Install package from downloaded tar file

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I learned to install from /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ by following the “Downgrading packages manually” section of this Web page: Downgrading packages - Manjaro

In my case, the command was:

sudo pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/gwenview-24.05.2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

I did that because something undesirable happened after the latest Manjaro stable branch upgrade (in my case the 2024-10-01 and the 2024-10-10 upgrades together), which gave me gwenview-24.08.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.

But I found gwenview-24.07.90-1.tar (between the two versions mentioned above) on this page: Tags · Arch Linux / Packaging / Packages / gwenview · GitLab

Questions:

  1. How can I install gwenview-24.07.90-1.tar? (Would it be for instance the same pacman -U command?)
  2. If gwenview-24.07.90-1.tar cannot be installed, how/where can I find gwenview-24.07.90-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst (same format as found in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ )?

Background:

  • What is undesirable about version 24.08.1-1 is that its window has a much wider minimum width than before. (In general I don’t understand why developers set anything but a very narrow minimum width. If I make a window too small and can’t see some of the buttons, that’s my business.)
  • On many posts I’ve read about ending up “partially updated” through downgrading packages and its downsides and so understand them as well as my limited technical background permits me to.
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Wrong approach - with what you referred to with your link.
There is only a PKGBUILD in each of them.

Your package cache might contain up to three previous versions by default.

https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php/Downgrading_packages

manjaro-downgrade
will give you access to much more
120 in the case of gwenview

I still think this is the wrong way to go …

3

Thank you. I will try manjaro-downgrade. (It was staring me in the face in the page I linked!)

Is that a reference to being “partially updated” and the problem with dependencies later?

From what I’ve gathered, nothing depends on gwenview (at least in my case) though gwenview depends on a number of things.

Couldn’t I just use the older (acceptable) version gwenview until there is a dependency problem and then decide whether to uninstall it or live with the undesirable features of the latest version?

4

You would have to download the old version from source and compile it against the libraries in the stable branch. Every time one of its dependencies gets updated in stable, you would need to recompile it.

You should report a bug against the new version of Gwenview on bugs.kde.org so that the developers can fix whatever undesirable thing happens with the latest version.

5

Yes. You’ll essentially force your system into a partial update state.

maybe, perhaps
it’s your system, you can try what you like
it’s fairly easy to revert …

KDE/Plasma had a big change from qt5 to qt6 recently - along with some easy to solve problems.
I don’t actually use KDE - only in a VM
and gwenview works just fine there (except apparently for one persons .heif format photos his smartphone takes)

6

470159 – Gwenview minimum window height is too large when editing tools are shown (accessibility, cut off, 768)

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