PackageKit: Call for testing

Category: Ubuntu

The APT backend for PackageKit has made a lot of progress recently in the 0.3.x series. It nearly supports all features of PackageKit. 

Highlights of the 0.3.x series are:

  • Search for codecs and mime type handlers
  • Local file installation
  • Change log for updates
  • Group support
  • Repository handling
  • Notification of new distro releases
  • A lot of bug fixes

See the feature matrix for more infromation.

Currently we have got a quite outdated 0.2.4 version in Intrepid. Furthermore sharing the same version would help to reduce maintenance burden, since Fedora plans to ship 0.3.2 in the next release. But before proposing a freeze exception I would like to have some feedback.

So if you are interested in this piece of software and want to push packagekit forward please test it on your system and report bugs that you may encounter.

You can find packages of the upcoming 0.3.2 release for Hardy and Intrepid in this Personal Package Archive. Add the repository and install the packages packagekit and packagekit-gnome.

The new applications will appear in the System->Administration menu.

 

Update: I uploaded packages to the PPA which fix a problem with PolicyKit. Furthermore I fixed the reference to packagekit-gnome package above.

Update: I just upgraded the packages to 0.3.5 and filled a new freeze exception:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/packagekit/+bug/276264

<- Back to: Blog

 

  1. sebastian heinlein

    Sunday, 12-10-08 11:11

    @Achim Frase:

    Rollback is not supported with apt and never will. This is a feature of the conary backend only.

    The problem is that some Debian developers don't want to support unattended installation of software. So packagekit cannot handle all packages well, because of its non-interactive nature. See wiki.debian.org/PackageKit for details -but the side is already a little bit outdated.

    PackageKit is just an interface to the package manager of the system that is shared by several distributions. This would allow e.g. OpenOffice to call a common hook to install fonts.

  2. Achim Frase

    Saturday, 11-10-08 18:19

    @Sebastian Heinlein

    So there is no chance to see packagekit as update-manager for Jaunty Jackalope+?

    If it works properly it has some nice features like "Rollback" for example. I feel somehow stupid, telling you what features packagekit has, I think you know them better than I do ;-). I am only trying to get the "big picture" of the whole packagekit thing in relation to ubuntu. My thought was that packagekit could deliver a better user experience for the "normal" user.

    btw. thank you for helping packagekit to find its way into ubuntu.

    Regards
    Achim

  3. Sebastian Heinlein

    Saturday, 11-10-08 10:48

    @Achim Frase:

    There is no plan to use packagekit for the updates in Ubuntu.

    I am thinking about extending the update process by allowing updates to install new packages.

  4. Achim Frase

    Monday, 06-10-08 16:52

    @sebastian heinlein,

    Yes I am using Intrepid. I would like to know how this will be handled in the future.

    After an distribution upgrade, is it possible to update the kernel as an (safe-)upgrade or will packagekit be able to handle all sorts of updates in the future?

    I mean what happens if there is a security update for the kernel available, will packagkit be ready to handle that?

    Regards
    Achim

  5. sebastian heinlein

    Monday, 06-10-08 06:24

    @Achim Frase

    BLocked updates require the installation or removal of further updates. Most likely you are using Intrepid.

    Update manager can perfrom an upgrade simillar to apt-get's dist-upgrade. Unlikely packagekit can only perform a (safe-)upgrade.
Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
 

CAPTCHA image for SPAM prevention