Reinstall software-center in Ubuntu 16.04

Question

I wanted to remove and reinstall the software-center package. I removed it, but now I can't reinstall.

I tried these commands without success:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install software-center

How can I reinstall software-center?

---

When I performed the install command this is what I got:

$ sudo apt-get install software-center
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package software-center is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'software-center' has no installation candidate

Answer 1

I know this is an old question, but here's the thing: the software center is not named software center. It's named ubuntu-software. I didn't reinstall through terminal, I used Synaptic, but I think you could probably reinstall by

sudo apt install --reinstall ubuntu-software

Also, you don't need apt-get in 16.04. You just need the apt.

Answer 2

I believe the Ubuntu Software Centre was replaced by the GNOME Software Centre in the new Ubuntu update.

To install the new GNOME software centre try the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-desktop/gnome-software
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-software packagekit

Answer 3

Just run following commands.

sudo apt-get install -f
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install software-center

If it doesn't work. Please provide more info such as the error.

Answer 4

Couple of things to try.

1. check to see if the packages are still available sudo apt list | egrep software-center

lubuntu-software-center/xenial,xenial 0.0.10-0ubuntu2 all
software-center/xenial,xenial 16.01+16.04.20160420 all
software-center-aptdaemon-plugins/xenial,xenial 0.1.6build1 all
ubuntu-kylin-software-center/xenial,xenial 1.3.10 all

2. if not then try to get the packages sudo apt-get *software-center*

See if that helps.

I ran the above commands on my 16.04 install to see which "software-center" packages are installed by default. I did a quick test to download the packages to a tmp directory, and they all downloaded.

tonym@familypc:~/tmp$ ls  
lubuntu-software-center_0.0.10-0ubuntu2_all.deb  
software-center_16.01+16.04.20160420_all.deb  
software-center-aptdaemon-plugins_0.1.6build1_all.deb  
ubuntu-kylin-software-center_1.3.10_all.deb  

Answer 5

Another way is download deb file from ubuntu mirror.

wget http://download.nus.edu.sg/mirror/ubuntu/pool/universe/s/software-center/software-center_16.01+16.04.20160420_all.deb .

then

sudo dpkg -i software-center_16.01+16.04.20160420_all.deb

It may ask for the dependencies just install packages that it needed before install package using dpkg.

Answer 6

I solved this issue in my Ubuntu 16.04 system. You should be able to fix it the same way I did.

Open Terminal and run following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade gnome-software

After it completes, run:

sudo reboot