I've found an odd quirk and am curious if there's a reason or a workaround. I'm running Ubuntu 20.04, and I've installed the Mendeley desktop deb file, downloaded from the Mendeley site. However, immediately after installing it, I get a warning that I need to update my system. The only thing that is updated though is that Mendeley is removed.
Is ubuntu just morally opposed to its users using Mendeley?
Edit:
So it seems to be remaining installed now, not sure what I did differently from yesterday, but I've included all the steps since the first post. I still have errors on python and gconf2 but that's a different question I'll post after I do some more reading on them.
I went to the Mendeley website and re-downloaded the 64bit version (mendeleydesktop_1.19.8-stable_amd64.deb), which was the same as what I was using previously. Then I installed it using 'sudo dpkg -i mendeleydesktop_1.19.8-stable_amd64.deb' and got the following output
$ sudo dpkg -i mendeleydesktop_1.19.8-stable_amd64.deb
Selecting previously unselected package mendeleydesktop.
(Reading database ... 414402 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack mendeleydesktop_1.19.8-stable_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking mendeleydesktop (1.19.8) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mendeleydesktop:
mendeleydesktop depends on python; however:
Package python is not installed.
mendeleydesktop depends on gconf2; however:
Package gconf2 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing package mendeleydesktop (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.24-1ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
mendeleydesktop
A few odd things I noticed in there, I DEFINITELY have python installed and I hadn't noticed the errors before. I tried to repair (not sure if that's the correct term) the problems with sudo apt --fix-broken install. After which I got the following output:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
mendeleydesktop
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 452 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 414860 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing mendeleydesktop (1.19.8) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.24-1ubuntu3) ..
Mendeley, was removed (obviously). I then re-installed Mendeley (same output as above) and then ran sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade with the following output
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Ign:1 http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu disco InRelease
Hit:2 https://desktop-download.mendeley.com/download/apt stable InRelease
Hit:3 http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu disco Release
Hit:4 http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:6 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Hit:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/musicbrainz-developers/stable/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:8 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu vivid InRelease
Hit:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
Hit:12 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease
Hit:13 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu vivid-updates InRelease
Hit:15 https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Hit:16 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit:17 http://ppa.launchpad.net/system76-dev/stable/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:18 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu vivid-security InRelease
Hit:10 https://ctan.math.ca/tex-archive/systems/win32/miktex/setup/deb focal InRelease
Hit:19 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease
Hit:9 https://packagecloud.io/slacktechnologies/slack/debian jessie InRelease
Hit:20 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
12 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'universe/binary-i386/Packages' as repository 'http://miktex.org/download/ubuntu focal InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'i386'
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
mendeleydesktop : Depends: python
Depends: gconf2
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).
As long as I don't try to fix the broken install it seems to be working fine. Functionality (for my purposes) seems fine as well. Its probably not working as well as it should be, but... good enough for now I think?
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade) and edit your question to post whatever output you get? – Esther May 18 '22 at 20:54