[GNC] how to remove both GNC 4.2 and Flathub version 4.8 so can upgrade to 4.9 on Ubuntu 20.04lts

Fri Dec 24 04:08:49 EST 2021

Jeff,

Admittedly the Build on Linux  documentation does assume some degree of
familiarity with building software in general. The info is not too far out of
date but I haven't updated installing the depnedencies of GC 4.x.  The main
reason is that many of us do not start from a pristine newly installed OS
version and we generally have a lot of other software installed which will
preinstall the runtime libraries and like many part time developers we often
build software other than the GnuCash program which means we will often have
some or many of the development headers used by GnuCash preloaded on our
system. 
I build on a Ubuntu derivative (Linux Mint) and there may be some differences in
the preloaded library headers from the Ubuntu 20.04. I updated the dependency
data last time I had to do a complete install of Linux from scratch and GnuCash
was one of the first packages I built but since then Linux MIint now does major
version changes as an upgrade procedure rather than a reinstall, which means I
have not been forced to recheck all the dependencies on my own system. We rely
on users finding problems and updating the wiki when they do come across
difficulty. The different Linux distributions often have slightly different sets
of libraries loaded  with their preloaded software so it can be difficult to
identify all of the packages whih may be needed for a given distribution 

The cmake procedure is however setup to do that. It will exit with an error if
the necessary header files for a package are not present and it does identify
the missing package.  The dependency version are often also sometimes updated
with a new GnuCash version. The different Linux distributions often have their
own conventions for naming packages that they release with the distribution so
it is very difficult to produce and maintain a procedure which will work for all
systems. The README.dependencies file which is in the top directory source code
will list the main library dependencies but may not always identify dependencies
of those libraries.

The main thing is when you run into problems building is to provide a copy of
the terminal commands you used  and output generatedso that someone can help.
 The following article has information on redirecting the terminal output to a
file which can then be attached to your post to the mailing list (
https://askubuntu.com/questions/420981/how-do-i-save-terminal-output-to-a-file).

David Cousens
On Fri, 2021-12-24 at 01:43 -0600, Jeff wrote:
> On 12/20/21 3:16 AM, davidcousens49 at gmail.com wrote:
> > Jeff,
> > You may find this page helpful to unistall the flatpak version.
> > https://www.systutorials.com/docs/linux/man/1-flatpak-uninstall/
> > 
> > How did you install GC 4.2. If you built it from source and still have the
> > source and build directories it was installed from theneither
> > $sudo ninja uninstall
> > or
> > $sudo make uninstall
> > run in the build directory in a terminal should uninstall it.
> > 
> > If you installed 4.2 from the sickly life ppa you should be able to remove
> > it
> > with
> > $sudo apt remove --auto-remove gnucash
> > 
> > 
> > If not it will be a manual uninstall as per the instructions here
> > https://code.gnucash.org/wiki/Uninstall_Gnucash_Ubuntu.
> > You need to be fairly careful uninstalling manually it is the method of last
> > resort.
> > 
> > Don't delete your desktop icons/shortcuts. You may need to edit them and
> > change
> > the path to the gnucash executable depending on how and where you install it
> > but
> > you should be able to change the path to the gnucash executable and leave
> > the
> > rest of the instruction for the file to open unchanged,
> > 
> > Possibly the only way to get 4.9 installed is to build it from source or to
> > use
> > flathub.
> > 
> > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Building_On_Linux
> > 
> > The main problem is ensuring all the dependencies and header files for them
> > are
> > installed. https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Installing_Dependencies sometimes
> > you
> > will find the library has a slightly different name and occasionally there
> > will
> > be a library which is assumed to be installed by default which may be
> > missing.
> > 
> > $apt-cache search <string>  is a command which can be used to locate the
> > specific library names and what is available on your OS version  <string>
> > can be
> > a substring of the library name which identifies it eg "swig" will lsit the
> > swig2.0 and swig3.0 library if available.  You can generally use the most
> > recent
> > versions of most libraries unless the use of a specific version is
> > identified in
> > the README.dependencies file in the downloaded source files.  (I haven't
> > updated
> > the dependency list since V3 so substitute the version number listed in the
> > README.dependencies file if it is different. I used to do that after I
> > upgraded
> > to a new Linux MInt version but their version upgrade is now so good I have
> > never had to completely reinstall the OS since Linux Mint 19.1 so I have
> > never
> > had to reinstall all the dpendencies
> > 
> > When you run the cmake command  in the build directoryit will generally stop
> > with an error message if a dependency is missing. The easiest procedure is
> > to
> > load the depnendency that was missing and then rerun the cmake command until
> > it
> > completes without error. Once that is done youcan run the build commands and
> > the
> > install commands.
> > 
> > Once you get it built successfully for the first time it is usually a piece
> > of
> > cake to build and install subsequent Gnucash version Keep the source
> > directory
> > and the buidl directory as the uninstalling them is easiest by running
> > $sudo ninja uninstall in the build directory.
> > 
> > David Cousens
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On Mon, 2021-12-20 at 02:12 -0600, Jeff wrote:
> > > I currently have GNC Version 4.2 installed on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. At the
> > > recommendation of a former post for info I also have 4.8 from flat-hub
> > > somewhere on my system (have yet to find out where or how to remove it).
> > > 
> > > 4.2 is is in the launch bar and has desktop icons to multiple sets of
> > > books.  The only way I have found to run 4.8 is in software manager and
> > > have to change books manually (which 4.8 also had the nasty habit of
> > > creating backup files on the desktop for some reason).
> > > 
> > > 1) How do I uninstall both versions?
> > > 
> > > 2) how do I install 4.9 (preferably without Flathub)?  I also need
> > > desktop icons to launch GNC from the desktop for multiple sets of books
> > > (lucky me, I am the accountant/tax man for the entire family!  I won't
> > > even go into what condition I receive financial records in).
> > > 
> > > I am not opposed to building from source code but; all of my tries have
> > > so far failed miserably on GNC.
> > > 
> > > It's a simple mater under Windoze but so far nothing I have tried works
> > > on Ubuntu.  And yes, I need the desktop icons for each set of books as
> > > the icons are linked to each individuals books across multiple drives on
> > > remote servers not just mine. My memory has had to many read/write
> > > cycles to keep track of who is on which server drive and file name.
> > > 
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> 
> Near as I remember I installed 4.2 via sickly life ppa as that was the 
> only way I could.  4.8 was via Flathub.  Per your recommendations I am 
> going to try to uninstall both versions, if I can.
> 
> As far as building from source, I found the documentation links to be 
> woefully outdated for version 4.9.  I would like to build in the /opt 
> directory so is available to all users.
> 
> I vaguely remember a post about not pulling source from, I want to say 
> git-hub.
> 
> And due to having a power supply in my server literally exploding at my 
> feet while the server was up, there was a hiccup in Ubuntu causing the 
> loss of a few files. My desktop links were among them.  I think I 
> managed to recover/restore everything else (recommendations on backup 
> software would be welcome as well).  If you've never had a power supply 
> explode while you are sitting next to it, then you are in for one 
> adrenaline pumping experience. Thankfully it did not seem to do any 
> damage to the motherboard (fingers still crossed and knocking on wood).
> 