PackageKit for GNOME

PirateJonno · 2011-05-14 02:46:02

So I've finally gotten around to making gnome-packagekit available in community. To install it, use

# pacman -S gnome-packagekit gnome-settings-daemon-updates

In case you didn't know, PackageKit is a cross-distro system for installing packages, and it now works on Arch too. Here are a few demos of what it can do:

Searching by name:

Removing packages (like -Rc):

Searching by description:

PolicyKit authentication:

Note that the prompt is a little misleading - they are NOT signed packages. This will be fixed when alpm supports package signing.

Post-install messages:

Searching by file:

This only works for installed packages. You will notice that packagekit has its own pacman.conf, located in /etc/PackageKit/alpm.d, which inherits settings from /etc/pacman.conf but can be configured individually.

Viewing the transaction log:

Editing active repositories:

Changing update settings:

Checking for updates:

You can configure more settings using dconf-editor. I recommend setting org.gnome.packagekit.enable-autoremove to TRUE (this behaves like pacman -Rs).

Last edited by PirateJonno (2011-05-14 02:46:54)

fijam · 2011-05-14 06:14:33

It works great! Thanks a lot for this contribution.

smv · 2011-05-14 08:58:37

I really wanted this. Thank you.

rasat · 2011-05-14 09:35:58

Great!
To update and add/remove are they separate apps or can be managed from one?

VCoolio · 2011-05-14 10:54:36

Nice. Fast searching. To view and install stuff it's gpk-application, to view and install updates it separate, gpk-update-viewer. There should be a menu item in the former to open the latter I think.

Also if I just run gpk-application, I can't install anything: "Authorization failed." But it never asked for a password. If I run as root, it warns: "Package installer is running as a privileged user. Package management applications are security sensitive. Running graphical applications as a privileged user should be avoided for security reasons." Installing updates on the other hand works but also without asking for a password. I don't know how that works, but it's not right, is it?

PirateJonno · 2011-05-14 16:30:25

VCoolio wrote:

Also if I just run gpk-application, I can't install anything: "Authorization failed." But it never asked for a password. If I run as root, it warns: "Package installer is running as a privileged user. Package management applications are security sensitive. Running graphical applications as a privileged user should be avoided for security reasons." Installing updates on the other hand works but also without asking for a password. I don't know how that works, but it's not right, is it?

Make sure you have PolicyKit installed and are starting ConsoleKit with your login session. Updates won't ask for a password by default, but this can be changed by editing /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.packagekit.policy. Also, never run a graphical program as root (like it says).

dapolinario · 2011-05-14 17:40:14

Where is the command gpk-update-icon?

Japanlinux · 2011-05-14 18:01:17

Is there a non-gnome version of this PackageKit? I use KDE and don't have gtk stuff. It would be silly (to me) to download a bunch of gnome deps for a single program...

anonymous_user · 2011-05-14 18:03:35

Maybe try kpackagekit from the AUR?

PirateJonno · 2011-05-15 00:35:07

dapolinario wrote:

Where is the command gpk-update-icon?

Gone. GNOME 3 doesn't use icons for notifications. Make sure you install gnome-settings-daemon-updates instead

dapolinario · 2011-05-15 03:11:06

Installed but still am not notified about the update packages. I have to run the command manually. What do you suggest for the program to notify me?

PirateJonno · 2011-05-15 03:36:48

dapolinario wrote:

Installed but still am not notified about the update packages. I have to run the command manually. What do you suggest for the program to notify me?

You might want to change org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates.force-get-updates-login to TRUE and org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates.frequency-updates-notification to something like 86400 (24 * 60 * 60 seconds)

dapolinario · 2011-05-15 05:08:24

I made the changes so that pleases me, but what does the "org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates.frequency-refresh-cache"?

Sorry then. Reframing: what is this package cache? Because the option has a time to be determined (default=86400).

Last edited by dapolinario (2011-05-15 09:46:27)

PirateJonno · 2011-05-15 05:17:24

dapolinario wrote:

I made the changes so that pleases me, but what does the "frequency-refresh-cache"?

Sorry, I don't know what you mean. The question doesn't make sense

fijam · 2011-05-17 17:16:48

I have noticed that the progress bar when downloading a package doesn't update in steps but just jumps from 0% to 100% once it is downloaded. Is this a known problem or do I have something misconfigured?

PirateJonno · 2011-05-18 00:00:32

fijam wrote:

I have noticed that the progress bar when downloading a package doesn't update in steps but just jumps from 0% to 100% once it is downloaded. Is this a known problem or do I have something misconfigured?

working ok for me

Korrode · 2011-11-28 07:26:39

If not running Gnome, you must also install the gnome-polkit package or it will fail to ask for authentication.
(At least, that was my experience with only XFCE installed.)

PirateJonno · 2011-11-29 00:28:16

dapolinario wrote:

Sorry then. Reframing: what is this package cache? Because the option has a time to be determined (default=86400).

Sorry again, I didn't notice this change. If you're still wondering, the package cache (in PackageKit parlance) refers to what pacman calls the sync databases. It's what gets updated when you run pacman -Sy. The value 86400 is the length of one day in seconds.

fijam wrote:

I have noticed that the progress bar when downloading a package doesn't update in steps but just jumps from 0% to 100% once it is downloaded. Is this a known problem or do I have something misconfigured?

I've had reports that this works on x86_64 but not i686. Unfortunately I have no idea what could be causing the difference in behaviour. Any debugging information you or others could gather would be great (I don't have access to an i686 machine).

Korrode wrote:

If not running Gnome, you must also install the gnome-polkit package or it will fail to ask for authentication.
(At least, that was my experience with only XFCE installed.)

Yeah, I guess I ought to make this an optional dependency. However it is not a hard dependency because it is still possible to use gnome-packagekit on KDE (as far as I know anyway).

bsquared · 2011-12-23 19:59:47

Hello,

I installed this today

$ sudo pacman -S gnome-settings-daemon-updates gnome-packagekit

The applications list is empty and I receive an error when running update-viewer.

$ gpk-update-viewer

(gpk-update-viewer:2572): PackageKit-WARNING **: failed to get properties: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 127
Exiting as backend details could not be retrieved: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 127

Apparently, I have missed some configuration step. Any idea what I need to do?

BTW, I have had this (v 3.0.3) running on a different computer with no issues.

Thanks,
Brian)

Last edited by bsquared (2011-12-23 20:08:48)

stefanwilkens · 2011-12-24 17:27:03

for what it's worth, there's a KDE gui to packagekit as well, available through AUR:
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=48728

Thanks for your efforts, PirateJonno

bsquared · 2011-12-27 01:18:01

Works great after a system upgrade. Thanks for the contribution.

bsquared wrote:

Hello,
I installed this today
$ sudo pacman -S gnome-settings-daemon-updates gnome-packagekit
The applications list is empty and I receive an error when running update-viewer.
$ gpk-update-viewer

(gpk-update-viewer:2572): PackageKit-WARNING **: failed to get properties: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 127
Exiting as backend details could not be retrieved: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 127
Apparently, I have missed some configuration step. Any idea what I need to do?
BTW, I have had this (v 3.0.3) running on a different computer with no issues.
Thanks,
Brian)

PirateJonno · 2012-02-16 01:09:56

fijam wrote:

I have noticed that the progress bar when downloading a package doesn't update in steps but just jumps from 0% to 100% once it is downloaded. Is this a known problem or do I have something misconfigured?

I think I might have stumbled upon a way to fix this. Try changing the line 'make -s' in the PKGBUILD to

make -s CFLAGS='-D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64'

and rebuild.

Canha · 2012-03-11 00:17:37

Just passing by to thank you for integrating this!

Leduck · 2013-02-14 00:38:26

Sorry to reopen this topic, but something has changed since the last message was posted, and I thought that it is better to reopen this than opening a new topic. The key org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.updates.force-get-updates-login no longer exists, someone is getting notifications even without this key?

UnsolvedCypher · 2013-06-07 00:37:58

This look great, but I can't figure out what command to run after installing. Does anyone know?

Arch Linux

#1 2011-05-14 02:46:02

PackageKit for GNOME

#2 2011-05-14 06:14:33

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#3 2011-05-14 08:58:37

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#4 2011-05-14 09:35:58

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#5 2011-05-14 10:54:36

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#6 2011-05-14 16:30:25

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#7 2011-05-14 17:40:14

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#8 2011-05-14 18:01:17

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#9 2011-05-14 18:03:35

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#10 2011-05-15 00:35:07

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#11 2011-05-15 03:11:06

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#12 2011-05-15 03:36:48

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#13 2011-05-15 05:08:24

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#14 2011-05-15 05:17:24

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#15 2011-05-17 17:16:48

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#16 2011-05-18 00:00:32

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#17 2011-11-28 07:26:39

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#18 2011-11-29 00:28:16

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#19 2011-12-23 19:59:47

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#20 2011-12-24 17:27:03

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#21 2011-12-27 01:18:01

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#22 2012-02-16 01:09:56

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#23 2012-03-11 00:17:37

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#24 2013-02-14 00:38:26

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

#25 2013-06-07 00:37:58

Re: PackageKit for GNOME

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