How to uninstall/upgrade PSS on Linux

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Asteroth
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How to uninstall/upgrade PSS on Linux

Post by Asteroth » Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:30 pm

Hi everyone. I am wondering if any linux users know how to uninstall PSS. I also am hoping there is an easy way to upgrade. I'd just bought my copy of the program, and although there were some issues, I didn't think uninstalling would be one of them. The graphical package manager, as well as the terminal methods of uninstalling or upgrading with the "apt-get" command do not seem to work. There does not appear to be a Paintstorm package, and the only way the program can be launched is through the desktop icon. I have even tried using the direct filename given in the linux installation instructions, and nothing works.

If someone could help it would be greatly appreciated. As far as I can tell the program cannot even be upgraded to the current version without uninstalling the old version and installing the new one.

One additional unrelated note: The UI colors on the command bar "file. edit, etc" cannot be changed for some reason. This means I have black text on a black bar, and must hover over things in trial and error to find what menu I want. Just a small annoyance. If the devs could look into this issue that would be great!

Thanks to anyone able to help out.
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Blendie
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Re: How to uninstall/upgrade PSS on Linux

Post by Blendie » Fri Dec 01, 2017 12:14 pm

Back when I tried to use it, it was best to install Catfish. I can't remember the places it was hidden (root folders etc), but Catfish should show them. :)
Just caught sight of another post that references /usr/share/paintstorm.
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Asteroth
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Re: How to uninstall/upgrade PSS on Linux

Post by Asteroth » Sat Dec 02, 2017 12:56 am

Thanks Blendie.

You touched on some important things. First off, Catfish can only find the standard directory in this case it seems, much like the software manager, so it is of no help unfortunately. The program will show up, but trying to uninstall or even launch it does nothing, as all the constituent parts are not where they should be for some reason. Secondly, yes the program does appear to be in the usr/share/paintstorm folder, and therein lies the problem. I am by no means an advanced Linux user, and as such I wouldn't like to try to delete the folder wholesale through the terminal. All the standard graphical methods appear not to work, as well as using the "apt-get" command and it's variants. The main issue here is the fact that Paintstorm has not been organized into a package, as mentioned in the post you linked to. I have no way of safely uninstalling or even upgrading this program without using the package method, as I don't know enough about the system to randomly root around.

If you or anyone else more familiar with things could provide step by step uninstall instructions it would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to have to reinstall my OS because of this. I do think putting Paintstorm into a proper package and moving it to a standard repository for the major Linux distributions would be a huge step forward in future.

Oh, as I mentioned earlier, this also applies to upgrades. I cannot even get the latest version without uninstalling the old one it seems, as for whatever reason the old folder cannot be either found or overwritten. I only tried upgrading once though, so I don't have all the errors memorized. I am sure by now you can see how this is a problem for Linux users, lol.

Thanks for any additional help.
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Blendie
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Re: How to uninstall/upgrade PSS on Linux

Post by Blendie » Mon Dec 04, 2017 11:56 am

Hi Asteroth, and you're very welcome. I was a bit wary of doing anything I wasn't sure of when I first came over to Linux in May. It's good to be careful and check first.

I tried Paintstorm, but there's no pressure sensitivity for non-Wacom (I use an Ugee 2150). I check back now and then to see if there's any progress, and saw your post. You definitely won't need to format and reinstall. I've found that deleting the folder is fine, and I search about and see if there are any more Paintstorm references, all of which are directly able to be deleted. For the locked folder, just right click on the folder that contains the Paintstorm folder, and choose 'open as root'. Then you can freely delete the folder.

If you are on Mint 18.3, Timeshift is built in to it now, which is excellent; otherwise I'd highly recommend downloading it from Packages, or, if that's an older version than currently available, here's the url where you can see the ppa details. I've had no issues at all with the ppa in the past ... http://www.teejeetech.in/p/timeshift.html. Before installing Paintstorm, or any program you want to test run, create a backup manually. Then you can just restore that backup and any changes are gone ... I'm not 100% it would remove the locked folder though, as I did a restore earlier today, thinking a Krita brush pack would be removed (one too many installed, which ended up bumping my personal favourites folder off the list/inaccessible), and the brushes were still there, so you would most likely still need to access at least the locked folder as root. I back up the Krita folder and couple of config files though, so copying them over fixed things. Timeshift definitely has been a life saver on a couple of occasions so far, lol, since installing 18.1 the other day, and you can choose to backup to usb also, eg after doing your usual installs and settings, so a clean install will always be available if needed.

Yes, the program very much needs to be properly packaged, and I was thinking today about that; with flatpak inbuilt into Mint 18.3 now, a flatpak in Packages would be great, as long as the libinput that's needed to cover all devices is in the flatpak too ... Mint have also made libinput inbuilt support even better, so if the flatpak matched with that, there'd be a lot of people who would discover Paintstorm. Another poster on the forum had suggested a flatpak and was working on one at one point. I hadn't known you had to remove the Linux version before upgrading, although I used to do that on Windows just to avoid any potential problems, then copy over backup folders. It would certainly be good to also enable upgrading without needing to do that, I agree.
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Asteroth
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Re: How to uninstall/upgrade PSS on Linux

Post by Asteroth » Mon Dec 04, 2017 10:34 pm

Thanks again for trying to help out Blendie.

Good news is I figured out how to uninstall Paintstorm. I was correct for the most part, as much of this is the result of the program not being packaged. I ended up using the "gksu" command to switch to admin graphically rather than using the terminal for most of the process, and applied the command to the file manager Nautilus. Then it was just a matter of deleting the folder in usr/share, and the other Paintstorm folder in the home directory. After a restart, I deleted the home/paintstorm folder once more, and things seem fine. There was a bit of a freeze during the first deleting run, but that was it. Just took another restart. No idea why the home/paintstorm folder needed a second delete. May have just been a glitch.

I've reached out to the admin/dev directly about the packaging issue, and provided some resources as well. I am not a developer, so I can't assist any further, but the information was well received, so hopefully we will be seeing a proper package in future. It is my impression that the developer is more familiar with other systems, so it could be a long while before this gets done. If you or any other Linux users are familiar with how to create packages for Ubuntu and its derivatives, I am sure the help would be appreciated. I passed along some official documentation on the subject, but it could be tricky to get this done through the related organization directly, as they mostly deal with open source non-commercial things, as I am sure you're aware. Anyway, the standard package process should work regardless of the licencing involved...

For reference, I am using a different distro. Zorin, based on Ubuntu. Thanks for taking the time to try and get this sorted though. I plan on reinstalling the program when things are more stable/packaged correctly so updating isn't a pain. In regards to what I said about needing to uninstall to upgrade...it appears that way to me. Not sure, but when I tried it was as though the whole file was locked, even though I had admin rights through the terminal.

Cheers.
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Blendie
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Re: How to uninstall/upgrade PSS on Linux

Post by Blendie » Sun Dec 24, 2017 11:37 am

Hi Asteroth and thank you. Glad to hear you were able to uninstall PSS, and very good of you to help out by contacting the devs. Yes, I'm not waiting for a working Linux version anymore, plus am back on LM 18.1/no flatpaks, which is great actually ... I'm settled into Krita now anyways, and really like it. Sorry I don't know how to create packages; I can do simple necessary things, but other than that it's a mist, lol. There are a couple of other posters here that understand compiling, so maybe they'll notice this thread. I'm sure you're right about needing to clean out the previous version ... great news that you're able to install/remove as needed. :)
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