Installing Gramps from a command line

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Gramps 5.1.5 Linux Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
I had notification that a newer version of the software was available so I DL’d the tarball and unpacked it. However, the usual methods used to install a new package ( ./configure make
sudo make install) don’t work for this package.
So I’ve had to stick to the version available through Ubuntu Software. I have had a look in the documentation supplied in the text files with the release but I can’t find what the problem is - maybe because I don’t code and can’t follow the jargon etc. has anyone written an idiot’s guide to installing Gramps from a tarball on Ubuntu? Thanks.

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If you mean 5.2.1, maybe this could help you. It solved my problem on the same Ubuntu 22.04 Error after installing 5.2.1 - #10 by Urchello

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I’ve just installed Gramps on a virtual machine running Ubuntu Noble. The following steps worked for me:

  1. IMPORTANT: Make sure that you make a backup before you start.
  2. Uninstall the existing version of Gramps, if any.
  3. On Ubuntu, make sure the following packages are installed:
  • python3-setuptools
  • gettext
  • intltool
  • python3-gi-cairo
  • python3-bsddb3
  • python3-icu
  • python3-lxml (for unit tests)
  • python3-mock (for unit tests)
  1. Download the tarball.
  2. Extract, build and install with the following commands:
tar xvzf gramps-5.2.1.tar.gz
cd gramps-5.2.1
python3 setup.py build
sudo python3 setup.py install --root=/
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4

In situations like this, I strongly suggest that you ignore all tarballs and other source distributions, and wait until we have a Debian package, a .deb file, available for download.

There is a Flatpak version of Gramps 5.2.1, which is supposed to be an easy install, but I don’t recommend it, because it’s not a good upgrade if you have what’s called a system package installed now.

Note that I’m basing this recommendation on what I see in the software manager for Mint 21.3, which is based on Ubuntu 22.04.

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There hasn’t beem a Debian package update since v5.1.6 was released last August. And there is no projection for when the obstacles to building a new one will be resolved.

A reliable and timely alternative is needed. It is likely to take multiple iterations to achieve that.

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The unofficial debian package by @jmichault worked fine for me:

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Experience says that no regular user should ever be tricked into building from source. And that means, that the only alternative for the 5.1.5 offered by Debian, Mint, and Ubuntu, is our own 5.1.6, which is also a Debian package. And I write that, because I know that the .deb installers are safe, and won’t install anything if the requirements aren’t met by the user’s system, whatever that is.

The debian package by @jmichault may be an alternative, but should only be recommended if it’s been tested by developers and/or seasoned users, preferably on both Debian/LMDE and Mint/Ubuntu, because they’re not exactly the same.

Flatpaks are an alternative, if users know how to work with those, and understand that there may be conflicts between those and regular installations, and accept that Flatpaks don’t have access to all files that can be accessed by a system package.

Iterations should be done by developers, and users that know how to roll back changes with time shift and similar tools.

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I just found new releases for 5.2.2 by Jean Michault, for Ubuntu 20 and 22, and Debian 12.

Has anyone tried those already?

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I tried the one for Ubuntu 22 from Jean Michault:

And it works well on Mint 21.3.

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I have just uploaded two deb files for Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04.

Thanks to Jean Michault for the workflow.

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