Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

[claydoh]

Not much to add to his blog post, but this is cool news not just for Kubuntu, but for any Debian-based system

If you want to try it out, you might need to install the package ibdebconf-kde0 if it does not run for you.

[dibl]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

Hey, that sounds good, and so far looks good too.

I never "got" KPackageKit. IMO, a GUI package manager's most fundamental job is to show the packages -- like immediately, when you first look at it. Adept did that, as does Synaptic. I don't know what kind of a mind finds KPackageKit useful -- mine sure doesn't.

[Snowhog]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

If it develops into a package manager that provides the functionality that Synaptic does now, then we can look forward to having a non-Gnome package manager. I like Synaptic - a lot - and I'm not a 'purist' when it comes to KDE. My needs are simple: have applications that work, provide the features needed (for what the app does), and are user friendly. If a Gnome app does that better than one in KDE, I use the Gnome app. But I do agree with dibl - this looks good, even at this early stage.

[Yuri sss]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

If it develops into a package manager that provides the functionality that Synaptic does now, then we can look forward to having a non-Gnome package manager. I like Synaptic - a lot - and I'm not a 'purist' when it comes to KDE. My needs are simple: have applications that work, provide the features needed (for what the app does), and are user friendly. If a Gnome app does that better than one in KDE, I use the Gnome app. But I do agree with dibl - this looks good, even at this early stage.

If it should become as good as Synaptic, I'll gladly use it - I'm all for a got Kde/Qt package manager.

[askrieger]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

Wow! Gotta get me one a those! Although, I think I'll keep Synaptic handy for Maverick. If the developer doesn't think it's ready for prime time, I have to take his word. A package manager is too important not to have one that I REALLY trust.

I think I've tried just about every package manager that has come along, from Aptitude to Wajig, since I started using Debian based distros (six or seven years ago), but I always come back to Synaptic (even though it has a GTK based GUI). It would be nice to have KDE based package manager.

[kyonides]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

Mmm... It asks me for permission to install 129 MB of data... I guess I'll be waiting for a couple of months before testing Muon or QApt.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

Muon really looks good, but it is only two weeks old! (Alpha?)

I also noticed a "depends" tab in the properties section. It would be nice to have an "rdepends" tab too.

[Snowhog]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

It would be nice to have an "rdepends" tab too.

From the developers blog:

For all its features, Muon and QApt are not yet, in my opinion, ready. They still need support for showing reverse-depends, package downgrade and pinning support, and in general just need some more polishing and bughunting.

So he is aware of this need.

[JontheEchidna]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

Hi, guys.

The reason why it wants to download 129 MB of stuff at the moment is that since it's an alpha, I want to make sure that any crash reports I do receive come with good backtraces, so I made it depend on muon-dbg. If alpha testing goes well, I may remove the dependency. It will definitely go away before any stable release.

Nice to see the enthusiasm about the project at any rate!

[GreyGeek]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

....
So he is aware of this need.

See what happens when you just look at the screen shots!

[GreyGeek]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

Hi, guys.

The reason why it wants to download 129 MB of stuff at the moment is that since it's an alpha, I want to make sure that any crash reports I do receive come with good backtraces. If alpha testing goes well, I may remove the dependency. It will definitely go away before any stable release.

Understandable!

Nice to see the enthusiasm about the project at any rate!

It's something to be enthusiastic about! It really looks great.

Before I retired my last 5 years at work were using Qt to write in-house apps. I was thinking of writing a package manager with Qt4.6 too, but being retired and with a long list of "Honey Do ..."s I never got started. (I'm still recovering from ripping the rug out of the kitchen and installing tile ... at nearly 70 one doesn't pop back as quick as they used to just 5 or 10 years earlier. )

What I am going to do is install Maverick as a guest OS under VB and test drive your app and file bug & wish reports.

[Snowhog]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

Hi, guys.

Nice to see the enthusiasm about the project at any rate!

Welcome JontheEchidna!

Enthusiasm? Some might say that is an understatement. Those of us who have been using Kubuntu for a long time (at least, before the advent of KPackageKit) remember Adept Package Manager. When it went away, those same users, who hadn't already switched, installed Synaptic. Gnome based yes, but it 'works as designed' and is user-friendly.

I am looking forward to when your new package manager is 'ready for prime time' and we can consider replacing Synaptic. It would definitely be nice to see KPackageKit replaced as the default Package Manager.

[Telengard]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

Nice to see the enthusiasm about the project at any rate!

Hooray! This is sorely needed IMHO. Thank you very much for your efforts.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

Hi, guys.

The reason why it wants to download 129 MB of stuff at the moment is that since it's an alpha, I want to make sure that any crash reports I do receive come with good backtraces, so I made it depend on muon-dbg. If alpha testing goes well, I may remove the dependency. It will definitely go away before any stable release.
....

I installed Kubuntu Maverick as a guest OS in VB. After all the usual updates I went to your ppa page and updated sources.list using the command line. Then I issued
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install muon

It installed without any complaints, but did NOT put an option in the menu (which may be my issue). Anyway, I hit Alt-F2 and in the command line box entered: sudo muon

It came up without any problems. I played with it for a while and noticed an item that needs addressing:
1) I could not find a menu option add or remove a repository, or to reload one if I could.

and I have a wish:

2) The BIG weakness in Synaptic (and KPackageKit) is that only the currently installed driver or the next version of it can be installed. IF the next version is installed all references to the previous version are lost, which makes it impossible (via a gui) to REVERT to the previous version. Ergo, it would be nice that when a package is upgraded the previous package reference is stored to allow a quick reversion to it if the update is not satisfactory.

[JontheEchidna]

Re: Introducing Muon, a new Package Manager under Development by a Kubuntu Dev

I installed Kubuntu Maverick as a guest OS in VB. After all the usual updates I went to your ppa page and updated sources.list using the command line. Then I issued
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install muon

It installed without any complaints, but did NOT put an option in the menu (which may be my issue). Anyway, I hit Alt-F2 and in the command line box entered: sudo muon

After installing any KDE app, you have to run kbuildsycoca4 or log out/back in before it will show up. A bit annoying, yes, but nothing I can do about it from my end. :/

It came up without any problems. I played with it for a while and noticed an item that needs addressing:
1) I could not find a menu option add or remove a repository, or to reload one if I could.

Yeah, I plan to make a menu entry to launch good ol’ software-properties-kde in there soon enough. (It’s the repository manager that both Adept and KPK use in Kubuntu) It’d be nice to have a custom solution for that, but that will probably take time. To reload existing repositories, simply check for updates. (That does the same thing.)

and I have a wish:

2) The BIG weakness in Synaptic (and KPackageKit) is that only the currently installed driver or the next version of it can be installed. IF the next version is installed all references to the previous version are lost, which makes it impossible (via a gui) to REVERT to the previous version. Ergo, it would be nice that when a package is upgraded the previous package reference is stored to allow a quick reversion to it if the update is not satisfactory.

Actually, Synaptic does have a way to downgrade package versions. It’s just not completely obvious how to do that from a cursory view at its UI. You have to go to the “Package” menu, and if there is an alternate version still available, you’ll be able to downgrade it. This is something still on the todo list for LibQApt, but it is definitely planned to happen.