cant install tox on linux mint - due to wrong instructions on site

[DrupaListo-com]

Hi,
The page at https://tox.chat/download.html#gnulinux has wrong instructions:

echo "deb https://pkg.tox.chat/debian nightly $(lsb_release -cs)" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tox.list
wget -qO - https://pkg.tox.chat/debian/pkg.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -

The problem is that on linux mint $(lsb_release -cs) == rosa/qiana etc.

But the repo at https://pkg.tox.chat/debian does not have such folders.

So to fix:

1. we need to change the instructions and either add new section "for linux mint users" OR fix the debian/ubuntu instructions to make them work for linux mint users too...
2. Additionally when i add
   deb http://pkg.tox.chat/debian nightly trusty

to my /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tox.list

and refresh sources: and try to install qtox or anything from that new repo - nothing happens and there are no such packages...

This 2nd issue is separate and offtopic for this issue que here - where to post it ?

PS. Linux mint is the most popular linux distro - at least acc. to distrowatch stats. So its a pitty that a mint user cant install Tox.

[DrupaListo-com]

PS. The 2nd issue is NOT due to https/http in deb repo url - I tried both ways and it dont work...
In the end I am gonna install by dpkg -i file.deb ...

[stal888]

we should just redirect all unknown distro names to a generic section - most of the debian clones ship our dependencies right?

[DrupaListo-com]

The smartest thing to do is 1. make a list of top 10/20 most popular debian clones' distro code-names.
2. For each one - find a best match target distro name for redirection...

@stal888 By redirection you mean redirecting debian package requests when the repo packages are being downloaded queried by aptitude/apt ?
I am not 100% sure that only a web-server folder -> folder redirect will be enough, maybe you also need to add metadata definitions in the deb repo for mint's qiana, rebeca etc... ?

In the worst case scenario you will not do a redirect but you will have to keep copies of same .deb-s in multiple subfolders - one per distro name... Or maybe just symlink those. Symlinking will allow you to NOT do any redirection.

I know a thing or two about packaging but have no experience with specifically this kind of issue.

PS. I now noticed that Packages files for most distros are EMPTY.
Here is a link to tox-core issue I opened there:
#101

One issue is needed on tox-core so that packaging is fixed and
2. another issue is needed here on the website repo so that site instructions are fixed.

[stal888]

@optimumtact

[optimumtact]

Please note that only Debian (Sid, Jessie and Stretch) and Ubuntu (Vivid and Wily) are officially supported.

[MrSynAckSter-zz]

@optimumtact came here for help with the same issue for help on my box, which uses a Debian clone as well, and saw your last comment. Kind of turned me off ever using your service.

You could solve this easily by just making a PPA available in a way that works for unsupported distros, or a stable binary with a list of dependencies, or a docker container or whatever. Most Debian derived distros will work fine with packages for Debian.

The very least you could do is give instructions on your site for setting up the software on an unsupported distro. I absolutely understand where you are coming from not wanting to support everything, but the least you can do is give some idea of how to get it up and going.

Come on guys.

[nurupo]

@baordog If you are using the Debian/Ubuntu instructions, they clearly mention

Please note that only Debian (8/Jessie, 9/Stretch and Sid) and Ubuntu (15.04/Vivid, 15.10/Wily and 16.04/Xenial) are officially supported. If your distribution is not supported you can find compilation instructions on client repos (check the clients page).

The first sentence says for which Debian/Ubuntu versions we distribute the packages and the second sentence gives "some idea of how to get it up and going".

Most Debian derived distros will work fine with packages for Debian.

The instructions we have are somewhat unfriendly towards Debian/Ubuntu derived distros. The issue is that the instructions expect $(lsb_release -cs) to return a Debian/Ubuntu codename, either "jessie", "stretch", "sid", "vivid", "wily" or "xenial", but Debian/Ubuntu derived distros print their own codenames instead, e.g. on a Linux Mint system, lsb_release -cs would print "sarah", "rosa", "rebecca", "qiana" or "rafaela", on Trisquel it would print "belenos", on Elementary OS "freya", etc. If your distribution is based on Debian Jessie, try replacing $(lsb_release -cs) with jessie to use packages intended for Debian Jessie. This is a known issue and we have someone working on a download page redesign #120, which should resolve this issue with instructions.

You could solve this easily by just making a PPA available in a way that works for unsupported distros, or a stable binary with a list of dependencies, or a docker container or whatever.

Unfortunately, we have very small number of package maintainers, each having limited time they can spend on Tox. We welcome any help with packaging, so if you are willing to maintain stable binaries or docker images for every client, we can talk with you about you joining our packaging team.