Any advice on how to upgrade PCManFM?

[Brian49]

If anyone here is using PCManFM as their file manager and has succeeded in upgrading it to a version higher than 0.9.10-3, would they very kindly advise me how they did it, please?

In general, PCManFM is an excellent file manager which has all the features I want. But v.0.9.10-3, the most recent in the Unstable repository, is buggy, subject to random crashes. This has been reported in several other forums.

The latest version is 1.0.1. It can be compiled from source, but I have never managed to compile any package of anything. It can also be found in several PPAs, but that route leads to incurable breakages. There is no higher version than 0.9.10-3 in the Experimental repository, at least so far. Many thanks.

[Flemur]

I read your post and decided to install 1.0 because the 0.9 version had problems.

This worked:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/180986/h ... cmanfm-1-0

Generally if you haven't compiled anything before you'll be missing a lot of pieces.

Generally, to get them, each time you get an error - like "Fredfile" is missing" - look for "fredfile" in synaptic and install the "...-dev" version.
For pcmanfm I had to install the "libfm-1.0" (source is at the same link as the pcmanfm source), and (edit) "intltool" thru synaptic.

[Brian49]

Thanks for your reply.

It's not that I've never compiled anything; it's that I've tried and failed, every time. It's all too messy for me.

Does the upgrade fix the problems?

[Monsta]

This worked:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/180986/h ... cmanfm-1-0

I like where the first line in that answer leads... yeah right, it leads to another thread on this forum

Generally if you haven't compiled anything before you'll be missing a lot of pieces.

Generally, to get them, each time you get an error - like "Fredfile" is missing" - look for "fredfile" in synaptic and install the "...-dev" version.
For pcmanfm I had to install the "libfm-1.0" (source is at the same link as the pcmanfm source), and (edit) "intltool" thru synaptic.

Looks like this guide could help more than that answer. It has a list of build dependencies and some detailed instructions.

And, of course, I (naively) hope that the people who suggest doing make install are fully aware that the software can be later uninstalled only by make uninstall from the same source tree (or manually, but that's even worse). The package manager knows nothing about it.

[caerolle]

I have held off replying, as I am new and didn't want to give bad advice. However, I think you can build a .deb package, and install that, rather than doing the generic install? I know how to do make a package in Arch and install via an 'update', but have not done much with Mint/Debian. However, I think the same kind of mechanism exists, just more convoluted in Debian (natch!). I have been planning to download and install PCManFM in my Mint Xfce, because I like it more than Thunar, would be glad to share my steps if anyone is interested (and if I actually get around to it). I am probably going to install the Beaver editor, too, sits nicely between gedit (pluma) and Leafpad, and has no GNOME dependencies.

[Flemur]

It's not that I've never compiled anything; it's that I've tried and failed, every time. It's all too messy for me.

It's much easier after the first time.

Does the upgrade fix the problems?

I'm not sure what your problems were, but it still crashes sometimes when removing an SD card; it shows my camera twice, which is a new bug ... so my brief tests indicate that it's slightly worse than the previous (repository) version.

[anmys]

... However, I think the same kind of mechanism exists, just more convoluted in Debian (natch!).

Try checkinstall.

Code: Select all

$ apt-cache show checkinstall 
Package: checkinstall
Version: 1.6.2-3
Installed-Size: 514
Maintainer: Andreas Noteng <andreas@noteng.no>
Architecture: amd64
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.5), file, dpkg-dev
Recommends: make
Suggests: gettext
Description-en: installation tracker
 CheckInstall keeps track of all the files created or
 modified by your installation script ("make install"
 "make install_modules", "setup", etc), builds a
 standard binary package and installs it in your
 system giving you the ability to uninstall it with your
 distribution's standard package management utilities.
Homepage: http://checkinstall.izto.org
...

Once you have the source it is as simple as

Code: Select all

./configure
make
fakeroot checkinstall -D

which will create a deb package. Use dpkg to install it and remove it. Using fakeroot, you can create the deb even without being su Of course, you have to be su to install it.

Regards.