Strange issue with package update

[jdowdster]

This problem seems benign but I'm getting it repeatedly and I'm wondering how to get rid of it.

After running the package update tool I began to get a desktop notification that some data files failed to download and did it want me to run the update now. When start the update up comes a console which seems to be running some 3rd party tool and this is the dialog I see in the konsole:

ttf-mscorefonts-installer: processing...
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe
Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe [198 kB]
Fetched 198 kB in 1s (169 kB/s)
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/andale32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe
Err:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe
404 Not Found
W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/arial32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)
E: Failed to fetch https://pilotfiber.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/arial32.exe 404 Not Found

E: Download Failed

I've tried to run the tool "ttf-mscorefonts-installer" by hand but I can't find it anywhere.

Any thoughts or advice?

Cheers!!

[howefield]

Try the following command in a terminal..


sudo touch /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/ttf-mscorefonts-installer

You won't get any feedback in the terminal after entering the command but it should stop the prompts.

[jdowdster]

howfield,

Thanks for the response.

Any ideas as to why this is happening? My setup is pretty standard. Why would this particular package update cause my installation grief?

Cheers!!

[howefield]

The script that the the package runs in order to download the fonts from the sourceforge server is pointing at the wrong location, as I understand it. There are a ton of bugs on launchpad if you want to read more ;)

What I do to get around this is to install the 3.6 version of the ttf-mscorefonts-installer rather than the repository 3.4 version, for info as follows..


wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/msttcorefonts/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb -P ~/Downloads

will download the package to your Downloads folder, and


sudo apt install ~/Downloads/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb

will install the package.

[jdowdster]

howefield,

Thank you sir. I actually installed using your described steps. You can never have too many fonts.

Seasons Greeting to you and yours and have a Great New Year!!

[howefield]

And seasons best to you too :)

Feel free to mark the thread as solved if you feel that it is.

[jdowdster]

Desperately trying to figure how to do that!! lol...

[colin.p]

Thanks, I just started to get this error....and now I don't.