Pamac Qt 0.3 pre-RC: Towards the release, needs help in testing

#1

Pamac Qt pre-release-candidate is in Manjaro's repositories (for two weeks actually, didn't have time to write an announce). It's almost at the same state as Pamac GTK and needs just some minor features to match it fully.

Screenshot_20190914_091849
Screenshot_20190914_091849.png1043×586 100 KB

So I'm starting an pre-RC phase that will continue as RC once I'll implement all missing things and will provide the experience comparable to original Pamac's one.

Significant recent changes:

  • Updates notification
    Screenshot_20190914_090907

  • Local package installing
    Use pamac-qt -i <filename> to install a local package from <filename>

  • Improved transaction history dialog
    Screenshot_20190914_091355

Known issues:

  • Translation
    • Having some troubles with adopting orginal pamac's translations
  • AUR build files editing still not implemented for now
  • Transactions can't be running in terminal

Post all found bugs at issues page


or here at forum as always

P.S. ETA of stable is November or the end of the year (due to a lot of work that I have right now)

17 Likes
Manjaro 18.1.0 - Juhraya finally released!
pamac-gtk freezes with manjaro KDE 18.1.2
#2

Gitlab always receives a big "PAS" sign from me. Github offers one account for everything, on Gitlab I have to spawn accounts with every project I want to give feedback on :frowning:. Nope. I will keep avoiding it.

However, forum here is another thing, so I will happily join testing and post my findings.

#3

The answer is probably right in front of me & i'm blind, but... i am not yet able to find/see how to access all the package details.

In Pamac-GTK we simply click the arrow icon in the RHS column, to reveal the details, but this seems not to exist in Pamac-Qt...?

20190915-003043.png787×800

Also, pls could you explain how to install/use/access the apparently new Qt Updates notification?

#4

They cannot be run in terminal in gtk version too. Only Octopi allows that.
BTW all pamac variations throw errors related to /dev/tty, which is disappointing.

#5

Please open an issue for that.

#6

Double-click to get package infos.

The notifier looks like it happens when you "close" pamac-qt. It doesn't actually close but goes to the tray.

1 Like
#7

Oh. My. Dog. Thanky thanks, but now i feel Really Stupid(er). Sigh.

1 Like
#8

Not possible... erm... I mean Not at all! It's not apparent right off. I did the double-click thing on accident. :grin:

1 Like
#9

I've already tried some time ago when it was not on gitlab, pamac devs were not interested in implementing of handling of post-install requests for user input through /dev/tty. This is more of complaint matter. Octopi manages such things w/o any problem, showing input window when necessary.

#10

In response to:

I was wondering if I can do that myself. I have submitted (and have had accepted) pull requests in GitHub, but I am not too sure how to do that in GitLab.

Worse, I cannot find .desktop when I search: https://gitlab.manjaro.org/applications/pamac-qt/find_file/master

I realize you can do it yourself much faster than teaching me, but I hope it will prove to be a worthwhile investment in the long run.

Edit to add:
I think I can see a .desktop for kate, and perhaps the mechanism for building one for discover.

#11

The general impression is very good. Nice job!
It is a really good idea to have only Appstream packages on the first page.
My perspective is not a comparison to Pamac-GTK, but as a standalone program.

Functional Issues

Bugs

  • When applying an update, there is an action "refreshing databases" run, even if an database refresh was just run.
    It is an unnecessary job, time consuming and internet overloading. It might be useful if the user has delayed to apply chosen actions for a long time (for any reason), but it is uncommon and could be better dealt with adding a (possibly configurable) time delay setting.
  • In the package (included) Files section, right-click on selected text is not working (for copy), even if shortcut (Ctrl-C) does copy the selected text.

Suggestions for change (subjective)

  • When applying actions (install/remove/upgrade), always/automatically show terminal output and stay open until it is finished. The user should close the "Terminal view" to continue.
    There are messages very often, that the user should see, even if not understood. This cannot be considered as time consuming, regarding the importance of System Administration actions taken seriously. For newbies it serves an educational scope.

Graphical Issues

Bugs

  • In the "terminal" view, the font color is black and does not adjust ot the dark background.
  • Column size adjustments (Name, Version, Repo, Size, State) do not remain, after closing the program, or even changing source(repos-AUR). Are they logged anywhere? It is a big inconvenience to adjust them every time you start it. I suspect it is because you have different columns for each source and have to reset, which is a wrong decision IMHO (because you try to make it same as pamac-gtk).
  • Search results cannot be per category (legacy of pamac-gtk). I suggest a design change for this. Do not use the left pane to group the results on repos-AUR. If the columns are the same for each source (repos-AUR), the user can sort them with a column (repository) if needed. IMHO this is an important feature, which will solve a lot of UI problems (the same is valid also for pamac-gtk).

Suggestions for change (subjective)

  • The font size for the left side pane looks smaller than desired. It is functional, but I would prefer a little larger and most importantly taking regard of system font size/dpi scaling, if there is a way.
  • A different color for package icons, depending on status, would be great. I understand this may not be possible for one column items in Qt, but have you considered using more icon columns, one for each status? Then, it might be possible to have only active statuses for each package and possibly having more than one, if you select statuses that make more sense/use to end user.
  • Add a "Back" button for Update and Installed at the top of left pane, when they are used.
    It is more usable and matching to the other left pane sections. It is nice choice to have Update and Installed at top-right header. The could exist where they are, maybe duplicating the function to the left pane, or move them in case it cannot be cloned.
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#12

Right now .desktop file is provided by package repository.

It's just easier to track bugs/suggestions using gitlab. I would be glad if somebody could repost reports from forum to issuetracker.

I'm not aiming to copy Pamac GTK. It's planned feature for Qt version.

There is supposed to be a --no-tray command line option but it looks like I've removed it by accident. Will restore it eventually.

@AgentS
Thank you for such a detailed feedback! Will consider it during the further development.

2 Likes
#13

It's really come a long way @LordTermor.
Such a great job, thank you for all your hard work. Hopefully it didn't mess up those finals you had a while back! :grin:

2 Likes
#14

Thank you. When I try to edit it, I get:

You're not allowed to edit files in this project directly. Please fork this project, make your changes there, and submit a merge request.

So, I click the fork button, and I get:

You tried to fork Packages / Extra / pamac-qt but it failed for the following reason:

– Namespace is not valid

Sorry, this is my first time with GitLab.

#15

What do you want to change? Maybe it would be easier to change it myself.

#16

Thank you.
Got an 'excellent' mark in all of exams. :grin:

5 Likes
#17

It's this
cat /usr/share/applications/pamac-qt.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_US]=
Comment=
...
GenericName[en_US]=
GenericName=
...
#18

Proposed:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_US]=Manjaro Pamac-Qt
Comment=Manjaro Pamac-Qt
Exec=/usr/bin/pamac-qt
GenericName[en_US]=Add/Remove Software
GenericName=Add/Remove Software
Icon=system-software-install
MimeType=
Name[en_US]=Pamac-Qt
Name=Pamac-Qt
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
Version=1.0
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=
Categories=Qt;System;Settings

diff:

$ diff pamac-qt.desktop  pamac-qt.desktop.old 
2,3c2,3
< Comment[en_US]=Manjaro Pamac-Qt
< Comment=Manjaro Pamac-Qt
---
> Comment[en_US]=
> Comment=
5,6c5,6
< GenericName[en_US]=Add/Remove Software
< GenericName=Add/Remove Software
---
> GenericName[en_US]=
> GenericName=
#19

Done

2 Likes
#20

Thank you. I wonder if my namespace problem is related to the way I created my account? It seemed associated with gitlab.manjaro.org instead of gitlab.com, so I might need special permissions to fork the repo? Anyway, thank you for taking on the extra work.

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