Hello all.
I’m a Fedora user, on Fedora 32 X64 Cinnamon edition.
I’m disappointed by GNOME software center due to it’s annoying unresolved bugs … So, I removed it & searched for alternative & read about “KDE Discover” (it’s package name in Fedora is “plasma-discover”) …
I would like to ask you, being openSUSE by default use KDE, about the following:
how is “KDE Discover” from point of stability ? Is it stable or buggy to degree of GNOME software center ? Is it worthy to try it ? GNOME software really crash my bones by it’s endless bugs which have no end … ! Please, kindly, I need answer for this point in special.
I read that it could be used to manage flatpak only so that user can remove “PackageKit” from system ! Is this correct ? If correct, then how can achieve this ?
Please note the output of “sudo dnf install plasma-discover” on my Fedora is:
$ sudo dnf install plasma-discover
Last metadata expiration check: 2:13:39 ago on Thu 18 Jun 2020 07:56:34 AM GMT.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
plasma-discover x86_64 5.18.5-1.fc32 updates 7.6 M
Installing dependencies:
PackageKit-Qt5 x86_64 1.0.1-5.fc32 fedora 101 k
appstream x86_64 0.12.10-1.fc32 fedora 397 k
appstream-data noarch 32-6.fc32 fedora 17 M
appstream-qt x86_64 0.12.10-1.fc32 fedora 71 k
fwupd x86_64 1.4.4-1.fc32 updates 2.8 M
kf5-kirigami2 x86_64 5.70.0-1.fc32 updates 304 k
kf5-kitemmodels x86_64 5.70.0-1.fc32 updates 114 k
libgcab1 x86_64 1.4-2.fc32 fedora 82 k
libmarkdown x86_64 2.2.4-4.fc32 fedora 47 k
libsmbios x86_64 2.4.2-7.fc32 fedora 94 k
libxmlb x86_64 0.1.14-2.fc32 fedora 97 k
plasma-discover-libs x86_64 5.18.5-1.fc32 updates 518 k
qt5-qtgraphicaleffects x86_64 5.14.2-1.fc32 updates 111 k
qt5-qtquickcontrols x86_64 5.14.2-1.fc32 updates 1.0 M
qt5-qtquickcontrols2 x86_64 5.14.2-1.fc32 updates 1.5 M
Installing weak dependencies:
PackageKit x86_64 1.1.13-3.fc32 updates 604 k
plasma-discover-flatpak x86_64 5.18.5-1.fc32 updates 104 k
rpmfusion-free-appstream-data noarch 32-3.fc32 rpmfusion-free 398 k
rpmfusion-nonfree-appstream-data noarch 32-2.fc32 rpmfusion-nonfree 105 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 20 Packages
Total download size: 33 M
Installed size: 55 M
Is this ok [y/N]: N
Operation aborted.
I have no idea about Discover. I have heard of it and it may be that some KDE users (other then me) use it.
But this being openSUSE, one of the main reasons to use openSUSE for many is YaST. And thus most here use YaST > Software Management for software management, or the CLI equivalents of zypper.
I do not want to discourage you from using Discover, but please take into account that not many here use it and that thus knowledge to provide help is limited
You don’t have to be logged in to perform the search – in other words, you don’t have to be registered in the KDE Bug Tracking system to perform the search.
Being not logged in will search for all Bug Reports containing “Discover” somewhere in the Bug Report content – you can however sort on “Component” and “Product”.
Install openSUSE with KDE as the user GUI.
Click on the Desktop and begin typing “Discover”.
Within Discover, select “Settings”.
The Flatpak-Backend should be present by default.
At the top of the Settings list there’s a section “Flatpak” – simply add sources and “Flathub” entries as needed.
Some basic documentation for Discover is here: <https://userbase.kde.org/Discover>.
[HR][/HR]Removing PackageKit is probably not a good idea – it’s a GUI front-end for Zypp which is the openSUSE management front-end to RPM.
If you remove PackageKit you’ll possibly begin missing patches and updates.
Yes, yes, “Discover” supports the KDE community’s view of patches and updates but, that’s not absolutely 1-to-1 with the openSUSE view of system patches and system updates …
“Discover” is a (non-system) user interface to Flatpaks and RPM packages – it manages user application installation at the user level – which ain’t the system level …
“Discover” is quite nice for installing applications within a user’s directories – personally, I wouldn’t use Discover to manage packages with files located in system directories …
I have PackageKit not installed for already many openSUSE versions. This will not influence zypper and/or YaST > Software Management. It will of course disarm the applet that can be used on KDE (and I believe there is similar on Gnome, do not know about other DEs). But that is exactly as I want it. It is also not installed at my systems. I do not want to bother my end-users with applets that tell them things they are not responsible for and thus only can confuse them.
you said “At the top of the Settings list there’s a section “Flatpak” – simply add sources and “Flathub” entries as needed.”
You totally misunderstand me ! It did not asking about enable/disable repositories !! I asked to make Discover front end for Flatpak package installation/removal/update management WITHOUT touching .rpm repositories (& I mean .rpm repositories remain active & enabled & managed by command line tool (DNF in Fedora / Zypp in openSUSE) so that installation/removal/update of .rpm packages remain okay by command line or package manager (dnfdragora in Fedora / YaST in openSUSE … This is what I’m asking about …
you said ““Discover” is a (non-system) user interface to Flatpaks and RPM packages – it manages user application installation at the user level – which ain’t the system level …”
Do you mean by that it depend on polkit to gain root-like power ? This is correct for GNOME software center also. Moreover, I thing you are wrong when said that it only install within user directories !! Any package you installed by GNOME software from user account that is in wheel group (has sudo poor) will be installed system-wide so that if log in with non-wheel group user account you will find such package(s) available to you, but certainly with different cache …
@hcvv
By default, “PackageKit” not installed on Fedora Cinnamon nor GNOME software. I’m who installed GNOME software manually & over last 4 years of using Fedora I used it for installing .rpm packages only 6 months (2nd half) of 1st year … After that I stop from using it for installation or removal any thing due to it’s bugs !! I was using it only as GUI browser no more … Few days ago I removed it from my system, & I feel that I removed a heavy stone from over my chest …
Discover works without PackageKit installed. To achieve that I simply don’t have PackageKit installed on my system. You should be aware that packaging differs among distros, so YMMV.
OK – then, you can configure Discover to be a “Flatpak only” front end for users who wish to install Flatpaks in their (user) directories …
Discover will ask for the password of the user “root” if it’s being used to install system packages – AFAICS, if you wish to enable the user group “wheel” with openSUSE, you’ll have to add “auth required pam_wheel.so” to ‘/etc/pam.d/su’ – “/lib/security/pam_wheel.so” is present in openSUSE Leap 15.1 via the “pam-32bit” RPM package – “wheel:x:10:” is by default present in ‘/etc/group’ …