New software not updated (Solved)

[T J Tulley]

I have just installed (into Celena) the genealogy program gramps - using the command ~$ sudo apt-get install gramps. This has installed gramps 2.2.6.1.

Now I find (from the gramps website and mailing list) that the latest version is 2.2.6.9 - why is that not my installed version? The differences are mainly debugs, and the community is eagerly awaiting version 3.0.

I have just run ~$ sudo apt-get update - various items were downloaded, but no sign of a later version of gramps. The items downloaded totaled 606 kB, and the names are very general, so that gramps might be included. Is is safe to install these updates? If so, how, without downloading them again?

I shall be very grateful for advice - thanks in advance.

[67GTA]

Are you wanting gramps to be the newest version by running

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apt-get update

? It doesn't work that way. You need to find some info on apt and Debian packaging and read them. Debian uses repositories, which are basically servers(computers) with all the apps/software you see in the package manager sitting on them. When you install something apt goes to these servers, downloads what you want, and then installs it to your computer. The servers have files on them to tell apt what software versions have changed since the last time you visited. When you run

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apt-get update

, apt is downloading these files and comparing them to the same files on your PC. That way, when you install something, you are always getting the latest version that is in the repos. After running

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apt-get update

, you need to run

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apt-get upgrade

to get the latest updates to Mint. Now, this will not always be the version that shows on some of the websites for apps such as gramps. The people that develop theses apps are always updating and improving them. The newest versions are sometimes buggy and need testing before they go into the general population. There is usually a period of time (determined by Mint/Ubuntu/Debian devs) before newer versions of apps are put into the repos. I'm running Daryna now, and the grapms version is 2.2.8. The best way to get the latest versions is to download them from the website/developers and compile them from source. This can be very tricky to Linux newbies and can cause system instability. This works much like Windows. You don't get every single update to every Windows program you have installed. The devs will have several beta versions until the app is stable before they release newer versions to be downloaded and installed by the average end user. Hope this helps clear things up a little. If I've confused you more, just keep asking, we will get it straightened out eventually.

[T J Tulley]

Many thanks, 67GTA, for that very clear reply. I thought the repository would (or should?) automatically include the latest stable version of software, and got the impression that versions up to 2.2.6.9 were stable. Now apparently 3.0 is released - I presume stable, so I shall hope to update and upgrade to that. I recognise that as you say there may be some delay before gramps 3.0 reaches the Debian/Mint repository.

I have printed the even pages of the manual, and they are waiting for the odd pages on the reverse side. Lengthy operation for 82 pages! Now of course there may be a new version of the manual for 3.0.

The gramps users mailing list is certainly very active, and seems to be much concerned with development rather than actual genealogy operations (although there is a separate mailing list for announcements). The community are evidently expecting a great improvement with 3.0.

I can see that there's a big learning curve ahead for me in coming to grips with filters.

For reasons outlined in various other mails, Daryna isn't performing well for me, so I'm using Celena and hoping Elyssa will be better. [See "Daryna should mount all hard drives by default " in General Questions - my second reply on 6/3/08].

[67GTA]

The 2.2.8 version in Daryna has the following dependencies:

python-central (>=0.5.
libsvg2-common
python-gnome2
python-glade2
scrollkeeper (>=0.3.14-9)
yelp
gconf2 (>=2.10.1-2)

You need to check the dependency versions of the latest version of gramps, and see if you have those versions in your repo. If not, it will not install. If Celena's version of say... gconf2 is 2.10.1-1, and the newest version of gramps requires gconf 2.10.1-3, then there will be a dependency conflict. That is another reason for the repos being set up the way they are. It would be like trying to install an app made to run on Vista libraries on XP. Some of the system file versions have changed and are no longer compatible.