Public bug reported: After aptitude started reporting errors during a run of appstreamcli, I checked the mentioned command manually, and indeed it fails with a glib error:
marc@ellen:~$ sudo appstreamcli refresh-cache (appstreamcli:16742): GLib-CRITICAL **: 18:30:00.982: g_variant_builder_end: assertion '!GVSB(builder)->uniform_item_types || GVSB(builder)->prev_item_type != NULL || g_variant_type_is_definite (GVSB(builder)->type)' failed (appstreamcli:16742): GLib-CRITICAL **: 18:30:00.982: g_variant_new_variant: assertion 'value != NULL' failed (appstreamcli:16742): GLib-ERROR **: 18:30:00.982: g_variant_new_parsed: 11-13:invalid GVariant format string Trace/breakpoint trap I also tried: marc@ellen:~$ sudo appstreamcli refresh (appstreamcli:16676): GLib-CRITICAL **: 18:29:54.246: g_variant_builder_end: assertion '!GVSB(builder)->uniform_item_types || GVSB(builder)->prev_item_type != NULL || g_variant_type_is_definite (GVSB(builder)->type)' failed (appstreamcli:16676): GLib-CRITICAL **: 18:29:54.246: g_variant_new_variant: assertion 'value != NULL' failed (appstreamcli:16676): GLib-ERROR **: 18:29:54.246: g_variant_new_parsed: 11-13:invalid GVariant format string Trace/breakpoint trap marc@ellen:~$ sudo appstreamcli refresh --force (appstreamcli:17374): GLib-CRITICAL **: 18:30:36.810: g_variant_builder_end: assertion '!GVSB(builder)->uniform_item_types || GVSB(builder)->prev_item_type != NULL || g_variant_type_is_definite (GVSB(builder)->type)' failed (appstreamcli:17374): GLib-CRITICAL **: 18:30:36.811: g_variant_new_variant: assertion 'value != NULL' failed (appstreamcli:17374): GLib-ERROR **: 18:30:36.811: g_variant_new_parsed: 11-13:invalid GVariant format string Trace/breakpoint trap I am not sure whether this recent upgrade is related: [UPGRADE] libappstream-glib8:amd64 0.7.7-2 -> 0.7.10-1 ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.10 Package: appstream 0.12.0-3 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.17.0-6.7-generic 4.17.9 Uname: Linux 4.17.0-6-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu7 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: LXQt Date: Sun Aug 19 18:26:51 2018 InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-01-20 (941 days ago) InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Release amd64 (20151021) SourcePackage: appstream UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) ** Affects: appstream (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: amd64 apport-bug cosmic -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Desktop Bugs, which is subscribed to appstream in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1787821 Title: appstreamcli refresh crashes with glib error To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/appstream/+bug/1787821/+subscriptions -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs