This question already has answers here: “Failure to download extra data files” with ttf-mscorefonts-installer on Ubuntu 16.04 (3 answers) Closed 3 years ago .

This is an old problem that deserves a bugfix, but it's getting beyond a joke now and I can't seem to work around it.

I keep getting the dreaded failed To download extra data files error in relation to ttf-mscorefonts-installer :

Repeatedly asking it to try again doesn't help, additionally, repeatedly trying-

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/* sudo apt-get --purge --reinstall install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Isn't working either. I just get at least one 404 error from one of the sourceforge links that stops it working-

Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done 0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 20 not to upgrade. Need to get 0 B/29.5 kB of archives. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Preconfiguring packages ... (Reading database ... 352049 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.4+nmu1ubuntu2_all.deb ... mscorefonts-eula license has already been accepted Unpacking ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2) over (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2) ... Processing triggers for fontconfig (2.11.94-0ubuntu1.1) ... Processing triggers for update-notifier-common (3.168.2) ... ttf-mscorefonts-installer: processing... ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/andale32.exe [198 kB] Fetched 198 kB in 0s (339 kB/s) W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/andale32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied) ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arial32.exe [554 kB] Fetched 554 kB in 0s (575 kB/s) W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/arial32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied) ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe Get:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/arialb32.exe [168 kB] Fetched 168 kB in 0s (306 kB/s) W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/arialb32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied) ttf-mscorefonts-installer: downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/comic32.exe Err:1 http://downloads.sourceforge.net/corefonts/comic32.exe 404 Not Found W: Can't drop privileges for downloading as file '/var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/comic32.exe' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied) E: Failed to fetch https://netix.dl.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the fonts/final/comic32.exe 404 Not Found E: Download Failed Setting up ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.4+nmu1ubuntu2) ...

The specific point at which it fails to download changed - it seems to be a sourceforge reliability problem, but this has now been going on weeks and results in annoying popups as above all the time.

How do we get this fixed and/or how can I work around it for now.