Installing nala on PureOS 10x / Debian equivalent version

Software PureOS
1

Just watched this cool video about the nala front-end for apt

Trying to figure out which version of nala to install, there’s one for Bebian 22.04 and also Debian Bullseye/Ubuntu 20.04 and 21.04

Normally I use /etc/issue and/or lsb_releease -a command to find upstream version, but on PureOS it returns this

mini:~$ cat /etc/issue
PureOS \n \l

mini:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	PureOS
Description:	PureOS
Release:	10.0
Codename:	byzantium

Anyone know which version of Debian (if any) that PureOS 10 tracks?

1 Like
2

Tracking “Nala – APT on Steroids” article should help there, should help you. Also, please let us know if this guide helped you to install (easy one) and in particular how the nala package works for you. Thanks for the linked info/video (although didn’t watch it, not yet)! Actually linked article self-defines that this package doesn’t come from Debian 11 repo (therefore …).

3

I took an educated guess and opted for the nala_legacy package, and that seems to have been the correct choice. It’s working, although I do get the odd flatpack error here and there.

4

Yes, nala_legacy package (as recommended choice) belongs to the same repo: https://gitlab.com/volian/nala.

5

Are you using nala on Librem 5?

6

No, but I’ve used it succesfully on Librem Mini v2 and Librem 14. I like the utility.

7

Now that I have a Librem 5 with PureOS Crimson on it, I’ve been trying to figure out how to install nala.

Was going to try the nala legacy package, as linked from the 0.11.0 nala release page, but download link is 404ed.

Looks like I might have to build from source to get it working. Will update this thread or create a new one with the HOWTO steps when I do.

UPDATE: Found the gitlab issue discussion with workaround instructions and link to old legacy .deb package.

1 Like
8

Nala legacy package installation fails. Proceeding with workaround method.

$ sudo apt install ./nala-legacy_0.11.0_amd64.deb 
[sudo] password for purism: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'nala-legacy:amd64' instead of './nala-legacy_0.11.0_amd64.deb'
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 nala-legacy:amd64 : Depends: libc6:amd64 (>= 2.29) but it is not installable
                     Depends: libexpat1:amd64 (>= 2.1~beta3) but it is not installable
                     Depends: zlib1g:amd64 (>= 1:1.2.0) but it is not installable
                     Depends: apt:amd64 but it is not installable
                     Depends: python3-apt:amd64 but it is not installable
                     Depends: libpython3.9:amd64 but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
9

Had success installing nala on a Librem 5 running PureOS 11 Crimson using the Volian Scar instructions. (copied below)

Volian Scar

Alternatively you can use the Volian Scar repo.

Updates from this repo are slightly faster than the Debian repos, but usually only about a day sooner.

The following command will setup the repository and install Nala for you.

curl https://gitlab.com/volian/volian-archive/-/raw/main/install-nala.sh | bash

note: Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 and Debian Bullseye this script may fail. If it does run

sudo apt install -t nala nala