[Bug 1607535] Re: ttf-mscorefonts-installer 3.4+nmu1ubuntu2 fails to install core fonts
Nathanaël Naeri (Naël)
1607535 at bugs.launchpad.net
Tue Feb 21 14:48:05 UTC 2017
** Description changed:
[Symptoms]
When installing or updating the package ttf-mscorefonts-installer in
Ubuntu 16.04 or 16.10, an error message appears in a GUI window,
indicating "failure to download extra data files" (the fonts themselves)
"after package installation" (the package itself appears to have been
installed). This error message re-appears regularly, as a cron-job re-
tries the failed download.
If installing or updating from the command line, additional failure
information is given in an error message prefixed by "E:", but this
error message depends on the mirror server which is contacted for the
download: "404 Not Found" is common, but there is also "Protocol http
not supported or disabled in libcurl", and complains about invalid
Content-Range headers.
[Cause]
The current 3.4 version of ttf-mscorefonts-installer in Ubuntu 16.04
delegates the download of the proprietary Microsoft Core Fonts for the
Web (Andale, Arial...) to the package update-notifier, which itself
delegates it to the program apt-helper provided by the package apt. The
download URL points to the host downloads.sourceforge.net, which
redirects to a randomly-chosen mirror server
<mirror>.dl.sourceforge.net.
Unfortunately, the program apt-helper has a bug in the way it treats
redirections. This bug makes apt-helper keep a space in the URL instead
of encoding it to %20 before contacting the mirror. It is more
extensively documented in bug 1655431 and bug 1651923. The mirror
replies to this malformed request with an error message (e.g. "404 Not
Found"), and download fails.
Some mirrors appear to understand the malformed request nonetheless, and
send the requested font file, however since there are 11 fonts to
download, the chances of getting 11 understanding mirrors are low. Hence
why the error message usually concerns andale32.exe or arial32.exe
instead of webdin32.exe.
[Workaround 1]
Download the fonts manually and put them all in the same directory. You
can use wget for that, because contrary to apt-helper, it handles
redirections fine (command line formatted for readability, do not
include line breaks and line indents):
$ wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/
{andale32.exe,arial32.exe,arialb32.exe,comic32.exe,courie32.exe,
georgi32.exe,impact32.exe,times32.exe,trebuc32.exe,verdan32.exe,
webdin32.exe}
Or you can use your browser: point it to
https://sourceforge.net/projects/corefonts/files/the%20fonts/final and
download the same files.
Make sure the package is purged and no remaining setup triggers are
remaining, using your favorite package manager or command-line APT:
$ sudo apt-get purge ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Then reinstall the package, this time pointing to the previously-
downloaded fonts in a second step:
$ sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
# (this will most likely fail again)
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure ttf-mscorefonts-installer
The second command should return a "graphical" interface in the
terminal. Use it to point to the directory where you downloaded the
fonts (/path/to/directory/containing/the/fonts). Make sure no .deb files
are in this directory, they seem to be picked up too and then it fails.
If a pop-up shows up for a post-install action later, just let it run,
it shouldn't come back. It may triggered by the file /var/lib/update-
notifier/user.d/data-downloads-failed and you may be successful in
avoiding the regularly-reappearing message by removing this file. But
this point is less clear.
Once everything is working, you can delete the downloaded fonts in .exe
format, they have been uncompressed and installed in
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts in .ttf format.
Adapted from: Vincent Gerris (comment 17), Lesley Binks (comment 18).
[Workaround 2]
Remove Ubuntu's version of ttf-mscorefonts-installer and install
Debian's version instead. Indeed, Debian's version uses wget to download
the fonts, and contrary to apt-helper, wget handles redirections fine.
Download the package from https://packages.debian.org/ttf-mscorefonts-
installer. Version 3.6 has been tested by several users. This workaround
should work with Debian's version 3.4+nmu1 too, but then you'd be
prompted to update to Ubuntu's problematic version 3.4+nmu1ubuntu2 next
time you update your packages.
To download the package with wget (command line formatted for
readability, do not include line break and line indent):
$ wget http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/
msttcorefonts/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb
Purge your currently-installed Ubuntu version of the package using your
favorite package manager or command-line APT, and install the Debian
version with dpkg:
$ sudo apt-get purge ttf-mscorefonts-installer
$ sudo dpkg --install /path/to/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb
When this bug is fixed in Ubuntu 16.04 and 16.10, you can uninstall
Debian's version of the package and go back to Ubuntu's version:
$ sudo dpkg --purge ttf-mscorefonts-installer
$ sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Adapted from: yas (comment 19), Richard Elkins (comment 40)
[Fix]
The bug was fixed by Julian Klode in package apt-transport-https
1.4~beta3ubuntu1, released 2017-01-11, for the upcoming 17.04 (zesty)
release, see bug 1651923 comments 24 25.
The fix was backported to apt-transport-https 1.3.4 and 1.2.19, released
2017-01-26, for the previous 16.10 (yakkety) and 16.04 (xenial)
releases, respectively, see bug 1651923 comments 57 58.
If you are still affected by it, update apt-transport-https to the
appropriate version and reinstall Ubuntu's version of ttf-mscorefonts-
- installer. You should remove Debian's version of ttf-mscorefonts-
- installer beforehand, if you installed it for workaround 2 above:
+ installer. Reinstalling is necessary or the daily error message won't go
+ away, see bug 1654573 comment 12. You should remove Debian's version of
+ ttf-mscorefonts-installer beforehand, if you installed it for workaround
+ 2 above:
$ sudo dpkg --purge ttf-mscorefonts-installer
If you run into Content-Range errors when reinstalling ttf-mscorefonts-
installer, remove the downloaded fonts in /var/lib/update-notifier
/package-data-downloads/partial/ and try again. This is a different bug,
also fixed recently, but not backported to Xenial and Yakkety yet (bug
1657567).
This bug used to be a duplicate of bug 1651923, but it is currently de-
duplicated to hopefully make it easier for people to find it, instead of
reporting the issue as a new bug. Otherwise, duplicates are hidden.
--
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1607535
Title:
ttf-mscorefonts-installer 3.4+nmu1ubuntu2 fails to install core fonts
Status in msttcorefonts package in Ubuntu:
Fix Released
Bug description:
[Symptoms]
When installing or updating the package ttf-mscorefonts-installer in
Ubuntu 16.04 or 16.10, an error message appears in a GUI window,
indicating "failure to download extra data files" (the fonts
themselves) "after package installation" (the package itself appears
to have been installed). This error message re-appears regularly, as a
cron-job re-tries the failed download.
If installing or updating from the command line, additional failure
information is given in an error message prefixed by "E:", but this
error message depends on the mirror server which is contacted for the
download: "404 Not Found" is common, but there is also "Protocol http
not supported or disabled in libcurl", and complains about invalid
Content-Range headers.
[Cause]
The current 3.4 version of ttf-mscorefonts-installer in Ubuntu 16.04
delegates the download of the proprietary Microsoft Core Fonts for the
Web (Andale, Arial...) to the package update-notifier, which itself
delegates it to the program apt-helper provided by the package apt.
The download URL points to the host downloads.sourceforge.net, which
redirects to a randomly-chosen mirror server
<mirror>.dl.sourceforge.net.
Unfortunately, the program apt-helper has a bug in the way it treats
redirections. This bug makes apt-helper keep a space in the URL
instead of encoding it to %20 before contacting the mirror. It is more
extensively documented in bug 1655431 and bug 1651923. The mirror
replies to this malformed request with an error message (e.g. "404 Not
Found"), and download fails.
Some mirrors appear to understand the malformed request nonetheless,
and send the requested font file, however since there are 11 fonts to
download, the chances of getting 11 understanding mirrors are low.
Hence why the error message usually concerns andale32.exe or
arial32.exe instead of webdin32.exe.
[Workaround 1]
Download the fonts manually and put them all in the same directory.
You can use wget for that, because contrary to apt-helper, it handles
redirections fine (command line formatted for readability, do not
include line breaks and line indents):
$ wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/
{andale32.exe,arial32.exe,arialb32.exe,comic32.exe,courie32.exe,
georgi32.exe,impact32.exe,times32.exe,trebuc32.exe,verdan32.exe,
webdin32.exe}
Or you can use your browser: point it to
https://sourceforge.net/projects/corefonts/files/the%20fonts/final and
download the same files.
Make sure the package is purged and no remaining setup triggers are
remaining, using your favorite package manager or command-line APT:
$ sudo apt-get purge ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Then reinstall the package, this time pointing to the previously-
downloaded fonts in a second step:
$ sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
# (this will most likely fail again)
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure ttf-mscorefonts-installer
The second command should return a "graphical" interface in the
terminal. Use it to point to the directory where you downloaded the
fonts (/path/to/directory/containing/the/fonts). Make sure no .deb
files are in this directory, they seem to be picked up too and then it
fails.
If a pop-up shows up for a post-install action later, just let it run,
it shouldn't come back. It may triggered by the file /var/lib/update-
notifier/user.d/data-downloads-failed and you may be successful in
avoiding the regularly-reappearing message by removing this file. But
this point is less clear.
Once everything is working, you can delete the downloaded fonts in
.exe format, they have been uncompressed and installed in
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts in .ttf format.
Adapted from: Vincent Gerris (comment 17), Lesley Binks (comment 18).
[Workaround 2]
Remove Ubuntu's version of ttf-mscorefonts-installer and install
Debian's version instead. Indeed, Debian's version uses wget to
download the fonts, and contrary to apt-helper, wget handles
redirections fine.
Download the package from https://packages.debian.org/ttf-mscorefonts-
installer. Version 3.6 has been tested by several users. This
workaround should work with Debian's version 3.4+nmu1 too, but then
you'd be prompted to update to Ubuntu's problematic version
3.4+nmu1ubuntu2 next time you update your packages.
To download the package with wget (command line formatted for
readability, do not include line break and line indent):
$ wget http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/
msttcorefonts/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb
Purge your currently-installed Ubuntu version of the package using
your favorite package manager or command-line APT, and install the
Debian version with dpkg:
$ sudo apt-get purge ttf-mscorefonts-installer
$ sudo dpkg --install /path/to/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb
When this bug is fixed in Ubuntu 16.04 and 16.10, you can uninstall
Debian's version of the package and go back to Ubuntu's version:
$ sudo dpkg --purge ttf-mscorefonts-installer
$ sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Adapted from: yas (comment 19), Richard Elkins (comment 40)
[Fix]
The bug was fixed by Julian Klode in package apt-transport-https
1.4~beta3ubuntu1, released 2017-01-11, for the upcoming 17.04 (zesty)
release, see bug 1651923 comments 24 25.
The fix was backported to apt-transport-https 1.3.4 and 1.2.19,
released 2017-01-26, for the previous 16.10 (yakkety) and 16.04
(xenial) releases, respectively, see bug 1651923 comments 57 58.
If you are still affected by it, update apt-transport-https to the
appropriate version and reinstall Ubuntu's version of ttf-mscorefonts-
installer. Reinstalling is necessary or the daily error message won't
go away, see bug 1654573 comment 12. You should remove Debian's
version of ttf-mscorefonts-installer beforehand, if you installed it
for workaround 2 above:
$ sudo dpkg --purge ttf-mscorefonts-installer
If you run into Content-Range errors when reinstalling ttf-
mscorefonts-installer, remove the downloaded fonts in /var/lib/update-
notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/ and try again. This is a
different bug, also fixed recently, but not backported to Xenial and
Yakkety yet (bug 1657567).
This bug used to be a duplicate of bug 1651923, but it is currently
de-duplicated to hopefully make it easier for people to find it,
instead of reporting the issue as a new bug. Otherwise, duplicates are
hidden.
To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/msttcorefonts/+bug/1607535/+subscriptions
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