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Backport Newbie Questions

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llewellen
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Backport Newbie Questions

#1 Post by llewellen »

I have read backports.debian.org and the wiki but my question wasn't answered, at least not directly enough for a novice :) I'm running debian-testing with E22 desktop

Is there an acceptable? recommended? safe? way to backport app updates that are not in any debian repo? I have installed Falkon 3.0.0 browser from the debian-testing repo. The developer has released Falkon 3.0.1-2, which is not available in any debian repo. The new release has a couple of new features but what's more important to me is that it also fixes a few annoying bugs.
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bw123
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#2 Post by bw123 »

I don't think backports is where you want to be... or relevant to the problem. You are on testing, and I don;t think there is any place to backport anything from? You should build it, try checking out the dev github or whererever it is hosted.

https://backports.debian.org/
Introduction You are running Debian stable, because you prefer the Debian stable tree. It runs great, there is just one problem: the software is a little bit outdated compared to other distributions. This is where backports come in.
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llewellen
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#3 Post by llewellen »

@bw123: Yes, that's what it seemed to me also - no way to backport anything if running testing. Recall the title of my post though: novice here scrambling to climb the learning curve. This is what I found at GitHub regarding "building" Falkon:

README.md
= Falkon Web Browser =

QtWebEngine web browser.

== Building ==

Falkon uses CMake, to build it run:

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make
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llewellen
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#4 Post by llewellen »

@bw123: I found this for some "light reading" to try to get some grasp of what's involved:

https://debian-handbook.info/browse/sta ... aging.html
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Wheelerof4te
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#5 Post by Wheelerof4te »

^You found what you're asking for, then :)

Just a hint, it is better to wait for a package to get to unstable repo, and build from it's sources. That way, you know the package has been verified for Debian. That said, there is 7-10 day delay between Unstable/Sid and Testing, provided there are no release critical bugs.

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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#6 Post by debiman »

https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
just because it's quoted so much doesn't make it less true...

hint: archlinux has falkon in [extra], and it's at 3.0.1.

llewellen
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#7 Post by llewellen »

debiman wrote:https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
just because it's quoted so much doesn't make it less true...

hint: archlinux has falkon in [extra], and it's at 3.0.1.
Caution noted. I have Falkon 3.0.1-2 installed on my other laptop that is running on Manjaro. That's how I noted a couple of bug fixes that I would like to get on my other laptop running on Debian-testing.
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llewellen
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#8 Post by llewellen »

Wheelerof4te wrote:^You found what you're asking for, then :)

Just a hint, it is better to wait for a package to get to unstable repo, and build from it's sources. That way, you know the package has been verified for Debian. That said, there is 7-10 day delay between Unstable/Sid and Testing, provided there are no release critical bugs.
A 7-10 day delay to get from unstable to testing is not a big deal. It's how long it takes a package to get to unstable in the first place that can be bothersome.

On futher reading, it seems that since this Falkon update that I'm after is in GitHub, I should be trying to learn the process to use git package-builder, no?
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#9 Post by stevepusser »

Often you can use the debian folder from a previous Debian version to build a hot new release that's not in Debian at all yet, making appropriate changes in debian/changelog. If there are any patches in debian/patches that have been fixed upstream, or have to be refreshed because of changes in the target file, then it gets more complicated. I just did Calibre 3.25.0 for a Stretch base yesterday where this applied, and had to refresh one patch because of source code changes.

Let me see what happens with Falkon 3.0.1 in a Buster pbuilder. I know their 3.0 appimage doesn't work on Stretch, but maybe they'll have one for 3.0.1 that'll work on Buster.
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#10 Post by stevepusser »

A little more research shows that falkon-3.0.1 has been out for 26 days now, so Debian is dragging. However, Ubuntu has 3.0.1 in Cosmic, so let me see if I can build their sources on Buster.

Edit: I had to revert some changes that Ubuntu made, which would only let members of the Debian packaging team build it. :(

Hopefully this will build: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show ... ter/falkon
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#11 Post by stevepusser »

So the Buster builds are done; will you install and test them? Since qupzilla is just a single deb, it's also easy just to download and install the deb instead of adding the new repo.
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llewellen
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#12 Post by llewellen »

stevepusser wrote:So the Buster builds are done; will you install and test them? Since qupzilla is just a single deb, it's also easy just to download and install the deb instead of adding the new repo.
Sorry for the delay in reponding. There was a fire in my apartment building and we have all been evacuated. I'm in a motel for the next day or two. I'm OK and my suite wasn't damaged but the fire department won't let us back in yet.

Re Falkon: which course of action do you recommend?
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#13 Post by stevepusser »

You could file a bug against the 3.0 version in testing saying that there's a new version out and requesting packaging.

You can also install and use my build from the OBS until testing gets it. Mine is versioned so that a Debian version will appear as an upgrade.
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llewellen
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#14 Post by llewellen »

stevepusser wrote:You could file a bug against the 3.0 version in testing saying that there's a new version out and requesting packaging.

You can also install and use my build from the OBS until testing gets it. Mine is versioned so that a Debian version will appear as an upgrade.
Filing a bug report might seem to be a bit pushy on my part. Where is your build loctated?
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#15 Post by Lysander »

stevepusser wrote:A little more research shows that falkon-3.0.1 has been out for 26 days now, so Debian is dragging. However, Ubuntu has 3.0.1 in Cosmic, so let me see if I can build their sources on Buster.

Edit: I had to revert some changes that Ubuntu made, which would only let members of the Debian packaging team build it. :(

Hopefully this will build: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show ... ter/falkon
Steve, I have been curious to get Falkon working in Slackware but there is no Slackbuild yet. Do you think it's worth attempting to get your binary working? I would probably sanitise it first and rebuild it [as long as it's 32-bit].

EDIT: apologies for the slight topic hijack.

EDIT2: apparently it won't work since it needs a later version of qt5.

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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#16 Post by stevepusser »

Yes, as far as I know it needs qtwebengine, which is only available in recent Qt releases, and rules out any Stretch builds. There's a 64-bit Appimage on Falkon's KDE download page, but that doesn't run on Stretch, either...somebody mentioned that they will have to wait for a Qt 5.11 Appimage for that to work. You could try it on Slackware to see what happens there, just to be sure.

llewellen, click the link I gave you, then click the link to download the package, then the one to grab the binary directly. I would suggest installing gdebi and using that to install standalone debs, or you can also use the apt command to do so.

Or you could try the AppImage to see if that'll work, or the Flatpak, and I also hear that there are snaps available. Those will all be much more bloated than my dynamically linked build, though.

https://www.falkon.org/download/

Edit: I got the 3.0.1 flatpak to install and run on Stretch, but it's a 360 MB download.
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llewellen
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#17 Post by llewellen »

@stevepusser: Thank you. My laptop that is running on Debian is still in my apartment and the latest word is that we will not be allowed back in until at least Thursday of this week. When I get back in, I will download and install your build and report results. I appreciate your efforts :)
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Re: Backport Newbie Questions

#18 Post by Lysander »

stevepusser wrote:You could try it on Slackware to see what happens there, just to be sure.
Yes, tried it out. Converted the .deb to a .txz and rebuilt the package, but it just comes up with nothing when it's clicked. That was expected though.

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