[packagekit] Installing PackageKit catalogs

[Daniel Nicoletti]

> Hello all!
Hi


> I'm interested in using PackageKit catalogs for a particular  application of 
>mine. As far as I can tell, it's not quite there  yet.
> 
> Currently, when trying to install a catalog which lists already  installed 
>packages, it fails loudly:
> 
> First dialog:
> No packages need to  be installed
> 
> Second dialog:
> The action could not be completed
> The  request failed. More details are available in the detailed report.
> More  details:
>   No packages need to be installed
> 
> I'm using  gnome-packagekit 2.29 on Ubuntu, I'm sorry to bother you if the 
>issue has been  fixed since.
> 
> Here's what I would need to be able to use catalogs:
> - a  way to discover if the packages listed in a catalog file are already 
>installed,  through DBus or through pkcon.
> - a way to install catalogs without installing  gnome-packagekit, through 
>pkcon.

Well catalogs are not for the first item.
Catalogs are loaded by gnome-packagekit or KPackageKit, pkcon afair doesn't read 
that file yet.
It works quite well if the file is properly done, if you need help you can try 
posting you *.catalog here.

If you app needs to know if X package is installed you can use the packagekit
session interface: http://www.packagekit.org/pk-faq.html#session-methods
which also supports reading *.catalogs files BUT this session is NOT provided
by PackageKit, it's provided by gnome-packagekit and KPackageKit.

 
> The documentation in  org.freedesktop.PackageKit.xml says that the method 
>InstallCatalogs takes these  flags:  
>show-confirm-search,show-confirm-deps,show-confirm-install,show-progress,show-finished,show-warning
>
> 
> I  would interested in what each flag is supposed to do. I tried  
>show-confirm-search, and it displayed several dialogs at once, only one  
>responding to user input. Is that what it is supposed to do?
show-confirm-search - dialog asking the user if he wants to search for packages 
that X app required
show-confirm-deps - dialog asking the user to confirm the instalation of package 
dependencies
show-confirm-install - dialog asking the user to install the found packages
show-progress - dialog showing progress of search/install...
show-finished - dialog saying that the files were or not installed
show-warning - IIRC a dialog that is shown if an error occour


> If you're  interested in my application, I'm designing a container format for 
>themes. I  want to find a cross-distro way to express a dependency that a 
>particular theme  may have. For example: GTK themes often depend on a GTK engine 
>that's not  installed by default. Instead of finding a way to specify different 
>package  names for different distros, I thought I'd re-use PackageKit  catalogs.

Well PackageKit catalogs have distro specific package names in it.

Best,
Daniel.