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Sunday, May 22, 2011

Linux Mint Software Properties does not launch

I've been using Linux Mint for a while now, and I get this problem while mixing and matching Ubuntu repos with Mint ones... also because of some critical PPAs for my system (including Intel Graphics Drivers from glascen).


So the problem description goes like this: Software Properties does not launch and we get the following error when trying to launch it from the terminal with sudo software-properties-gtk





Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/software-properties-gtk", line 112, in
    app = SoftwarePropertiesGtk(datadir=options.data_dir, options=options, file=file)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/softwareproperties/gtk/SoftwarePropertiesGtk.py", line 86, in __init__
    SoftwareProperties.__init__(self, options=options, datadir=datadir)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 90, in __init__
    self.reload_sourceslist()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 538, in reload_sourceslist
    self.distro.get_sources(self.sourceslist)  
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/aptsources/distro.py", line 90, in get_sources
    raise NoDistroTemplateException("Error: could not find a "
aptsources.distro.NoDistroTemplateException: Error: could not find a distribution template
The problem is related to the LSB[1] entries of the OS. This can be verified with the command : 
sudo lsb_release -a

Ideally you should get an output in the terminal like this:

Distributor ID:LinuxMint
Description:Linux Mint 10 Julia
Release: 10
Codename:julia
The codename varies according to the OS. 

Here's a list:  

Linux Mint 7gloria
Linux Mint 8helena
Linux Mint 9isadora
Linux Mint 10julia
Linux Mint 11katya

So that is what you want to be your LSB entry. To change the entry do this (from the terminal):
sudo gedit /etc/lsb-release
OR Press Alt+F2 and type this:
gksudo gedit /etc/lsb-release
And it should look like this:
DISTRIB_ID=LinuxMint
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10
 DISTRIB_CODENAME=julia
 DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Linux Mint 10 Julia"
Mind you, my OS was Julia, so I named it thus. Name it appropriately for your OS.


[1]: Linux Standard Base

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