I installed the appstream package from the cosmic repository (0.12.2-2) in my bionic VM, and the crash went away. Looks like this might be https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=906538, reported upstream as https://github.com/ximion/appstream/issues/198 and fixed with https://github.com/ximion/appstream/commit/734e9da66bf12fcaa94c10465db2dcf8bb2b94cb.
** Bug watch added: Debian Bug tracker #906538 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=906538 ** Bug watch added: github.com/ximion/appstream/issues #198 https://github.com/ximion/appstream/issues/198 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to appstream in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1792537 Title: /usr/bin/appstreamcli:5:g_variant_new_parsed_va:g_variant_builder_add_parsed:as_content_rating_to_variant:as_component_to_variant:as_cache_file_save Status in appstream package in Ubuntu: Triaged Status in appstream source package in Bionic: New Bug description: The Ubuntu Error Tracker has been receiving reports about a problem regarding appstream. This problem was most recently seen with package version 0.12.2-2, the problem page at https://errors.ubuntu.com/problem/fca706c9b229ddb2bae3fa59877eee4f98f69366 contains more details, including versions of packages affected, stacktrace or traceback, and individual crash reports. If you do not have access to the Ubuntu Error Tracker and are a software developer, you can request it at http://forms.canonical.com/reports/. This crash happens when trying to upgrade a fully up-to-date bionic machine to cosmic. appstreamcli crashes with the following error, thus aborting the upgrade process: E:Problem executing scripts APT::Update::Post-Invoke-Success 'if /usr/bin/test -w /var/cache/app-info -a -e /usr/bin/appstreamcli; then appstreamcli refresh-cache > /dev/null; fi', E:Sub-process retrened an error code Test Case 1. On a fresh bionic installation, change bionic to cosmic in sources.list 2. Run apt update This use case happens when the user do a release upgrade. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/appstream/+bug/1792537/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
