There is more than one Software "Center". I'm seeing that some people have problems with certain ones. Since you say Gnome Software Center isn't working for you, then you can install ubuntu-software-center
. You can do this by running these commands from the terminal.
(Please note, the $ symbol is the terminal prompt. The command is what following the prompt.)
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-software
You can decide which one will be your default by right clicking on a *.deb
package and choosing the one that works best. Then click on Set as Default
.
Note:
ubuntu-software
and gnome-software
are the same on Ubuntu 16.04. ubuntu-software
is a symbolic link to gnome-software
. If one is broken it's unlikely the other will work.
The system updates above may resolve the issue. If they don't, install an alternate software installer:
$ sudo apt-get install software-center
Perform these steps to fix gnome-software
/ubuntu-software
Rename or remove the ~/.local/share/gnome-software
. In the steps below it's removed and will be recreated when you start gnome-software
. It currently has a list of what has been installed.
The first line will ensure the locked up instances are removed from memory. It might not be necessary.
$ killall gnome-software
$ rm -r ~/.local/share/gnome-software
Now run ubuntu-software
or gnome-software
from the Unity Launch Button.