Having tried to install Gramps 5.2.2. from OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (by Appstream), it seemed to have dowloaded and installed completely. But when calling up Gramps version (Help > about) I get the following
and there are, apparently, no other traces of gramps 5.2.2 on my desktop. I am wondering if perhaps the version data have not been updated (or only partially) in an otherwise genuine v5.2.2? Can anyone give me a hint how to perhaps recognise characteristics of V5.2.2 in my installation?
There are several, like the add-on managament, and the tabs in preferences. The main one, if you don’t look there, is the fact that 5.2 needs to convert your tree to the new schema, so if it doesn’t ask you for permission to do that, it’s not 5.2.
I just made a fresh Tumbleweed VM inside in Linux Mint, and on that, the welcome screen also directed me to that site, and I didn’t like that, because I prefer to use a software manager program, and am not too fond of scripts.
And when I do that, i.e. start the YaST Software Manager, I see this:
There is no sign of 5.2 in those places in gramps itself, so I guess 5.2 wasn’t actually installed…hmm
I had used ‘Appstream install’. There was first a ‘download’ action (but to where?) followed by an ‘install’ action that lasted several minutes…hmmm…
I just made a fresh Tumbleweed VM inside in Linux Mint, and on that, the welcome screen also directed me to that site, and I didn’t like that, because I prefer to use a software manager program, and am not too fond of scripts.
And when I do that, i.e. start the YaST Software Manager, I see this:
And as you can see there, Gramps 5.2.2 is available, and the checkboxes show the situation after install.
And for that, the About box says that it’s a genuine 5.2.2, with the new Preferences dialog, and Add-On Manager.
I wish it went like that to get that far…my previous reply to you explains what I did first.
I also tried the ‘Expert Download’…but the first step failed, i.e.
I just did another try with Appstream, via the route suggested by the welcome screen, and that didn’t install anything, because the software manager found a working 5.2.2. When I removed that with YaST, and restarted my VM, I found that the Appstream route, that says that it installs 5.2.2, actually installs 5.2.3 from Flathub, as you can see here:
This suggests that you should be able to follow the same route, and get 5.2.3 from Flathub. But before you do that, it may be wise to find out what you have now, e.g. by checking things with YaST first, because that will reveal whether you have the native version, like the one that I showed in my earlier message, or the Flatpak.
When I run YaST here, and search for gramps, it suggests that there is a version 5.2.2, which I don’t have. And that’s right, because I now have the Flatpak for 5.2.3. And I can see that by typing
The answer is, that you have both, but they may not show in the menu, so when you use that, you will probably run 5.1.6, which lives in
/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/gramps
You will probably see that when you type ‘gramps’ in console, it starts 5.1.6, which does not work here, because I removed that with YaST before I installed the Flatpak.
Just to be clear, if that is at all possible…I have been trying to upgrade gramps from 5.1.6 for some months now, and have been trying diverse ‘methods’, not really understanding what I was doing, deviating from my standard OpenSUSE repo YaST method because that wouldn’t work.
Yes, yes!! That method started gramps 5.2.3, apparently irreversibly. YaST still shows 5.1.6. Should I delete it? Will I always have to use ‘flatpak run’ from console from now on?
In my test, I removed the regular 5.2.2 with YaST before installing the Flatpak. And that probably meant that the Flatpak installer found no menu entry, and created its own.
And if that mechanism works like I think, removing 5.1.6 with YaST may remove the menu, leaving you with no menu at all. And maybe, flatpak repair will recreate it for you.
I\m not a flatpak specialist, but we have one here on the forum: @S.Mackay
And in the case of openSUSE, I think that the problem is, that the Python version that’s installed with Leap is too old for Gramps 5.2. And that means that, if you really want to run 5.2, you need Tumbleweed, which comes with Python 3.11 now, although that may change, because it’s a rolling release, hence the name.
And once you have Tumbleweed, you have a choice between a regular install, which relies on the Python version installed with Tumbleweed, or a Flatpak, which comes with its own Python, so that it’s independent of what openSUSE does, and will not stop working when openSUSE upgrades its Python version to one that’s too new for our code. Flatpaks also make it easier for our developers to distribute updates, because they run on many different Linuxes, so that one update can run on Debian, Mint, openSUSE, and even ubuntu, although Flatpak is not installed with ubuntu 24.04 anymore. It can be installed though, and Mint 22 still has it, even though that’s based on ubuntu 24.04.
Different desktop environments deal with app launchers (my way of referring to the *.desktop files) and some apparently put a priority when there is a conflict between the same filenames in different locations.
-distro installed system wide *.desktop files
/usr/share/applications/
-third party specific *.desktop files
/usr/local/share/applications/
-user installed for a specific profile
~/.local/share/applications/
-flatpak *.desktop files installed system-wide
/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share
-flatpak *.desktop files for a single profile
~/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share
So for @ahn both app launcher files (the gramps.desktop file for both the distro installed Gramps 5.1.6 and the flatpak Gramps 5.2.3) are installed in different places, but the desktop environment they have for OpenSUSE places a priority on the distro gramps desktop file while ignoring the flatpak’s desktop file. A further restriction some desktop environments place on flatpak desktop files is that they only check the flatpak desktop directory for changes while loading the user profile.
So the easiest solution here since the flatpak 5.2.3 is correctly installed, if Gramps 5.1.6 is not needed, is to delete the Gramps 5.1.6 provided by the distro and reboot (or log out and log back in). Once the system logs back into the user profile, the desktop environment should put the flatpak Gramps 5.2.3 launcher in the menu now that the distro-provided version of Gramps is removed.
Other workarounds if both 5.1.6 and 5.2.3 are wanted would be to use the flatpak run command in console if the flatpak is wanted, or to rename or modify the Gramps .desktop file in /usr/share/applications so that there won’t be a conflict between the two desktop files in separate directories. I don’t know if a simple rename would be sufficient (like gramps.desktop to gramps-system-install.desktop in /usr/share/applications/ using root or sudo privileges), or if the name entry in the desktop file has to be edited with a sudo nano command or opening the text editor graphically with sudo privileges. Another workaround could be to copy the flatpak’s desktop entry over to /usr/share/applications/ under a name like gramps-flatpak.desktop, but then it would have to be manually removed if the flatpak is removed. Of course all this is irrelevant if the OP just wants to use the latest version and doesn’t care about keeping the older distro provided version.
Different desktop environments deal with app launchers (my way of referring to the *.desktop files) and some apparently put a priority when there is a conflict between the same filenames in different locations.
-distro installed system wide *.desktop files
/usr/share/applications/
-third party specific *.desktop files
/usr/local/share/applications/
-user installed for a specific profile
~/.local/share/applications/
-flatpak *.desktop files installed system-wide
/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share
-flatpak *.desktop files for a single profile
~/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share
So for @ahn both app launcher files (the gramps.desktop file for both the distro installed Gramps 5.1.6 and the flatpak Gramps 5.2.3) are installed in different places, but the desktop environment they have for OpenSUSE places a priority on the distro gramps desktop file while ignoring the flatpak’s desktop file. A further restriction some desktop environments place on flatpak desktop files is that they only check the flatpak desktop directory for changes while loading the user profile.
So the easiest solution here since the flatpak 5.2.3 is correctly installed, if Gramps 5.1.6 is not needed, is to delete the Gramps 5.1.6 provided by the distro and reboot (or log out and log back in). Once the system logs back into the user profile, the desktop environment should put the flatpak Gramps 5.2.3 launcher in the menu now that the distro-provided version of Gramps is removed.
Other workarounds if both 5.1.6 and 5.2.3 are wanted would be to use the flatpak run command in console if the flatpak is wanted, or to rename or modify the Gramps .desktop file in /usr/share/applications so that there won’t be a conflict between the two desktop files in separate directories. I don’t know if a simple rename would be sufficient (like gramps.desktop to gramps-system-install.desktop in /usr/share/applications/ using root or sudo privileges), or if the name entry in the desktop file has to be edited with a sudo nano command or opening the text editor graphically with sudo privileges. Another workaround could be to copy the flatpak’s desktop entry over to /usr/share/applications/ under a name like gramps-flatpak.desktop, but then it would have to be manually removed if the flatpak is removed. Of course all this is irrelevant if the OP just wants to use the latest version and doesn’t care about keeping the older distro provided version.
Yes, yes!! That method started gramps 5.2.3, apparently irreversibly. YaST still shows 5.1.6. Should I delete it? Will I always have to use ‘flatpak run’ from console from now on?
Thank you S.Mackay, this is most helpful. Your suggestion seems to be a sound way to go.
a) How would gramps updates be handled in that (mixed) environment?
b) My flatpak installaion of 5.2.3 has no add-ons (yet). What is the method for installing them? Is there anything special to be considered?
a) flatpak updates–I haven’t played around with OpenSUSE in a long time, but the screenshots above for Yast look like it is based on Synaptic to me. I don’t know how Synaptic and derivatives integrate with flathub, sorry. However, both Gnome Software for Gnome and Discover for KDE in many distros can be set up to do flatpak updates from flathub. Since I personally get frustrated by updates from the Gnome Software app in Fedora, I manually do updates in terminal with the command flatpak update
b) Gramps now has an improved “Addon Manager” under the “Edit” menu at the top of Gramps. However, a big limitation of the Gramps flatpak is that all prerequisites have to be compiled into the gramps.flatpak installer file that users download either from flathub or manually. If you add the “Prerequisites Checker” addon through the Gramps Addon Manager I just mentioned and then add the “Prerequisites Checker” gramplet to your Gramps Dashboard, you can see which prerequisites are installed into the Gramps flatpak. Some things won’t show on the “Prerequisites Checker”, for example, it will check for “GTKSpell” and “enchant” prerequisites for the spell checker, but the Gramps 5.2 flatpak spell checker works because it has gspell instead. If you want more details about addon prerequisites in the flatpak, you can also see the prerequisites with versions, notes, and last updated under Modules (line 46 as of today) at the manifest file used to compile the Gramps flatpak flatpak/org.gramps_project.Gramps.yml at main · gramps-project/flatpak · GitHub
Here is what the “Prerequisites Checker” shows as of 4 Aug 2024 for the Gramps 5.2.3 flatpak for the addons section.
The available prerequisites in the Gramps flatpak are for Addons that I found useful for my own use, like “Graph View” and “Edit Image Exif Metadata”. A balance is needed between adding more prerequisites to make the flatpak more useful, vs increased size of the flatpak and potential for updates from all the different projects causing conflicts when compiling. Having mentioned that, if anybody wants a prerequisite added to the flatpak in order to allow a specific addon, feel free to ask by submitting an Issue at Issues · gramps-project/flatpak · GitHub
a) flatpak updates–I haven’t played around with OpenSUSE in a long time, but the screenshots above for Yast look like it is based on Synaptic to me. I don’t know how Synaptic and derivatives integrate with flathub, sorry. However, both Gnome Software for Gnome and Discover for KDE in many distros can be set up to do flatpak updates from flathub. Since I personally get frustrated by updates from the Gnome Software app in Fedora, I manually do updates in terminal with the command flatpak update
b) Gramps now has an improved “Addon Manager” under the “Edit” menu at the top of Gramps. However, a big limitation of the Gramps flatpak is that all prerequisites have to be compiled into the gramps.flatpak installer file that users download either from flathub or manually. If you add the “Prerequisites Checker” addon through the Gramps Addon Manager I just mentioned and then add the “Prerequisites Checker” gramplet to your Gramps Dashboard, you can see which prerequisites are installed into the Gramps flatpak. Some things won’t show on the “Prerequisites Checker”, for example, it will check for “GTKSpell” and “enchant” prerequisites for the spell checker, but the Gramps 5.2 flatpak spell checker works because it has gspell instead. If you want more details about addon prerequisites in the flatpak, you can also see the prerequisites with versions, notes, and last updated under Modules (line 46 as of today) at the manifest file used to compile the Gramps flatpak flatpak/org.gramps_project.Gramps.yml at main · gramps-project/flatpak · GitHub
Here is what the “Prerequisites Checker” shows as of 4 Aug 2024 for the Gramps 5.2.3 flatpak for the addons section.
The available prerequisites in the Gramps flatpak are for Addons that I found useful for my own use, like “Graph View” and “Edit Image Exif Metadata”. A balance is needed between adding more prerequisites to make the flatpak more useful, vs increased size of the flatpak and potential for updates from all the different projects causing conflicts when compiling. Having mentioned that, if anybody wants a prerequisite added to the flatpak in order to allow a specific addon, feel free to ask by submitting an Issue at Issues · gramps-project/flatpak · GitHub
Great stuff! Thanks for your encouragement !
Upgrade to 5.2.3 has worked exactly as you described. Now comes the challenge with my addons…
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