Gfilui

when running unity-control-center i get:

/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libwebkit2gtk-4.0.so.37: undefined symbol: wl_proxy_marshal_constructor_versioned
Failed to load module: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/unity-control-center-1/panels/libinfo.so

and when running gnome-control-center I get:

gnome-control-center: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libwebkit2gtk-4.0.so.37: undefined symbol: wl_proxy_marshal_constructor_versioned

and when I start it through the UI I simply get a popup that says something like "system error, would you like to report?"

I have no idea when this started happening since I haven't used the control center in a while. and any fix I've tried has been fruitless but I've only tried reinstalling.

any help is welcome!

here is the output from "apt-cache policy libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37" (translated from swedish to english since my system is in swedish, sorry)

libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37:
 Installed: 2.20.2-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
 Candidate: 2.20.2-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
 Version table:
 *** 2.20.2-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 500
 500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 Packages
 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
 2.10.9-1ubuntu1 500
 500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
N: Ignoring file ”00trustcdrom.backup.20171209” in the directory”/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/” because it has an invalid file extension
N: Ignoring file ”00aptitude.backup.20171209” in the directory ”/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/” because it has an invalid file extension
N: Ignoring file ”01autoremove-kernels.backup.20171209” in the directory ”/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/” because it has an invalid file extension

and here is the output for "sudo apt-get update" (also translated)

Good:1 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Read:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease [107 kB] 
Good:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/bit-team/stable/ubuntu xenial InRelease 
Good:4 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease 
Good:5 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease 
Good:6 http://download.mono-project.com/repo/debian wheezy InRelease 
Read:7 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [67,5 kB]
Read:8 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main DEP-11 64x64 Icons [72,6 kB]
Read:9 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [107 kB]
Read:10 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/universe DEP-11 64x64 Icons [142 kB]
Read:11 https://download.01.org/gfx/ubuntu/16.04/main xenial InRelease [3 651 B]
Ign:11 https://download.01.org/gfx/ubuntu/16.04/main xenial InRelease
downloaded 499 kB in 1s (464 kB/s)
reading packet lists… done
N: Ignoring file ”00trustcdrom.backup.20171209” in the directory”/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/” because it has an invalid file extension
N: Ignoring file ”00aptitude.backup.20171209” in the directory ”/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/” because it has an invalid file extension
N: Ignoring file ”01autoremove-kernels.backup.20171209” in the directory ”/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/” because it has an invalid file extension
W: GPG-Error: https://download.01.org/gfx/ubuntu/16.04/main xenial InRelease: 
The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key isn't available: NO_PUBKEY 56A3DEF863961D39
W: The repository 'https://download.01.org/gfx/ubuntu/16.04/main xenial InRelease' is not signed.
N: Data from such a repository can't be authenticated and is therefore potentially dangerous to use.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

I solved the issue by restoring from backup the file

/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libwebkit2gtk-4.0.so.37

that was mentioned in the error message. The file that broke unity-control-center were a link to a file called

libwebkit2gtk-4.0.so.37.28.2 

while my old file and now working, is a link to the file

libwebkit2gtk-4.0.so.37.14.10

booth files exists and the link wasn't broken. It was just the wrong version of the file that was needed. what the file does, I have no idea but this is were this nightmare, hopefully, ends.