2010-02-04

KPackageKit woes

I remember recently trying the latest version of Kubuntu simple because I was getting sick of compiling with Gentoo. Well Kubuntu was fine and dandy. But when it came to install software I had to use the new KPackageKit and that was fine, it didn't bother me. What came to bother me was that it's a bloody pain in the arse to mess with.

First of all, when trying to install the latest version of a package. You would come across multiple versions of it. And it's hard to navigate when there is multiple versions of the same package. Because you might accidentally install the older version and what not. So I looked through the interface for an option to show me the latest version. Okay it says show update versions or something like that. Find, I clicked it. But does it show me the latest versions, bloody no.

If you change any option in the drop down list to like show only package not installed to something else. Does it update the list? Bloody no. I have to basically either close the application and do it again with no packages listed or change the other drop down list. This was a few months ago. I just recently tried Fedora 12 out. It has KPackageKit also. So I tried to love KPackageKit again. And it was the same complete mess again. Same exact problems.

So without further ado. I think I'll just go stick with OpenSuse with it's nice install interface application YaST or simple just deal with Gentoo's portage. Because I cannot understand how distros can just go install a bloody buggy application like KPackageKit. I have no time to mess with such tool like that. It's nothing wrong with the distros. The distros are fine. Just KPackageKit. I just want to stab it over and over again.

15 comments:

  1. Same here. I hate it. I always just install Synaptic and apply the KDE theme to it.

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  2. I'm a KDE user and I mostly stick to command line but when want a GUI package manager I always use Synaptic.

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  3. Same here. I always use Synaptic with Kubuntu.

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  4. I never used Synaptic or I can't remember it's been really a long time before I used (K/U)buntu. But also Fedora uses it. I can't remember if apt does it, but if I used yum in Fedora. It doesn't really make it easy to tell whats install/what versions available, etc unless I do yum info . I just wish it was more easier like I do in Gentoo by using emerge -av @ or emerge -av

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  5. Yep, KDE user (Debian Sid) and I always use Synaptic, or the command line. It's really a shame that things have been this way for as long as I've used GNU/Linux, like 9 years now, that KPackage has always been clunky.

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  6. @lefty.crupps I might have to try Synaptic if I ever go back to a Debian based distro. I try to avoid Debian as much as possible. Too bad FreeBSD doesn't like my USB keyboard :( or I would be using FreeBSD.

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  7. @ComaWhite why do you avoid Debian? It isn't a *buntu distro you know, which I avoid due to the huge number of bugs that I encounter, the lack of responses an fixes for a bug in any particular release ("upgrade to the next release's beta and let us know if its there"), the inability to upgrade from one release to the next, the poor implementation of KDE..

    I have many reasons to avoid a *buntu, but no reasons to avoid Debian itself. I love it and its stability. I'd like to hear your thoughts on why you do not use it.

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  8. Wow, I feel sorry for you KDE people. What idiot ported that headache from GNOME? It's been an utter-failure from the start, and I think it's a bit funny you're complaining about much the same things I did when Fedora introduced it eons ago (fc8?).

    PackageKit (and all of it's backend and frontends) is one of the first programmes I un-install when installing a new distribution.

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  9. @ Micheal: I honestly have no idea who made the port. I haven't used Fedora since Fedora Core 4.

    @lefty.crupps 1) I don't like GNOME period. I cannot stand it lack of innovation, it's poor features and ugly looks of GTK+. 2) The support via the IRC Channel is retarded, they feel like their are some elite bloody arseholes it's not even funny. You'd wait 10 hours just to get a bloody response from someone. 3) Trying to find repos is a pain the last time I tried Ubuntu. 3). Kubuntu has a poor implementation of KDE4, that is so slow that my Gentoo box's KDE4 is much faster. 4) Ubuntu is turning more commercial just like GNOME is turning more in to a Microsoft Partner and selling out. 5) KPackageKit. Probably a lame amount of excuses but oh well :รพ

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  10. KPackageKit is alpha software that simply shouldn't be part of a stable distribution. Frequently I've had it silently fail to install applications that apt-get or Synaptic have no trouble with. While it is far better in Karmic than in Jaunty, where it crashed more often than a destruction derby champion, it is still not ready for the "real world". Let's hope this changes for Lucid, or that it is thrown out altogether.

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  11. @ Rambo Tribble I totally agree. I don't know who on those distro's decided to do it. I'd love to see it be thrown out completely.

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  12. Not very related to KPackageKit.
    But try Archlinux. I myself jumped ship from gentoo and I love it.

    Much of the same, except the compiling. I'd still stick to the gentoo forums though. More knowledgeable ;)

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  13. @anonymous I've tried switching to Arch. It was more pain to setup correctly than it was in Gentoo.

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  14. I had a similar experience with KPackagekit which I described in this review

    As for Arch, new Chakra user here, and loving it. Arch made simple(r)!

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