New to Trisquel, asking about using Ubuntu packages

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cycle_mycle
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Joined: 09/25/2021

Is it advised (for lack of a better word) to use Ubuntu packages from their repos and ppas?

I need a package that isn't in the Trisquel repo and I want to make sure I don't do something that will damage or corrupt (wipe that smirk off your face) the system.

PublicLewdness
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Joined: 03/15/2020

In my experience Ubuntu packages will generally work on Trisquel so long as they were meant to work with Ubuntu 18.04.

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

Tell us the package you need. Maybe we've had experience with it and can steer you in the right direction.

cycle_mycle
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Joined: 09/25/2021

The package I need is; bibletime (2.11.1-1) [universe]

My concern is that there might be some non-free thing there. I can't image that's the case but . . .

Any way, I hope this will help me figure this out.

Thank you!

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

I was able to install it by downloading the bibletime and bibletime-data .deb files from Ubuntu:
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/b/bibletime/bibletime_2.11.1-1_amd64.deb
http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/b/bibletime/bibletime-data_2.11.1-1_all.deb

and going into the Downloads directory and installing them:
cd Downloads/
sudo apt install ./bibletime/bibletime_2.11.1-1_amd64.deb ./bibletime-data_2.11.1-1_all.deb

Works well after that. Bibletime says on github that its license is GPL2, so that should be free software:
https://github.com/bibletime/bibletime/blob/master/LICENSE

I'm not sure why it's not included in Trisquel. A lot of us on the Trisquel forum have been Bible students or Torah students over the years, so we should have a good collection of libre Biblical and Judaic resources.

jahoti
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Joined: 07/31/2021

According to Parabola's blacklist (https://git.parabola.nu/blacklist.git/plain/blacklist.txt), it's excluded due to dependency on the nonfree qt5-webengine package.

Do you have qt5-webengine installed, or is something more going on here?

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

Nope, it's neither installed nor available, nor required apparently.

trisquel@trisquel:~$ apt policy qt5-webengine
N: Unable to locate package qt5-webengine

==================================================================

Here's my /var/log/apt/history.log:

Start-Date: 2021-09-25 22:27:18
Commandline: apt install ./bibletime-data_2.11.1-1_all.deb
Requested-By: trisquel (1000)
Install: bibletime-data:amd64 (2.11.1-1)
End-Date: 2021-09-25 22:27:41

Start-Date: 2021-09-25 22:29:12
Commandline: apt install ./bibletime_2.11.1-1_amd64.deb
Requested-By: trisquel (1000)
Install: libsword-common:amd64 (1.7.3+dfsg-9.1build2, automatic), bibletime:amd64 (2.11.1-1), libminizip1:amd64 (1.1-8build1, automatic), libsword11v5:amd64 (1.7.3+dfsg-9.1build2, automatic), iio-sensor-proxy:amd64 (2.4-2, automatic), libqt5webenginewidgets5:amd64 (5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2, automatic), geoclue-2.0:amd64 (2.4.7-1ubuntu1, automatic), libqt5qml5:amd64 (5.9.5-0ubuntu1.1, automatic), libgeoclue-2-0:amd64 (2.4.7-1ubuntu1, automatic), libqt5quickwidgets5:amd64 (5.9.5-0ubuntu1.1, automatic), libre2-4:amd64 (20180201+dfsg-2, automatic), libqt5webchannel5:amd64 (5.9.5-0ubuntu1, automatic), libqt5webengine-data:amd64 (5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2, automatic), libqt5webenginecore5:amd64 (5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2, automatic), libqt5positioning5:amd64 (5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2, automatic), libqt5quick5:amd64 (5.9.5-0ubuntu1.1, automatic)
End-Date: 2021-09-25 22:29:38

As you can see, there was no package specifically named qt5-webengine package there. There were some 'libqt5web' libraries installed as dependencies though.

=========================================================================

Here's the apt policy for the 'libqt5web' libraries that were installed as dependencies - they all came from the Trisquel repos:

trisquel@trisquel:~$ apt policy libqt5webchannel5
libqt5webchannel5:
Installed: 5.9.5-0ubuntu1
Candidate: 5.9.5-0ubuntu1
Version table:
*** 5.9.5-0ubuntu1 500
500 https://archive.trisquel.info/trisquel etiona/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

trisquel@trisquel:~$ apt policy libqt5webengine-data
libqt5webengine-data:
Installed: 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2
Candidate: 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2
Version table:
*** 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2 500
500 https://archive.trisquel.info/trisquel etiona/main amd64 Packages
500 https://archive.trisquel.info/trisquel etiona/main i386 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

trisquel@trisquel:~$ apt policy libqt5webenginecore5
libqt5webenginecore5:
Installed: 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2
Candidate: 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2
Version table:
*** 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2 500
500 https://archive.trisquel.info/trisquel etiona/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

===================================================================

'apt search webengine' does show the following 'qtwebengine5' packages available, but I don't have them installed:

qtwebengine5-dev/etiona 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2 amd64
Web content engine library for Qt - development files

qtwebengine5-dev-tools/etiona 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2 amd64
Qt WebEngine tools

qtwebengine5-doc/etiona,etiona 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2 all
Qt 5 webengine documentation

qtwebengine5-doc-html/etiona,etiona 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2 all
Qt 5 webengine HTML documentation

qtwebengine5-examples/etiona 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2 amd64
Qt WebEngine - Examples

qtwebengine5-private-dev/etiona 5.9.5+dfsg-0ubuntu2 amd64
Web content engine library for Qt - private development files

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

The blacklist entry actually says it is blacklisted because of the way Arch builds the package, adding proprietary codecs during the build process and suspected of "repeating chromium's mistakes". That problem may not apply to the Debian/Ubuntu packages or libraries or whatever Debian/Ubuntu use to resolve that dependency.

cycle_mycle
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Joined: 09/25/2021

So then, this is interesting because Xiphos has libwebkitgtk as a dependency, so is it qt that has the non-free issue or webkit.

It would seem from not wanting to repeat "chromium's mistakes" that webkit is at fault. But then there's the gtk webkit that doesn't have a non-free issue?

I wonder now . . .

If bibletime does not have a webkit dependency then it is actually broken because it needs webkit in order to edit the personal commentary, which is my greatest need for bibletime.

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

Did xiphos install for you? I got an error when I tried:
"The following packages have unmet dependencies:
xiphos : Depends: libbiblesync1.1 (> 1.1.2-0) but it is not installable"

cycle_mycle
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Joined: 09/25/2021

I have to install Xiphos by source code because I need it to use gtkhtml4 (which debian and all its derivatives including ubuntu have deprecated). I need it to use gtkhtml so that the Studypad editor works and then I can edit the personal commentary. In installing it by source code, I also source code install sword and biblesync (oh oh, did I just confess a boo-boo?)

What you are describing makes sense to me because biblesync is a personal project by one of the Xiphos devs and it probably has licensing issues for Trisquel -- and all free software things.

I am more inclined to use bibletime for this reason because the thing we are talking about here has been going on for years in debian based distros. No other distro has this problem because they have no problem using gtkhtml4 . . .

So that brings up a good point, gtkhtml4 is free software and ought to be OK in Trisquel. If that could be possible it would solve all my concerns. Yay!

cycle_mycle
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Joined: 09/25/2021

As an after thought, it would -- should -- be possible to use dpkg to unpack the xiphos deb (xiphos-data.deb?) and edit the control file to remove the biblesync dependency and it ought to work that way.

dpkg-deb -R xiphos-data.deb

Edit the control file where libbilesync is in the depenencies

dpkg-deb -b xiphos-data-fixed.deb

and install xiphos-data-fixed.deb instead.

I haven't done this in a while, so don't take this as gospel (pun intended).

Bible sync is only used as an 'opt-in' resource that would allow you to sync to somewhere -- I don't know where, I do not use it. Which is why it occurred to me that it can be removed as a dependency. Maybe Trisquel devs can do that.

I don't want to step on anybodies toes and take it upon myself to do this.

Maybe if you tried that it would install and work and then prove to Trisquel devs that it's OK to remove it.

cycle_mycle
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Joined: 09/25/2021

That is definitely a good way of finding out if it would work. Thank you for having done this.

I too was surprised that bible time wasn't in the repos, especially since Xiphos is in the repos. I was under the impression the Trisquel is completely like Ubuntu with only the non-free stuff taken out of it.

But now we have learned something new and we are happy!

Thank you again!

jahoti
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Joined: 07/31/2021

> I was under the impression the Trisquel is completely like Ubuntu with only the non-free stuff taken out of it.

It is; bibletime was removed for using the nonfree qt5-webengine. However, I'm not sure if the method Andy outlined somehow pulled in this dependency or if the reason for excluding it no longer applies.

jahoti
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Joined: 07/31/2021

At a technical level, as long as they're for the release of Ubuntu matching your Trisquel version you should be OK.

Philosophically, however, be careful. If a package is in Ubuntu and not the corresponding version of Trisquel, it has been specifically excluded by the Trisquel devs. Reasons are unfortunately not published; however, if the package is also excluded in Parabola GNU/Linux (other 100% free software distro), then https://git.parabola.nu/blacklist.git/plain/blacklist.txt will offer an explanation (search for the package name using Ctrl+F or whatever the "find text" command is in your browser).

cycle_mycle
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Joined: 09/25/2021

Yeah I looked around for anything that indicated what packages are blacklisted, but wasn't able to find it.

Your idea of using Parabola for a resource to find out what might have non-free issues is a great idea. I'll keep it in mind.

Thank you.