Need Help Upgrading to 6.0.5 Flatpak On Ubuntu 24.04

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1

I’ve been using Gramps 5.16 (deb version) on Ubuntu 24.04 with the data path set to /media/linuxstore/ourdocuments/Shared/Jeff/3 Resources and Interests/Geneology/grampsdb

(/media/linuxstore is a mounted external drive)

I’m trying to upgrade to the Flatpak version of 6.0.5. I completely uninstalled 5.16 and got the Flatpak of 6.0.5 installed, but when I open Gramps and edit the DB location it won’t accept the data path of /media/linuxstore/ourdocuments/Shared/Jeff/3 Resources and Interests/Geneology/grampsdb. The /media directory doesn’t even show up in the list of available folders under Edit > Options > Family Tree > Database Path > Other Locations > Computer

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I tried creating a symbolic link pointing to the DB location, but it doesn’t seem to support symbolic links and won’t let me select it for the DB location.

How can I get Gramps 6 to accept the DB location of /media/linuxstore/ourdocuments/Shared/Jeff/3 Resources and Interests/Geneology/grampsdb ?

2

This is because flatpak is a container, it doesn’t have access to the complete filesystem. You can add a directory like so:

flatpak override --filesystem=/media org.gramps_project.Gramps

See Flatpak Command Reference - Flatpak documentation

You can also use flatseal for a graphical interface.

3 Likes
3

That was exactly the problem - Thanks!

But now I have another issue.

When loading the DB, I get an error about low level DB corruption.

346890: ERROR: dbloader.py: line 107: can’t load database backend: ‘bsddb’
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/gramps/gui/dbloader.py”, line 188, in read_file
db = make_database(dbid)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/gramps/gen/db/utils.py”, line 88, in make_database
raise Exception(f"can’t load database backend: ‘{plugin_id}’")
Exception: can’t load database backend: ‘bsddb’

I was going to try the “Repair” option, but it is grayed out.

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Any hints?

4

Our Flatpak doesn’t include the BSDDB database backend.

5

Hmmm… Good to know. So what I think you’re saying is that I can’t get there from here with Flatpak.

I tried installing the Snap package, but it wouldn’t run at all (no error, just wouldn’t start up).

I don’t feel confident enough to compile the app myself. So I guess my only option is to return to version 5.16 from the repo?

6

If you can open your database in an older version of Gramps with BSDDB3 installed, then convert it to SQLite. Once your database is converted to SQLite from BSDDB3, make a backup. Then you should be able to use the current Gramps flatpak on flathub. Personally, I think it is easier to make the backup with images included, so that the current flatpak will automatically place the media somewhere it can access.

There is an archived Gramps 5.1.6 flatpak with BSDDB3 included at the the gramps-project github site. Installation instructions are at the following link, along with the 5.1.6 flatpak under the “Assets” arrow. Release Gramps flatpak 5.1.6-1 · gramps-project/flatpak · GitHub BSDDB3 can not easily be compiled into current flathub runtimes because of copyright issues and deprecation, but this is an easy way to temporarily use an older Gramps to convert your database to SQLite.

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Did it install? What is the output of the snap list gramps command?

8

Thank you so much for the suggestion!
I was able to reinstall the 5.16 version from the Ubuntu repository, convert to SQLite, uninstall 5.16, reinstall 6.0.5 Flatpak, open my family tree, convert it to the new schema, and now I’m all set.

Suggestion: It sure would be helpful to note somewhere on the install/upgrade pages for Linux (https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Download#Linux) that the Flatpak doesn’t support BSDDB3 and therefore it’s necessary to first convert your DB to SQLite before upgrading to the 6.0 Flatpak.

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