Ubuntu Software Updater Just Closes - No obvious error

An annoying issue was happening on my main Linux laptop running Ubuntu 23.04. I was getting the software updates ready dialog; I would then click ok to install but the window would just close. Nothing happened.

A quick look in the logs revealed an issue with python.

Errors in journalctl revealed:

Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]: 23:38:49 AptDaemon [INFO]: Initializing daemon
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry dbus-daemon[3008]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.debian.apt'
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]: /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptdaemon/worker/pkworker.py:35: PyGIWarning: PackageKitGlib was imported without specifying a version first. Use gi.require_version('PackageKitGlib', '1.0') before import to ensure that the right version gets loaded.
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   from gi.repository import PackageKitGlib as pk
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]: Traceback (most recent call last):
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptdaemon/core.py", line 1462, in __init__
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     from .worker.pkworker import AptPackageKitWorker
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptdaemon/worker/pkworker.py", line 43, in <module>
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     from ..pkutils import (bitfield_add, bitfield_remove, bitfield_summarize,
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'aptdaemon.pkutils'
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]: During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]: Traceback (most recent call last):
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/sbin/aptd", line 39, in <module>
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     aptdaemon.core.main()
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptdaemon/core.py", line 2193, in main
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     daemon = AptDaemon(options, bus=bus)
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptdaemon/core.py", line 1466, in __init__
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     self.worker = AptWorker(options.chroot, load_plugins)
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptdaemon/worker/aptworker.py", line 205, in __init__
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     self._load_plugins(["modify_cache_after", "modify_cache_before",
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptdaemon/worker/__init__.py", line 191, in _load_plugins
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     dists, errors = pkg_resources.working_set.find_plugins(env)
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 907, in find_plugins
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     env = Environment(self.entries)
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 1044, in __init__
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     self.scan(search_path)
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 1077, in scan
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     self.add(dist)
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 1096, in add
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     dists.sort(key=operator.attrgetter('hashcmp'), reverse=True)
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2631, in hashcmp
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     self.parsed_version,
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2679, in parsed_version
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     self._parsed_version = parse_version(self.version)
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/_vendor/packaging/version.py", line 266, in __init__
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]:     raise InvalidVersion(f"Invalid version: '{version}'")
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]: pkg_resources.extern.packaging.version.InvalidVersion: Invalid version: 'v0.9.4.4-ds-git20221205-12a9702d29ab'
Sep 08 23:38:49 Blueberry org.debian.apt[1181296]: (package: syncthing-gtk)

I already had aptdaemon installed but I noticed syncthing-gtk mentioned. I haven’t used syncthing for years and probably was a really old version.

Removing syncthing-gtk solved the issue straight away. No idea why it was even being called.

sudo apt remove syncthing-gtk

Hope this helps.