Ubuntu 16.04 LTS gnome software crash [closed]

Solution 1:

Newbie in Ubuntu. I got the exact same error messages in 2 new fresh installs of Ubuntu 16.04 on VMware player 12. One consequence of this problem was that all icons in the Ubuntu Software Manager ended up being blanks.

Additionally the error message stated:

UnreportableReason: You have some obsolete package versions installed. PLease upgrade the following packages...

I completed the update process:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade    
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Those steps resolved my problem.

note: apt-get upgrade left the gnome package and a few others kept back, so apt-get dist-upgrade allowed those left over packages to be installed. I understand there are some concerns about using apt-get dist-upgrade but since I had a fresh install of Ubuntu I went ahead with it and it solved my problem. Hope this helps.