How To Install .Deb Files When Getting "The package is of bad quality" Error In Ubuntu Software Center

When trying to install a .deb file using Ubuntu Software Center in Ubuntu 11.04, you may get an error like the following:

The package is of bad quality

The installation of a package which violates the quality standards isn't allowed. This could cause serious problems on your computer. Please contact the person or organisation who provided this package file and include the details beneath.

See these examples: 1, 2, 3, 4 and many others (those are links to comments by users having this issue). After some recent updates, the error is not so often as it used to, but it's still annoying and it stops you from installing various applications.

There's no way to fix it unless those who have created the .deb fix it, but you can still install these packages by not using Ubuntu Software Center for installing .deb files. You can install .deb files either by using "dpkg" or Gdebi.


Note: sometimes, those packages are indeed of bad quality, but most of the times are just simple errors in the package description and such, which do not affect you. Either way, install them at your own risk!

1. Install .deb files using dpkg.

Assuming you've downloaded the .deb in your ~/Downloads folder, run the following commands in a terminal to install all the .deb files:

cd ~/Downloads
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo apt-get install -f

(the last command is required for installing the dependencies)


2. Install .deb files using Gdebi (this was the default behavior until Ubuntu Software Center was made default).

Firstly, install Gdebi by clicking the button below:

You can also install it using a terminal:

sudo apt-get install gdebi gdebi-core

You can then right click a .deb file and select "Open with Gdebi Package Installer".

If you want, you can set Gdebi default for installing .deb files instead of Ubuntu Software Center: right click a .deb file, select "Properties", go to the "Open With" tab and select "GDebi Package Installer" instead of "Ubuntu Software Center". Click "Close" and double click the .deb file - it should now open with GDebi and not Ubuntu Software Center: