QApt won't install a deb file

[Tom_ZeCat]

I'm busy installing all my stuff on my new Dell PC with a solid state hard drive. I've got Kubuntu on there and I've been busy doing all my settings, and installing all my applications.

However, for some reason QApt Package installer won't install a deb file via the GUI. I just installed it on my older Dell, and it installed fine. On the old PC, you right click on the deb file and choose "open with QApt Package Installer." It then comes up with QApt's GUI and you just click on the "Install Package" button. QApt then shows in a little window what's happening on the command line, and the program gets installed.

It doesn't do what on the new Dell, for some reason. I wonder if I chose something in the install that I shouldn't have. It's a fresh install from a thumb drive. The older PC was an upgrade from Kubuntu 20.04.

The application is Fade In, which is a proprietary screenwriting word processor. To their credit, they offer a Linux version, unlike some other similar programs. The install file name is as follows:

fadein-linux-amd64-4.0.18.deb

On the new PC, when I write click on that deb file and choose "open with QApt Package Installer," it does pull up the QApt GUI menu, and it says "dependencies are satisfied." However, when I click on the "Install Package" button, it does nothing. Very frustrating. I did manage to get it to install on the command like with this command in the deb file's directory:

sudo dpkg -i fadein-linux-amd64-4.0.18.deb

I vaguely remember from the install choosing some kind of security feature. Maybe I shouldn't have. But could that be what's stopping these deb files from installing in the GUI via a right click? I could install all my deb files from the command line, but that would really slow me down. I want to fix it so that I can use right click in Dolphin on a file, and then install via QApt's GUI menu.

Anyone know what's going on? Is there some security thing in settings that I've allowed to run that I need to shut off?

[jlittle]

Er... the credit was due to Claydoh. I'm flattered to be confused with him.

[Tom_ZeCat]

I just had something similar, some files would install, on others Qapt came back with an error that dependencies were not met.
jlittle just wrote a reply to my post and noted Qapt is no longer being developed and is probably suffering from bit rot (old age)
His advice is to use Discover to install .deb's, I used the CLI with dpkg which also works.

Maybe there's some alternate package installer? I've got a lot to install, and it will be slower with dpkg. It's interesting that I have the exact same Kubuntu version (22.04 LTS) on two different Dell PCs, and I only have this problem on the newer computer. The newer one is an ex Win 10 computer, which I wiped out with a fresh install of Kubuntu. The older Dell previously had 20.04 on it, and I ran the upgrade to get it to 22.04.

There was some kind of security feature I chose "yes" on during install. I don't remember the name of it. Makes me wonder if that's the problem.

[jlittle]

... it will be slower with dpkg.

I'm curious, why would dpkg be slower?

[Tom_ZeCat]

You can't just click and install. That's way quicker than having to open up the konsole and type a bunch commands. I have a bunch of apps I install via deb files. I will greatly miss the click and install feature if that's somehow one away.

[jlittle]

If it's just running the commands, you could download all the debs to a directory, say debs, open a konsole,

cd debs
for file in *.deb;do sudo dpkg -i $file;done

[Tom_ZeCat]

Interesting: After some updates, QApt package installer is running again from its GUI. Thank goodness. That screenwriting app, Fade In, does its updating by simply informing you there's a new deb file to download, and so you do that and run it. They also have other Linux install package for other distros. I wish they had a PPA, but I give them huge credit for supporting a Linux version. I can live with having to download and install a deb file every few months. For a long time, I was using Final Draft, which is a great program, but there's no Linux version. So I had to run it under Win 7 in VirtualBox.

I've saved the info on how to install deb packages with dpkg, in case I ever need it again.