MX Linux Forum

I am a little bemused by the fact that ulauncher has been mentioned in various threads in the forum and for a period of time it seems, the application was available from the repos. I can't locate it in any of the repos. Jerry did say he had played around with it and noticed some issues as did dreamer. However, one post by stevo suggests it was going into the repos in 2020. Again, if it did, it is nowhere to be seen now. I downloaded it from github and had a look at it and it seems a useful application to quickly launch regularly used programs. I note that amandaville appears to have done the same some time ago. My preference is always to install from the repos for it does afford some comfort that the program has had some (even minimal perhaps) vetting and additionally if one doesn't like it, it is a trivial matter to remove an application. Any comments from developer Steve or any mod or anyone else would be welcome.

I'm bemused that another thread was started for what seems like a packaging request but its not in the right section and it doesn't actually straight up request something Kidding

ulauncher was packaged for MX-19, that is what that thread was for, and ulauncher was packaged see here
https://repology.org/project/ulauncher/versions

If you notice at that link it doesn't exist is any Debian based distro's repos except ours and Sparky Linux.
Its pretty common for Sparky Linux to not build packages like they should be (schroot, etc, etc). I'm not knocking Sparky at all, just stating facts.

There is a reason ulauncher wasn't packaged yet for MX-21, what that is I can't remember. Last thing I remember is doing something on their GitHub site, I have ulauncher 5.12.2 in my "Come Back To" packaging folder. I built a version last August for MX-21, but if I remember right something isn't right with it. You can try it and test it here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BZ1Xbj ... sp=sharing

Please remember we are like a 4 person packaging team pretty much hitting like about 500+ total packages just for MX-21 now and still doing lots of packages still for the older versions of MX....

I'm "bemused" by that

Thanks SR for clarifying that for me.
As far as the "bemusement" perhaps I should have used a slightly different word - maybe "confused"?
It wasn't exactly a package request because I very much appreciate the fact as you've put it "...we are like a 4 person packaging team pretty much hitting like about 500+ total packages just for MX-21 now and still doing lots of packages still for the older versions of MX...." and in fact I did not want to launch (pun intended here) a package request for ulauncher if indeed it had appeared previously and had been taken down, you wrote "There is a reason ulauncher wasn't packaged yet for MX-21, what that is I can't remember..." My concern was (and remains) that if a package had got a run at some point and was no longer available then the implication was there may be something wrong with said package.
Anyway, thank you again for clarifying the matter. For my part, I will resist installing the application from Github until and unless it one day finds its way into the official repos. Again, this is not a package request :)

FWIW... there are numerous lighter, better tools than ulaucher (so say I). ;^) Try using rofi, j4-dmenu-desktop or ultra simple dmenu. They consume tiny amounts of memory and can all be made blazing fast.

Now as for bemusement.... [humor?]I am bemused that ulauncher is appealing when in its own class there are tools like 'synapse' already in the repos. [/humor?]
https://www.fossmint.com/synapse-applic ... arch-tool/

Seriously though, use what appeals to you. That's what Linux is all about.

linexer2016 wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 1:06 am Thanks SR for clarifying that for me.
As far as the "bemusement" perhaps I should have used a slightly different word - maybe "confused"?

I was just playing around because you used such a awesome word.

linexer2016 wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 1:06 am ...
"There is a reason ulauncher wasn't packaged yet for MX-21, what that is I can't remember..." My concern was (and remains) that if a package had got a run at some point and was no longer available then the implication was there may be something wrong with said package.

There can be a lot of reasons why we don't/can't actually build proper Debian packages the correct way for our repos. That doesn't always mean there is something wrong with the package/application itself. If a application builds/compiles locally or some other automation system/workflow like what is used on GitHub, but it can't be built in a sbuild or pbuilder schroot, then we can't add it to the actual repos. Here is an example of a application that is probably a great application, but right now we can't add it to our repos because we can't cleanly build it in a proper schroot.
viewtopic.php?p=672983#p672983

I would say the one biggest things that stop us from getting a lot of packages into our repos sometimes is simply time and energy to work through all the nuances of getting a properly built package.
Its not that we couldn't work with the application developers to ensure their application build cleanly/properly, or do a bunch of work on the packaging to get the package to build properly, its that each such application takes time and energy to do that.

At the Debian level each package or set of packages could have one or many voluntary Package Maintainers dedicated to it. They can often focus and be more proactive than we can be, 500 maintainers can maintain 500 packages better than 4 maintainers can. Also, each package is different and can take extra effort because of different programing languages, different build systems, how the application functions/what it does, etc, etc.
But this makes sense, they are our parent Distro with massive structure, scope, and resources. Like all child/derivative Distros, we rely on the awesome work of the folks at the Debian level, their work and effort cannot be dismissed.
Here is a list of Packaging Teams for Debian https://wiki.debian.org/Teams#Packaging_teams
This is an interesting list of packages that need a maintainer at the Debian https://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/work_needing

linexer2016 wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 1:06 am ... For my part, I will resist installing the application from Github until and unless it one day finds its way into the official repos. Again, this is not a package request :)

There is nothing wrong with using a .deb package provided by the actual developer of an application. The catch here outside of being an official package from the developer is that it may not be compatible for whatever reason or hasn't been tested for stability and function with whatever version of Debian/MX you are using. The recommendation should be to play it safe, maybe try it in a VM first or at least use Timeshift and or have backups because you never know.

I can look at ulauncher again at some point, I wanted to package it, and at least attempted to at some point.
But right now I unfortunately got higher priorities in real life and for MX....

I feel that if no one is actually requesting it be built for MX21, it should be super low in priority, if even on the to-do list at all. Unless of course it's one of the packages that are popular or of particular interest to the packager in question.

Like you said, the packaging team is really busy.

I used to use synapse which is in the repos. It's okay, but looks pedestrian somehow. Ulauncher looks better, there are a lot of skins on their website https://ulauncher.io/ and they offer tons of addons (I don't use any but they're there).

It can be installed from a deb file (currently at version 5.14.3) which pulls in three or four dependencies. From what I gather, it's actively maintained (other than albert I believe; synapse I'm not sure about). While some comments above mention possible issues with it, I've had none at all, for me it's been solid and reliable both in MX 19 and 21, and as I say, it looks good.

Have you looked at MX Package installer?

Oh wait.. I seem to have misunderstood things for Synaptic hehe.

This https://youtu.be/dvMsYCGzWaM link (Ulauncher: Speed Up Your Workflow in Linux) is a 23 January 2022 video from forum member @Staempunk that you may find interesting. He installed it in MX-21.

I agree that installations should preferably be from the MX Linux repositories. That said, he downloaded ulanucher_5.14.3_all.deb from https://ulauncher.io/ which is a Ubuntu Debian file and shows several different customizations that you may find useful.