software-center crashed with UnicodeDecodeError in __hash__(): 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xd0 in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

had the same issue when installed blender from the application lens and while blender was installing searching and installing openshot through the application lens

fresh 12.04 install here so its not an upgrade issue imo

Any hints how to reproduce this are welcome, I tried this with software-center 5.2 and the LANGUAGE set to "ru" but could not reproduce the crash.

But given that it affects 10 more people it seems like we need to add some extra protection.

Happened when trying to see the reviews of an app (gparted).

Hello mastaiza, or anyone else affected,

Accepted software-center into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

Unfortunately, I also am unable to reproduce the original error. However, I was able to test software-center version 5.2.1 in precise-proposed and can verify that this fix causes no regressions or other problems.

Many thanks!

This bug was fixed in the package software-center - 5.2.1

---------------
software-center (5.2.1) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  [ Michael Vogt ]
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp977179:
    - make the review UI react correctly to conditions of network
      availability (LP: #977179)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/fix-crash-deb-file-size-calc:
    - fix crash when installing a deb file that is not found in
      the current apt cache
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp981992:
    - fix a crash in the new a11y code if there is a row that has
      no data or is not yet preloaded (LP: #981992)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/fix-gmenu-searcher:
    - fix the menu searcher for non-Unity configurations after
      the app-install-data-ubuntu file layout changed
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp808455:
    - trivial fix for crash on downstream distros (LP: #808455)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/lp927262:
    - fix crash when get_vadjustment() returns None (LP: #927262)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/utf8-fixes:
    - fix various utf8-related crashes (LP: #943500, LP: #922225,
      LP: #917755)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/gwibber-utf8-lp985255:
    - fix a utf8 crash in the gwibber integration (LP: #985255)
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/workaround-gtk-regression-lp986186:
    - workaround performance issue with the Gtk.TreeView.set_model()
      call when there is a cell_data_func attached. Not every user is
      affected (settings dependant somehow), but when affected it causes
      a massive performance degration for huge list models like "System"
      (LP: #986186). This branch works around the problem by disconnecting
      the cell_data_func before setting the new model.
  * lp:~mvo/software-center/fix-clear-credentials-race:
    - fix an incorrect use of the sso dbus backend, we now correctly
      wait until it emits a CredentialsCleared signal (LP: #986117)

  [ Gary Lasker ]
  * lp:~gary-lasker/software-center/add-to-launcher-after-auth-lp972710:
    - fix bug where an application will be added to the Unity launcher
      in the case where the user cancels the installation auth dialog
      (LP: #972710)
  * lp:~gary-lasker/software-center/recommendations-sso-login-lp973612:
    - fix bug where the recommendations opt-in panel is hidden if
      the user declines the SSO dialog after opting in (LP: #973612)
    - fix the user experience if the user has previously opted-in to
      recommendations and their SSO token is found have been removed
      or revoked or otherwise found to be invalid (LP: #967064)
    - improve the responsiveness of the spinner in the recommendations
      flow
 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:47:19 +0200