Devilspie2 doesn't work after upgrading from 22.04 to 24.04

[paddylandau]

Ubuntu Version: 24.04

Desktop Environment: GNOME

Problem Description

After upgrading today from 22.04 to 24.04 (and solving a big crash in the process!), everything seems (so far) to work correctly, except that devilspie2 doesn’t work.

$ devilspie2
devilspie2: error while loading shared libraries: liblua5.3.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I’m using Ubuntu on XOrg, not Wayland.

I removed and then reinstalled it (some lines below removed for brevity):

$ sudo apt install devilspie2
…
The following additional packages will be installed:
  liblua5.1-0
The following NEW packages will be installed
  devilspie2 liblua5.1-0
0 to upgrade, 2 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.
…
Selecting previously unselected package liblua5.1-0:amd64.
…

Unfortunately, this didn’t help, But, as you can see, it installs liblua5.1-0, which is a different version from the error message that attempting to run devilspie2 returns (liblua5.3.so.0).

Do you know what I need to do to get it working, please?

[halogen2]

Please post the output from running the following command in Terminal -

apt-cache policy liblua5.3-0

[paddylandau]

Ah, it showed that it wasn’t installed!

I have installed liblua5.3-0 and it now works.

Thank you — I really should have thought of this. I guess that the stress of having to fix a broken upgrade has left me without thinking powers, ha ha

Thanks again.

[rubi1200]

@paddylandau the correct way to mark posts as solved is to use the checkbox in the relevant post, in this case post 2.

It is to the left of the like (heart) icon.

Thanks.

[paddylandau]

Thank you. I forgot

I’ve done it now.

[halogen2]

@paddylandau

Thank you — I really should have thought of this.

You’re welcome

In case it helps, the suggestion came from based on Ubuntu – Package Contents Search Results -- liblua5.3.so.0

[paddylandau]

That looks like a most useful page. Thank you for the reference.

It keeps giving me 500 Internal Server Error, but if I’m persistent it eventually responds correctly!