[Bug 1554023] Re: Perform an apt update if there is no appstream available

[Matthias Klumpp]

1) The app-info locations are standardized and can't be changed because tools might rely on it
2) Same applies to the Xapian cache
3) APT will not maintain the AppStream data - it will only download the data
4) The icons need to be extracted correctly and the YAML needs to be (partially) parsed for the origin entry. Those are things the APT team will not allow in APT itself (I asked).

So basically, APT is only for downloading, all the heavy lifting is done by appstream(cli).
Good thing is that you only need to trigger an apt update to get all metadata updated instantly, we handle all the magic transparently in the background.

So ideally, if no metadata is detected (not-installed application count
is zero or close to zero), redirect user to the update page and inform
him that an update will be performed in the background. Call the
Refresh() action on PK or the tool interfacing with APT.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1554023

Title:
  Perform an apt update if there is no appstream available

Status in gnome-software package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in livecd-rootfs package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  appstream's IndexTarget doesn't take effect until the first 'apt
  update' after it is installed. This means you get no installed
  software after first installing g-s until you update again.

  I tried to ask apt's developers if they could see a way to fix this
  but on first reply they deny there is a problem at all.

    http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.apt.devel/30085

  So I think we have to workaround the problem somehow. First strawman:
  have gnome-software do an 'update' on first launch if it finds no
  appstream metadata and /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50appstream is installed.

  We also need to fix this in livecd-rootfs for new installs. I guess
  there we can add a hook to do an update as part of the build.

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