Installing QGIS fails on Ubuntu 22.04 due to dependency issues

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Please take this as informational only…Including outside sources as you did with qgis.sources brings in packages that are not in the Ubuntu sources so you will get mixed versions or packaging versions.

That is not a good outcome, you learned early how outside sources or PPA’s can do more harm than good.

A Personal Package Archive (PPA) in Ubuntu is a software repository that developers use to distribute their software to Ubuntu users. Not all of them are trustworthy for a stable system. Or a normal everyday user will create one for personal needs.

That said Not all are bad either, you will learn which to use with caution or confidence.

Now the Bad News Python is a very important piece to your systems Package-Manager so best when working on Python projects to avoid conflicts between package versions.

Please take the time now to back-up anything important to you, I’m going to suggest a Clean New install to get get you out of this Python Hell.

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PPAs can be a big problem. As a rule, I avoid them like the plague. I’m also the same way about unofficial Snaps not provided by upstreams, Canonical, or known developers. The big reason is because they don’t usually get the testing they need and the other reason is that they don’t provide any certainty of support.

However, I’m a little shocked a repo (it’s not really a PPA as it’s not hosted on Launchpad but even if it were, same logic applies) provided directly by an upstream is a problem. I use VirtualBox’s upstream repo every day at work and it’s flawless. There are reasons for this: it’s a primary and supported means of software distribution and as such, gets tested against supported versions of Ubuntu and gets maintained for them. That means it’s always working within the context of the dependency versions available in the Ubuntu repos, so these sorts of problems never exist.

Of course I discovered recently that QGIS changes the icon on JPGs, throttling over the chosen icon theme and instead plastering it with the QGIS logo. I realize QGIS has a legitimate reason to work with JPGs but this sort of behavior is rather ridiculous. It gives one the feeling that the default application to open a JPG is now QGIS. So either they know this and they don’t see it as a problem or they never bothered to look into the impact. If the latter is true, this may speak to their testing practices (or lack thereof).

Going back to VirtualBox, there’s another reason I like to use their upstream repo instead of the one in the Ubuntu repos: I can get support directly from the upstream. Many applications are used by wide swaths of users but virtual machine managers are not one of them. Furthermore, the developers and experts on VirtualBox are not necessarily Ubuntu users so they don’t pay attention to the Ubuntu bugs. So reporting VirtualBox bugs in Ubuntu tends to get a relatively slow and unproductive response (not a criticism of maintainers of the software in Ubuntu). Upstream, everyone contributing/involved knows the software intimately and uses it often. Bugs are answered quickly and definitively.

I say this because it applies here: there are a relatively small number of QGIS users in Ubuntu. All of the participants upstream are QGIS users. So I would expect any bugs to be dealt with swiftly and effectively. That said, since you’re using the upstream version, you should go upstream for support. I would start by filing an issue.

I also have a maybe unpopular suggestion? I see they distribute a Flatpak. Maybe try that instead since it will resolve all these dependency concerns. Or is there some compelling reason to not consider that as a viable solution?

One thing I will point out in closing: we, the Ubuntu community, are happy to help with whatever you try to do with your installation. That includes using software distributed directly by upstreams. However, we can’t guarantee support for such things in the way we can with the software distributed by Ubuntu itself. If you file bugs in Ubuntu against upstream software, it will usually get closed because of this. So do know that in using upstream software, you are removing the option of getting full support for it within the confines of the Ubuntu ecosystem.

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:smiley: Very Nice and complete Reply @wxl :clap: Kudo’s

I’m not saying a word now…:smiley:

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Thanks for all your explanations. Little by little I’ll get to know how this ecosystem work…(maybe!)
I think I’ll do file a complaint to QGis developers
Lastly I did the install using flatpak…and it worked! I didn’t do that before because, guess what? … I didn’t even know it could work on Ubuntu nor had I heard of flatpak before.
Didn’t try ubuntugis-stable (yet)
So thanks again

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Ugh, yes. Can I also say QGIS’ site is not very useful? So many words and yet so hard to find relevant info.

What repo I was referring to that’s not a PPA is here. You can see all their debs here. This PPA is altogether different (see here) and has its debs here.

Yes, there is one itsy bitsy teeny tiny reference to that PPA:

For Ubuntu we also used to have extra packages in a separate repository that are based on ubuntugis, which held more up-to-date versions of other GIS packages than Ubuntu itself for LTS versions. If you want those you also need to include ubuntugis-unstable ppa in your /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qgis.list file (see ubuntugis documentation).

I read some important things here:

  • the phrasing “used to have” implies “no longer have” (or maybe no longer support)
  • if not installing other GIS packages besides QGIS, this might have no value
  • “want” suggests that you don’t “need,” so this is isn’t a requirement to the installation, but an option
  • note, too, that the links appear to be related to a team called Ubuntu GIS, which is clearly not the same as the QGIS team

That said, @permaadminnew I would suggest that you avoid that PPA. If you were using it before, that might have been the problem, actually.

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Complaints to an open source project can sometimes be counterproductive, so be careful about that. It is not a customer-vendor relationship, so don’t be an aggrieved customer.

I will just throw out there that the best way to improve an open source project that is important to you…is to get involved and help them. You have already seen many different of types help that a volunteer could contribute.

(For example, all of us here at Ubuntu Discourse are also volunteers)

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I agree @ian-weisser What I wanted to say is to just let them know of the issues I have experienced.
I just wanted to thank all of those have tried to help so far!

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Agreed it is rather cryptic, and not to add anymore confusion, but there is 2 more PPA’s Unstable, and Nightly.

Happy to hear @permaadminnew is making progress though. :slight_smile:

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Don’t forget experimental!

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