Ubuntu Software Centre login fails

[EmperorMing the Merciless]

I go to leave some feedback about some software I downloaded from the Ubuntu Software Centre, to do my bit for the community.

The software Centre says it wants me to create an Ubuntu Single Sign on Account. Not another account. Please, please, no more accounts.

I have an Ubuntu Forums account. I have a Launchpad Account. And I have an Ask Ubuntu account, that I could only get when by creating a StackExchange account. Please tell me I have enough accounts already.

The Software Centre says <click here if you already have an account>. Maybe I do already have an account. I hope to God I do already have an account because accounts and passwords have become a problem so persistent in its extreme irritation it is as though someone is standing beside me all day, scraping their fingernails down a blackboard.

So I see if it will accept one of my existing accounts. It asks for a username and password. It gives no further information.

This is a problem in itself. Because there are so many bloody accounts and passwords, I can't even remember which ones go with which accounts any more. So I can't even log in using another account. But I give it a go. It does thankfully only want my email address and password. I don't have to try and remember a username as well.

I try my Ubuntu forums login. It doesn't work. Perhaps I typed the password wrong. I try again. No go. Oh dear. Perhaps I've not remembered the password properly. I try my Launchpad password. Nope: 'authentication failed', it says again.

So I click <I've forgotten my password>.

Okay, I know I've not actually forgotten my password, but there isn't an option to click <Tell the developers they left their shoelaces untied and that you suspect they probably have to ask their mothers to dress them before work in the morning>.

It asks me to enter my email address to reset my Software Centre Password. I'm not even sure I've got a Software Centre password. But I give it a try. I reset the Software Centre password and then try and login. But I had spent half my day fighting to login to the Software Centre yesterday as well. This was not a pleasant experience. I shall explain, but for now it seems to have at least got me to the point where the system shows me some sign of recognition.

Then the Software Centre asks for my keyring login password.

It says: "The login keyring did not get unlocked when you logged into your computer"

This is news to me. I don't want to be handing my keyring password out willy-nilly to any spurious popup that asks for it. This is the first time I have been asked explicitly for my keyring login in the six months since I installed this distribution. I do not comply.

I try instead to report this as an error to Launchpad. But I find that my password has changed. It seems Launchpad now wants the password I have just used as the reset in Software Centre. I report the bug from a terminal window. It opens Launchpad in Netsurf. I have three browsers open: Firefox, Chrome and Netsurf. Chrome is open with Launchpad logged in. But the bug report opens in Netsurf. I start writing my bug report. Netsurf crashes out. I suspect this to be a problem with Netsurf but it seems Chrome has crashed as well. Firefox, which did not have Launchpad open, is still going okay. I open Chrome again and go to my email. The keyring login password prompt pops up again. The software centre is still open in another workspace. I get rid of the keyring prompt. I can still navigate through my webmail in Chrome. So what's going on?

This is the point at which I lose the will to live. I only want to post a little note about some software I downloaded from the Software Centre. I'm not applying for a gun licence. I'm not writing a testimony to a court of law. I just want to say that the Brasero disk burning utility had a lot going for it but that it wouldn't let me save a project across multiple DVDs.

I had attempted to do this yesterday as well. At one point yesterday, the Software Centre said I could login using my Launchpad id. I don't remember at what point this happened, but it was late in the infuriatingly maladjusted login process, and it didn't tell me this when it would have been most helpful: i.e. when it first asks you to login. Ubuntu Forums lets you login with your Launchpad id by just clicking a button. Why the bloody hell can't I do that here as well?

At another point yesterday, I was typing my password into the Software Centre and the software centre wouldn't let me because it wanted at least one capital letter and one number. I had all sorts of outlandish characters in my password. It was *my* password. It was safe enough. The Software Centre wouldn't allow me to use it. What made it worse was that it was my Launchpad password I was trying to type in. I had to go and change my Launchpad password to make it compatible with the Software Centre's password form. I went through all sorts of Kafkaesque torments with this bloody sign on yesterday.

Then it said it wanted my keyring password. I felt that if I threw my computer through the window and tore great violent gashes down my couch with a big knife and kicked the wall till my toes broke and slammed the door repeatedly until the door came off its hinges and police helicopters started flying over, then I might avoid doing something I might regret. I instead swallowed my frustration, where it was absorbed like a poison into my poor agitated organs and I just slumped on the floor thinking about how soon in my life the heart attack would come and whether anyone would care.

I still can't login to the Software Centre.

[Tamlynmac]

EmperorMing the Merciless

I understand you frustration. One potential solution (I've enacted) is actually quite simple, stop using unique passwords for what could be considered low security activities. I use the same password (universal) for most all of my basic net accounts. Of course, for any high level secure accounts (financial, in depth personal info, e-mail, etc.) I use a substantially more secure, unique password.

Do you have any secure data on the Forums, Launchpad, or the Software Center? If not, why frustrate yourself by worrying about different passwords for each account? Change all your low security activity passwords to a single password, that's easy for you to remember.

Good Luck

Just a thought & my $0.02

[EmperorMing the Merciless]

Thank you for your kindly words of advice, Tammy.

I already have a sound password system, thank you. The problem I have reported is not a problem with my passwords. It is a problem with the Ubuntu Software Centre.

The Software Centre's login failures are legion. They are like a pestilence.

1. It asks to create a new account. I already have enough accounts, thank you.

2. It does not let you know you can login with Launchpad

3. It doesn't seem to let you use either your Ubuntu Forums login or your Ask Ubuntu login

4. Its password form is not compatible with Launchpad anyway

5. It saps the will to live

6. And then it asks for a keyring login as well

7. It is like some high school software project someone didn't really want to do, so they did just enough work to get a D-

8. It doesn't work.

9. Actually, can I have another Ubuntu account please? I've only got four now. That really isn't enough. Can I have a null account into which I can howl my despair?

10. Is there a smiley with its eyes gouged out?