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jjkim
Asked: 2012-09-16 14:54:48 +0800 CST

Why are some apps incompatible with 12.10?

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I recently found out about the appAPTonCD and became hugely excited! It could take the packages of my choice in my precise desktop and pack them all in one cd, like my "essentials" installation media. I installed this app and placed my favorite packages into a cd.

Next, I wanted to insert the cd on my laptop running Ubuntu quantal daily build. I navigated to the APTonCd page on the software center, and to my dismay, I realized that it was incompatible with quantal.

Why can some apps, like this one, be incompatible in quantal? Thanks.

software-center

1 Answers

  1. You're going across releases, so there may be specific builds for that release and the app will need to be downloaded again. You're also trying to migrate the apps to a development release, so some apps may not be available yet, either waiting for QA and approval, or waiting for patches to make them compatible.

    There are other ways of doing this, that might ensure that you get the correct versions and that the dependencies are met correctly. I have this one in my notes:

    To make a file with all installed applications on the system:

    On working system:

    dpgk --get-selections | grep -v deinstall > ubuntu-files

    To then install the packages listed in this file:

    ### Make sure the system is fully updated
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
### Install the dselect tool (probably depracated)
sudo apt-get install dselect
### Give the package list to dpkg so it knows what to install
sudo dpkg --set-selections < ubuntu-files
### Use dselect to initiate installation (option 'I' will do it)
sudo dselect

    NB: There might be a better way to do this, for example calling dpkg directly instead of installing and using dselect.

    NB: Although all packages are listed only those that do not exist on the system will be installed by dpkg

    NB: cross version installation not really recommended - may install obsoleted packages (Open Office) and unwanted themes and dependancies (eg as in upgrade from 10.04 to 11.04 with Unity

    Again, as noted, cross version installation may not be ideal, but at least this way the packages will be installed fully from the correct repository. You can still use the .deb files and restore them to /var/cache/apt/archives so that they don't have to be downloaded again, however if a newer release is required or is available it will still have to be downloaded obviously.

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