Software Boutique failing to install Etcher

sil · 3 February 2018 18:01

In the Software Boutique, I tried to install Etcher, but the installation fails. The Boutique shows "Installing: Etcher"

I get a popup dialog which says Requires installation of untrusted packages: This requires installing packages from unauthenticated sources

and then Etcher fails to install.

I'm not sure where to get more information about why this might be, or how to resolve it.

maximuscore · 3 February 2018 18:18

What version of UM and Software Boutique are you using?
It works fine for me with UM 16.04 and the Boutique 17.10.15~xenial1.1 from the daily build PPA introduced here: Welcome and Boutique Daily Builds

Also, you could maybe get a more informative error message if you install it from a terminal via sudo apt install etcher-electron .

sil · 3 February 2018 18:21

Those are the versions I have; Boutique reports that version number bottom right.

I can install etcher from the Terminal, indeed, but that won't really help with the Boutique errors; either it'll work from apt (and the Boutique's doing something wrong) or it won't (and Boutique is reporting that error really unhelpfully); it's that that I'm interested in helping fix, so I don't know how best to work out what Boutique is doing...

maximuscore · 3 February 2018 18:26

Using apt can sometimes point at errors with the repository configuration a bit better.
That configuration is shared between various front-ends, be it the Boutique, Synaptic or the apt command-line tool.

Can you check /etc/apt/sources.list for an Etcher-related entry and also /etc/apt/sources.list.d/etcher.list ?
The former should not contain anything about etcher, and the latter should look like this:
deb https://dl.bintray.com/resin-io/debian stable etcher

sil · 3 February 2018 18:28

Yup; both of those are the case.

apt shows essentially the same error that the Boutique does:

WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
  etcher-electron
Install these packages without verification? [y/N]

So perhaps the Boutique hasn’t correctly got the signing key from whichever PPA it uses?

maximuscore · 3 February 2018 18:39

That's probably the problem here.
I remember installing Etcher before it was added to the Boutique, and followed the instructions at GitHub - balena-io/etcher: Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily. , which included importing the bintray.com GPG key.

sil · 3 February 2018 18:41

Yeah, I found that. But the bug here, I think, is that Boutique isn’t doing that, rather than that I can work around it; Etcher isn’t installable for people who aren’t me, and it’s not being helpful about why, and I feel like Boutique should be better and more helpful than that. I’m happy to report a bug, or to be told that the problem is fixed in newer UM releases (roll on 18.04), but I’m not sure where; is support only available to paid supporters?

(Also: thank you for the pointers! This thread may at least help people looking for the problem; much appreciated!)

maximuscore · 3 February 2018 18:47

Reporting the bug is definitely the way to go. While the developers may also notice it here, it’s better to have it in the bugtracker.

Also, while Canonical, who create the Ubuntu base distro, is a commercial company, most Ubuntu-spinoffs, such as Ubuntu MATE are essential community projects.
So the best place to get support for it are actually places like this forum.

sil · 3 February 2018 19:04

Yup. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mate/+bug/1747182 filed (following the "Bug Tracker" link from https://ubuntu-mate.org/community/).

lah7 · 6 February 2018 19:13

It seems likely that it’s their repository that is at fault. Their README lists the same key that is used by Software Boutique.

github.com

ubuntu-mate/ubuntu-mate-welcome/blob/before-boutique/data/js/applications.json#L300


    "screen. The color temperature is set according to the",
    "position of the sun. A different color temperature is set",
    "during night and daytime. During twilight and early morning,",
    "the color temperature transitions smoothly from night to",
    "daytime temperature to allow your eyes to slowly adapt.",
    "<ul><li><b>Note: </b><i>Redshift assumes that your screen",
    "will produce light at a color of 6500K when no color",
    "correction is applied by the program. Thus, 6500K is the",
    "neutral temperature. Setting the color temperature to a",
    "value higher than this results in more blue light, and",
    "setting a lower value will result in more red light.</i></li></ul>"
],
"alternate-to": "f.lux &reg",
"subcategory": "Cosmetic",
"open-source": true,
"url-info": "http://jonls.dk/redshift/",
"url-android": null,
"url-ios": null,
"arch": "i386,amd64,armhf,arm64",
"releases": "xenial,bionic,cosmic",
"pre-install": {

If the same error happens after following their manual instructions, it would be best to raise an issue informing them. Software Boutique’s choices are to yank out apps that won’t install or find an alternate way of installing it (like snaps – which would cue the new Boutique, still in development)

mowestusa · 28 March 2018 14:18

This seems to still be an issue in the Software Boutique 17.10.15 on Ubuntu MATE 17.10, I tried to install Etcher today through the Software Boutique, and it failed. When I did a “sudo apt update” I got following error:

W: GPG error: https://dl.bintray.com/resin-io/debian stable Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 379CE192D401AB61

Which I believe is the same issue that occurred previously when this thread started. I was able to install Etcher by following the directions here:

https://github.com/resin-io/etcher#debian-and-ubuntu-based-package-repository-gnulinux-x86x64

I’m not a developer, but it seems as if the Software Boutique is currently pointed to the wrong repository.
Currently it is pointing to:
https://dl.bintray.com/resin-io/debian stable Release
But the terminal instructions point to:
https://dl.bintray.com/resin-io/debian stable etcher

Hopefully that is an easy fix for 18.04