17.04.11).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 115 not upgraded.

sudo apt-get install -f gave me
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 115 not upgraded.

So no Welcome, no Boutique and no Synaptic :disappointed:

odd what that is saying is you don't have the Ubuntu-MATE repo on your box...?

Try a reboot and give the boutique another go.
check to make sure the repo is enabled

Administration >> Software and Updates


if that is not the case I will have to pass this question off to someone else who might know something else about your problem.

That's what I get when I go to Administration >> Software and Updates

I opened the " Software Updater" and did some update but there were no change in Software and Updates

After a certain time I opened again the Software and Updates and found some change:

Then I ran again sudo apt install synaptic and Synaptic was installed

Thank you very much again

1 Like

Not sure what locale of English en_IL your system uses here, but this seems to be the problem that causes Welcome/Boutique to fail to start.

You can workaround that by running:

ubuntu-mate-welcome --locale=en

I believe if you update welcome/Boutique, the latest version should fallback to English if the locale is unknown.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/welcome
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-welcome

Wow, It worked like magic!! Welcome screen (and of course Software Boutique) are working now

Thank you very much!

1 Like

Just to mention, I just reinstalled 17.10 Beta, the Live had welcome, tweak and firefox. After install they were all missing. I fixed this with manual install, but it is concerning.

@ouroumov Can you organise testing of the current daily image please? That sounds concerning and the second time I’ve seen this issue reported.

Okay, I’ve notified the team and I’m pulling the current image for a VM test.

@Wimpy I can’t reproduce with current daily-live using default install language. I’m gonna do a second install test with French language.

@TimApple, @jwegier what locale are you guys using for the install?

Edit: tried install with French locale as well, no problem.

@Wimpy I was using us local

@ouroumov Thanks for testing. Sounds transient.

I'm experiencing a similar problem.
I'm running Ubuntu Mate 18.04 on an Asus EeePC 1215N and since I uninstalled Steam (because it wasn't loading and also I don't game in this laptop - wonder why :stuck_out_tongue: ) the welcome app and software boutique stop working. I noticed the repository wasn't showing up. Managed to reinstall the welcome and boutique through synaptic and now I have two icons for welcome and boutique but none of them work.
When I try to open from command line this is what I get:

ricardo@ricardo-1215N:~$ ubuntu-mate-welcome --boutique
[Welcome] Starting in Software Boutique mode.
[Welcome] Version: 19.10.0-rev1391~ubuntu18.04.1
[Welcome] Application Ready.

(WebKitWebProcess:4810): Gdk-ERROR **: 12:07:54.657: The program 'WebKitWebProcess' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)'.
(Details: serial 183 error_code 2 request_code 152 (GLX) minor_code 34)
(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.)