Comment 9 for bug 620011

Hi again!

It turned out that yesterday I was looking in the wrong direction to solve this. Whoops.

Anyway, what is more important is that now it is quite obvious what is going on.

How to reproduce the precise error message (in bug description):
- delete /var/cache/software-center/xapian
- now attempt to start software-center

What causes this folder to not be present on a fresh install?
- the update-software-center script which is meant to create and populate this folder crashes during a fresh install (see traceback in one of the comments)

How to reproduce:
- I set up a chroot environment following the guide at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BasicChroot
- install software-center from the archives and note the crash

I have fixed this crash in my branch at lp:~kiwinote/software-center/init-without-dbus

How to test the fix:
- branch my branch and build a deb (the history test may fail, but that isn't new)
- create a chroot environment
- install the deb you built, for instance via http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=410016&postcount=12
- notice that /var/cache/software-center/xapian is built properly, hence we should not get the original s-c crash anymore.

As for the upgrade path: anyone who has already installed software-center and upgrades to any newer version (ie not necessarily the version in my branch) of software-center in an environment running dbus (or reinstalls software-center) will no longer face this issue.

Profit! ;)