Zorin os software download errors

General Help
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I have just upgraded to zorin os, although the system is like a breath of fresh air and looks promising, but I really don't get it's software download procedure. I mean the screen gets stuck sometimes and the installation bar revert back after progressing multiple times. It's frustrating as I'm unable to download softwares. Can anyone enlighten me on how to fix this issue

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Software Store includes three different package management choices:

  • The standard Debian .deb packaging, which is the majority of most stable packages

  • Snap - an alternative to standard package offered by Canonical

  • Flatpak - an alternative to standard package offered by Gnome

Snap and Flatpak are containerized and as such, must download all dependencies needed, whether you already have those dependencies installed on your system or not. This is because due to the sandbox of the container, even if you already have those dependencies installed, the Flatpak or Snap cannot access them on your system and needs their own copies in their own container that they can access.

What this can mean for the user:
Flatpak or Snap downloads must access Flathub or Snap Store respectively and if there is heavy traffic or a discrepancy in the files, they can get stuck. Or if the depends list is large, can seem to move very slowly.
With Flatpak, if dependencies are already included from a previous Flatpak file, then it will move to download them in software, then upon checks see it has them contained, and revert that progress.

What you can do as a user to mitigate these:

  • Zorin OS includes a Source Button on the Top Right titlebar of the Software Store. Whenever you are looking at a Software Page offering an application, check the source to ensure you know how the install will behave.
  • Open a terminal and ensure that Flatpak is up to date with flatpak update command and ensure Snap is as well with sudo snap refresh
    After running these commands, you may have a better experience in Software Store (You do not need to run them every time you run Software Store).
  • Choose the standard sources as often as possible. Snap and Flatpak may be useful sometimes, but they can be confusing and add bloat, too. Personally, I just do not use them at all and remove them with sudo apt remove --purge snapd flatpak
  • Use a verbose package manager that Informs The User if there is a 404 error, a file discrepancy, a missing dependency or a duplicate. I recommend Synaptic Package Manager for a GUI application for software management:
    sudo apt install synaptic
    Software Store looks shiny, but it does not warn the user of a potentially dangerous software removal or of problems in packaging or installation.
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You can also use the Synaptic package manager to install .deb software. Not as user-friendly an interface as the Software store but maybe you'll get fewer problems (and none of the issues that come with Flatpak or Snap; Synaptic is .deb only). And easier than the terminal, if you don't already know exactly what software and command to type in the terminal.

To install Synaptic, enter the following in a terminal window:
sudo apt-get install synaptic

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I agree that the progress bar of the software store is not the most intuitive one. But just waiting for a bit will help. I've seen that happen to me almost every time I want to download something from there, but meanwhile I can do anything else in the laptop and eventually the software store will send a notification when the downloaded software has finished installing. Being stuck at 0% for a minute or two doesn't mean it's not gonna advance later, and reverting back just means that it finished to download one of the dependencies and is now downloading a different one.

You could also try using Synaptic, as 4box suggested

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