Using default browser “WEB 40.2”, I browse to software.pureos.net and pick anything, I see the “Genius Meth Tool” for example, and it wants me to install from appstream:gnome-genius-desktop… can’t see the rest.
appstream opens a “Loading…” title and the dizzy circle spins. and below that, it says “loading application details.”
Is 10 minutes long enough to load? If so, it doesn’t work either.
This can be repeated by testing several different files…
Between clicking the Install Now button and getting to the false “loading…” window, A quick screen loads showing the old PuerOS Store front end.
It looks like someone is trying a redirect because software.pureos.net and PureOS Store look to have different landing pages.
PureOS Store landing page opens but no software lists in any of the categories.
The other store, software.pureos.net opens categories, and in categories, unlike PureOS Store, displays all the programs, but loops “Loading application details” when clicking “Install Now | ✓”
Add to that dogs breakfast, if while waiting for the “Loading application details” I click the back button “<” I am taken to the old PureOS Store landing page totally different from the other store landing page.
The gnome-genius in the screenshot above is the package name. This name should be spelled out exactly as written there, without any typos and exactly with dashes etc. as written there. To install this package via the command line use:
sudo apt install gnome-genius
You will have to provide a password (your Librem 5 pincode) and the “Genius Math Tool” will then be installed. You are finished with the terminal now.
Note that “Genius Math Tool” is only visible in the application icons if you clicked “Show All Apps” at the very bottom of all app launch icons, because “Genius Math Tool” does not really fit the window of the Librem 5 and is therefore not marked as a “Mobile Friendly App”.
I tested the procedure above on my Librem 5, and I do not want to keep “Genius Math Tool” on my Librem 5, so I remove it with:
Out of curiosity are you using epiphany? That application makes my phone run at a high temperature, someone suggested downloading angelfish as a mobile browser, not sure if there is a better one but it allow my phone to run at a lower temperature.
There is a huge difference between the software.pureos.net and the link in the L5 PureOS store.
To see what I mean, please try this.
Go to software.pureos.net.
Click “Utilities”
Click 1st item in Row 1 2nd column “Metadata Cleaner”
Click on “Install”
Now click the back icon (<)
See what I mean? The software.pureos.net landing page changes to the PureOS Store version of empty categories. if you watch closely, when clicking the BACK icon, there is a flash of the PureOS Store landing page version.
I would tag your nicely detailed way of finding and installing files a ‘Solution’, but it’s not. The solution would be for Puri to fix the store. But you have a great workaround. It worked for me and I install Metadata Cleaner without a hitch. Kudos janvlug.
~s
I wonder why Puri has not commented on when this issue will be fixed.
If we are to be able to use the privacy respecting hardware, why not a method with GUI for those that don’t know Linux commands, to install privacy respecting software (APPS, Programs)?
~s
In general Purism follows the upstream free software projects, in this case GNOME Software. New releases of PureOS will bring new versions of PureOS Store, which is based on GNOME Software. I use sometimes a recent version of GNOME Software in Fedora on my laptop and desktop (although I prefer the command line). GNOME Software improved a lot over time. It will come to PureOS with new releases of PureOS, to start with Crimson, and later Dawn.
Understood. Sell people the car and when they can’t get any where, tell them the tires will be ready - one day - soon - maybe. The store should be working now. BECAUSE if people read, it’s the same thing and botched redirects (by all appearances) back to the gimped PureOS Store. It can’t be that hard to fix.
IMO: On the matter of when being when ever it happens, is putting Byzantium on ignore except for absolute emergencies. L5 will be obsolete if people can’t reach the software.
I’d love to see Puri succeed with millions of users of the L5. But that won’t happen until Puri starts talking to people that don’t speak Linux or geekineze.
Who has the time to learn all that.
I think the point is … when it is upstream software, generally speaking, it may not be good use of Purism’s time to make changes and/or fix bugs, particularly when so far behind the current version. In other words, Purism does not apply effort to the entirety of the Linux ecosystem. Purism focuses on the things that are specifically necessary for the Linux ecosystem to work on Purism hardware. If some piece of software is broken everywhere then it may be more efficient to let someone else fix it - and that will benefit everyone, not just Purism customers.
As an example, we all want the camera on the Librem 5 to integrate with the wider Linux ecosystem. However probably noone other than Purism is going to do that work (or at least noone outside the mobile Linux space) because it is hardware-specific. So Purism would focus on that (no pun intended), among other things.
There will of course be occasions where Purism does just fix some general bug and it does benefit everyone. There are always subtleties in the dynamics of everyone-waiting-for-someone-else-to-fix-it. So in reality there is a balance to be struck between the specific and the general.
I understand though that the package install GUI is an ongoing hot-button issue for you.
As @janvlug says, it may already have been fixed but until a software upgrade for the Librem 5 to Crimson or Dawn is released for general distribution, you won’t know. Does Purism have the resources to have tomorrow’s upgrade released yesterday, in order to sate the insatiable? Probably not.
Probably not.