Bug 433795

Summary:	Cannot install kate on RHEL7
Product:	[Applications] kate	Reporter:	Hannes <h2+bugs>
Component:	application	Assignee:	KWrite Developers <kwrite-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	normal	CC:	christoph, justin.zobel, nate, waqar.17a
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	unspecified
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Hannes 2021-03-01 15:33:06 UTC

SUMMARY

I want to install a modern version of Kate on RHEL7. The machine is not connected to the internet due to company policy.

I have tried all the fancy pre-packaging systems that are supposed to solve the problem of deploying a non-system binary, but none of them work.

Flatpack:

It is available on RHEL7, yay. But there is no documentation whatsoever of how to use this without an internet connection. 
https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.kde.kate provides no downloadable package just a "ref"-package. I have even looked all over https://binary-factory.kde.org/view/Flatpak/job/Kate_x86_64_flatpak for a downloadable artefact, but there seems to be none.

Snap:

It is available on RHEL7 and I could bribe my admin to activate the daemon and create the necessary sockets/folders. But the package (a) needs root to install and (b) doesn't seem to contain everything that it needs.


Appimage:

Ok, so this one is supposed to be straightforward, right? Downloaded the binary from https://binary-factory.kde.org/job/Kate_Release_appimage/ and copied it to the system. 
Tried to execute... get Symbol mismatches in libstdc++. PRELOAD newer libstdc++ from a local install of GCC, get symbol mismatches in glibc. Manually install older GLIBC and libm and preload those -> App segfaults on start.


Summary:

None of the fancy new install methods seems to work, and I am still stuck with Kate from 7 years ago :'(

I know that packaging for linux is hard, but I really thought that old machines and bad/no connectivity are exactly the use-cases all the new formats are supposed to solve. Why would I use them on a system that has up-to-date Kate already in its regular packages?

Comment 1 Waqar Ahmed 2021-03-17 16:41:29 UTC

Flatpak doesn't provide downloadable packages so without an internet connection I don't think you can install.

The problem here is that CentOS 7 / RHEL 7 is too old, it carries glibc 2.17xx which is really really old. One solution is to build kate yourself from source but you would need Qt for that.

Since I use CentOS 7 myself with Kate on it, I can try to create a package and maybe host the binaries on some github repo. However, I have zero experience in creating a package so if you know some place where one can learn about this, be sure to let me know :)

Comment 2 Waqar Ahmed 2021-03-17 17:09:10 UTC

Appimage should work on CentOS / RHEL 7 though. So, if it isn't this is a problem that needs to be fixed.

Comment 3 Justin Zobel 2021-03-18 03:50:13 UTC

Just had a look there's a dedicated CentOS7 AppImage job but it's failing. I've looked into it but can't see a direct fix. I've raised with the sysadmins.

https://binary-factory.kde.org/job/Kate_Nightly_appimage-centos7/

Comment 4 Christoph Cullmann 2021-04-04 19:13:27 UTC

Hmm, looks like the centos7 stuff uses an ancient gcc, it should use some devtoolset gcc.

12:19:10  -- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 4.8.5

Comment 5 Justin Zobel 2021-04-05 02:46:43 UTC

(In reply to Christoph Cullmann from comment #4)
> Hmm, looks like the centos7 stuff uses an ancient gcc, it should use some
> devtoolset gcc.
> 
> 12:19:10  -- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 4.8.5

I've raised with Milian.

Comment 6 Christoph Cullmann 2021-05-22 19:32:39 UTC

AppImage seems to work again:

https://binary-factory.kde.org/job/Kate_Nightly_appimage-centos7/

Can you try if this works for you? Thanks!

Comment 7 Bug Janitor Service 2021-06-06 04:33:31 UTC

Dear Bug Submitter,

This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
15 days. Please provide the requested information as soon as
possible and set the bug status as REPORTED. Due to regular bug
tracker maintenance, if the bug is still in NEEDSINFO status with
no change in 30 days the bug will be closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

If you have already provided the requested information, please
mark the bug as REPORTED so that the KDE team knows that the bug is
ready to be confirmed.

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!

Comment 8 Bug Janitor Service 2021-06-21 04:33:42 UTC

This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
30 days. The bug is now closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!

Comment 9 Hannes 2021-07-12 13:48:12 UTC

I can confirm that the new builds work!

Thanks.

P.S.: They are not linked to from the homepage, though.

Comment 10 Hannes 2021-07-13 10:02:44 UTC

I have discovered multiple problems, should I open separate issues for these?

1) Exiting the kate-appimage does not terminate the process. It just keeps on running in the background. It doesn't cause CPU-load, though.

2) The LSP-Client doesn't seem to work. When I enable it in the plugins section, nothing happens, i.e. the configuration entry for it does not appear. After leaving the settings and re-opening them, the checkbox from the plugin is unchecked again.

Thank you for your help.

Comment 11 Justin Zobel 2021-07-13 23:06:53 UTC

(In reply to Hannes from comment #10)
> I have discovered multiple problems, should I open separate issues for these?
> 
> 1) Exiting the kate-appimage does not terminate the process. It just keeps
> on running in the background. It doesn't cause CPU-load, though.
> 
> 2) The LSP-Client doesn't seem to work. When I enable it in the plugins
> section, nothing happens, i.e. the configuration entry for it does not
> appear. After leaving the settings and re-opening them, the checkbox from
> the plugin is unchecked again.
> 
> Thank you for your help.

Yes please, one issue per entry makes it easier to individually track and resolve.