Ubuntu Software Center does not open - dbus error

Question

Ubuntu Software Center does not open, I tried these instructions to fix it but they didn't work https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PackageManagerTroubleshootingProcedure When I run software-center command from a bash terminal, it still give me the next error.

2013-07-16 13:28:18,591 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - setting up proxy 'None'
2013-07-16 13:28:18,654 - softwarecenter.fixme - WARNING - logs to the root logger: '('/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py', 410, '_introspect_error_handler')'
2013-07-16 13:28:18,653 - dbus.proxies - ERROR - Introspect error on com.ubuntu.sso:/com/ubuntu/sso/credentials: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process /usr/lib/ubuntu-sso-client/ubuntu-sso-login exited with status 1
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/software-center", line 130, in <module>
    app = SoftwareCenterAppGtk3(options, args)
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/app.py", line 338, in __init__
    self.icons)
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/session/appmanager.py", line 66, in __init__
    self.oauth_token = helper.find_oauth_token_sync()
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/backend/ubuntusso.py", line 141, in find_oauth_token_sync
    sso.find_credentials()
  File "/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/backend/login_impl/login_sso.py", line 75, in find_credentials
    self.proxy.find_credentials(self.appname, self._get_params())
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 70, in __call__
    return self._proxy_method(*args, **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 145, in __call__
    **keywords)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 651, in call_blocking
    message, timeout)
dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited:

---

I found that this error was produced after install google-api-python-client using this command:

sudo easy_install --upgrade google-api-python-client

It seems that it messed up with some httplib. I still don't know how to correct this error (or install this package correctly). I had to reinstall Ubuntu and do not install the api to avoid the problem.

I would be grateful if someone could help me.

Solution

permissions in your python packages are possibly not working.

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/

where you can replace $USER with your login name (the one in lowercase).

or preferably the same for just the packages it is complaining about

Comments

[Jason Conti]

Looks like this software-center bug bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/software-center/+bug/10854‌​25

[Ahmadgeo]

Check this link <anibalpacheco.com/?p=51>

[user.dz]

This will not fix it for other user accounts, better: sudo chmod -R +rx /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/

[Sencer H.]

This is not true solution I believe. Changing owner of the files may broke system or changing permissions may make system vulnerable.