[H] Scid on Ubuntu

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shiv
Posts: 351
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 2:03 am

Re: [H] Scid on Ubuntu

Post by shiv »

Sadly debian and ubuntu packages are not the same anymore. A debian package can work on ubuntu (but often has different dependency packages). Also, debian packages are not indexed by the ubuntu repositories.

A short term term fix is relatively easy: Write the package for ubuntu (its basically a large config file) or adapt the debian package for ubuntu.

A long term solution is to add this to the ubuntu repository and find a maintainer.
Linshark
Posts: 59
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 8:22 pm
Location: Thisted, Denmark

Re: [H] Scid on Ubuntu

Post by Linshark »

The Scid Debian package installed fine on my Ubuntu 9.10 RC, no dependency problems.
Great book about the future of technology:
The singularity is near, by Ray Kurzweil.
shiv
Posts: 351
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 2:03 am

Re: [H] Scid on Ubuntu

Post by shiv »

Great. The short term problem is then solved by using the debian package.

The longer term problem of scid ubuntu being updated remains. I will send a message to the current ubuntu maintainer to see if he can update scid.
Linshark
Posts: 59
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 8:22 pm
Location: Thisted, Denmark

Re: [H] Scid on Ubuntu

Post by Linshark »

shiv wrote:Great. The short term problem is then solved by using the debian package.

The longer term problem of scid ubuntu being updated remains. I will send a message to the current ubuntu maintainer to see if he can update scid.
You're right, it's a lot of work if you needed to manually update
all packages :)
Let us know if the maintainer answers, please.
Great book about the future of technology:
The singularity is near, by Ray Kurzweil.
Michel
Posts: 2292
Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:50 am

Re: [H] Scid on Ubuntu

Post by Michel »

There are some strange things being said on this thread here.

(1) I think if a package is in Debian then it is the next release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is basically a consumer version of Debian.

(2) A corollary of (1) is that a Debian package should install on Ubuntu. Of course if it is truly bleeding edge then it may have unsatisfied dependencies on your current Ubuntu distro. If you really want the package you can try to install the dependencies as well. This may or may not work. Or you can simply wait for the next release of Ubuntu.
shiv
Posts: 351
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 2:03 am

Re: [H] Scid on Ubuntu

Post by shiv »

Michel wrote:There are some strange things being said on this thread here.

(1) I think if a package is in Debian then it is the next release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is basically a consumer version of Debian.

(2) A corollary of (1) is that a Debian package should install on Ubuntu. Of course if it is truly bleeding edge then it may have unsatisfied dependencies on your current Ubuntu distro. If you really want the package you can try to install the dependencies as well. This may or may not work. Or you can simply wait for the next release of Ubuntu.
1 is not right. Ubuntu packages are tested and certified by Canonical amongst others. What is confusing is that debian packages are send downstream and duly modified/maintained/or discarded by the downstream ubuntu community. There are also many ubuntu only packages.

The debian community is upset because many of the contributions by the Ubuntu maintainers do not go back to Debian. There is currently a discussion on how to better communicate between the 2 distributions at http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/21761/

2 is right in theory, but in practice there is much twiddling as you mention. There are also maintenance issues. Say you install version 1.0 of package x from debian. What happens when x version 1.1 is pushed to ubuntu testing? Your local install will not be updated when you update other packages (or when ubuntu asks to update your system).

I would not want to install a debian package on ubuntu unless it perfectly worked with all dependencies, because if the Debian package brought a dependency that is older (or even newer) than that supported by the Ubuntu distro, it can create other conflicts. It would be simpler to install the package from source instead.

As an aside, I am glad and surprised there is so much interest in Ubuntu (or Debian) in this forum.
shiv
Posts: 351
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 2:03 am

Re: [H] Scid on Ubuntu

Post by shiv »

Linshark wrote:
shiv wrote:Great. The short term problem is then solved by using the debian package.

The longer term problem of scid ubuntu being updated remains. I will send a message to the current ubuntu maintainer to see if he can update scid.
You're right, it's a lot of work if you needed to manually update
all packages :)
Let us know if the maintainer answers, please.
It seems that Scid on Ubuntu is maintained by a group which supports multiple packages, http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/scid .

There is a bug to update the ubuntu version of scid to the upstream debian version, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/258183 . However, it sadly appears that this request is on a wishlist. Thus, it appears that someone has to volunteer to be a maintainer or just support the bug in large numbers. Worse yet, this might mean that ubuntu scid version will not be updated for a few releases.