Fully Installing and Integrating Peazip in Kubuntu

[DeadlyOats]

I'm running Kubuntu 12.04, which has the Linux 3.2.0-30-generic, and KDE 4.8.4.

Arc / Ark seems to have several limitations. I'm unable to open a .rar file. I don't care about fixing Arc/Ark. I want to get rid of it and replace it with Peazip. I couldn't find it it the repositories. I don't think there's a PPA for it. The site were I got PeaZip from, didn't mention a PPA.

I had to download it. I could double-click it, and it'll unpack and install were it's at, but my experience with installing software like that has always been that it won't be in the menu, it will be in some random place instead of where softwares are suppose to be, and there won't be any context menus for it. I have to navigate to where ever it was unpacked, and double-clicked to run it.

I don't want that. I want it to be properly installed, with context menus, icons, etc. And I want it installed where programs belong.

I read the FAQ at PeaZip's , but it was all very vague to me. I tried looking at the readme file in the PeaZip package, but I the instructions were too complex for me.

Can someone please break the instructions down so that a Linux end user, like me, can understand it?

The trouble I'm having is that first it tells me do do something manually, then it seems to tell me it's done automatically.... Or I'm just reading it all wrong.

Can someone translate that into n00b for me? That's from the readme in the PeaZip .deb package.

(I skipped step '2a)', in the readme, since it was about installing in Gnome).

1) Install a PeaZip installable package (DEB, RPM, TGZ), or extract PeaZip portable to the desired path and link peazip binary in one of the system's binary folder i.e. /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, or /usr/local/bin (recommended)

2b) KDE:
- KDE start menu and 'Open with' dialog (.desktop files)
Copy peazip.desktop in (kde directory)/share/applications/kde if you want to add PeaZip in KDE start menu (and 'Open with' dialog).
This integration is automatically performed by the installer.
- Konqueror (KDE 3.x) Action service menu (.desktop files)
Copy .desktop files from "kde3-konqueror" folder to (kde directory)/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus
Please note that KDE directory may vary from distribution to distribution (or can even be customized by the user at KDE installation); /opt/kde3 is usually a common place for installing KDE and is used, in example, in Suse and OpenSuse. The (kde directory) is specified in $KDEDIR in environment variable and can be overridden by $KDEDIRS.
This integration is automatically performed by the installer.
- Dolphin (KDE 4.x) service menu
Copy .desktop files from "kde4-dolphin" to /usr/share/kde4/services/ServiceMenus/
Please note that some distribution may use different paths.
This integration is automatically performed by the installer.

3) optionally you can customize .desktop files in order to use PeaZip's icons for Linux (see peazip_icons_linux.zip package on Google Code): place the icons in (kde directory)/share/icons or usr/share/icons and change consequently the "Icon=tar" entry in .desktop files.

peazip.desktop associates PeaZip with some of most common supported file types, in this folder you can find an alternative .desktop file for PeaZip application to associate it with all mimetypes to get benefit of the ability of the program to handle custom filetypes.
Both files can be used as templates to edit custom filetype associations and other application's properties.

Thanks.

EDIT: (The thread title should read "Fully Installing and Intigrating (not Inegrating) PeaZip in Kubuntu).

[HalationEffect]

Using a very handy bit of software called "Y PPA Manager" (which has the very cool feature of being able to search all Launchpad PPAs), I found a PPA for Peazip:

https://launchpad.net/~upubuntu-com/+archive/ppa

(Edit) However, you may not even need to add a PPA to your system, as they offer a .deb here: http://peazip.sourceforge.net/peazip-linux.html. It's even available in both Qt and GTK flavours.

[DeadlyOats]

Thanks for your reply. However:

Using a very handy bit of software called "Y PPA Manager" (which has the very cool feature of being able to search all Launchpad PPAs), I found a PPA for Peazip:

https://launchpad.net/~upubuntu-com/+archive/ppa

(From the PPA website) You can update your system with unsupported packages from this untrusted PPA by adding ppa:upubuntu-com/ppa to your system's Software Sources....

... Is what it says about that PPA link. That seems dangerous. Or is it?

Also...

(Edit) However, you may not even need to add a PPA to your system, as they offer a .deb here: http://peazip.sourceforge.net/peazip-linux.html. It's even available in both Qt and GTK flavours.

That's where I got my copy from. How do I install it in the manner I described in my first post?

Thanks again.

[HalationEffect]

(From the PPA website) You can update your system with unsupported packages from this untrusted PPA by adding ppa:upubuntu-com/ppa to your system's Software Sources....

That's the standard disclaimer for every PPA.

Install a PeaZip installable package (DEB, RPM, TGZ)

If you download the .deb file, all you need to do is use Dolphin file manager to navigate to the folder you downloaded it to, then right-click the .deb file -> Open With -> QApt Package Installer. Then just click "Install Package" in the QApt window, wait a few seconds, and that's it - job done.

The other, more complicated, instructions are if you choose not to use the .deb installation method.

[DeadlyOats]

Please be patient with me. I just want to be clear that I'm understanding you correctly.

So, then that means that the .deb is a self installing package, when used with QApt Package Installer, and that the QApt Package Installer does the same thing as the complicated instructions?

You're saying, that it will not just simply uncompress and dump the files in a folder right next to the .deb package?

You mean that it will actually install the software to its appropriate locations, establish appropriate links, install appropriate icons, etc., and that, afterwards, I can delete the .deb package?

Does it matter where the .deb package is when I use QApt Package Installer?

If I use the QApt Package Installer, do I have to install the updated package manually, each time an update comes up, or can I add the PPA to my sources to update it subsequently, thereafter?

Thanks for your patience. Please let me know if I've understood you correctly.

EDITED: (Added that last question).

[HalationEffect]

So, then that means that the .deb is a self installing package, when used with QApt Package Installer, and that the QApt Package Installer does the same thing as the complicated instructions?

You're saying, that it will not just simply uncompress and dump the files in a folder right next to the .deb package?

You mean that it will actually install the software to its appropriate locations, establish appropriate links, install appropriate icons, etc., and that, afterwards, I can delete the .deb package?

Correct. The QApt package installer will not only de-compress the files within the .deb package and move them to the correct locations, it will also create menu entries, icons, and any other system integration as defined by the scripts within the .deb package. It will also check for dependencies, and if there are any needed dependencies not already installed on your system, it will advise you of this.

If you prefer to use the command line, then dpkg does the same job (e.g. dpkg -i name-of-deb-file.deb)

Does it matter where the .deb package is when I use QApt Package Installer?

Preferably the .deb should be downloaded to your home folder, or a sub-folder (or sub-sub-folder, etc., etc.) below your home folder... but, yes, the location it is saved to makes little difference. After installing the .deb package, you can delete the .deb file if you wish.

If I use the QApt Package Installer, do I have to install the updated package manually, each time an update comes up, or can I add the PPA to my sources to update it subsequently, thereafter?

If you don't add the PPA, you'll need to do manual upgrades (i.e. manually download the new .deb file, then manually use QApt or dpkg to install the new version). If you add the PPA, upgrades will be done automatically, just like packages from the official repositories do.

[DeadlyOats]

Thank you very much. That was most informative. I appreciate your help. I'll try it out, and let you know how it went.

EDIT:

The advice you gave me seems to have delivered the results I asked for - to install a package correctly in its appropriate place, etc...

Although the installation process seems to have happened the way you said it would, it seems that it's not working. From the context menu, from right-clicking the .rar file, I get an error message: "Sorry-Dolphin KDEInit could not launch '/usr/local/bin/peazip' "

I unintalled it, and this time, I installed the PPA, and installed PeaZip that way. Same results as above.

With Ark, I get the error message: "Error Opening Archive-Ark Loading the Archive [path to .rar file] failed with the following error, Failed to locate program unrar in PATH"

I read so many other posts with people saying, Ark didn't work for them, they tried some other decompresser, and that solved their problems, that I assumed it was the solution to my problem.

Now I see, that may not be the case. Ark says it can't find unrar, and PeaZip just isn't launching... Ark launches when I go to to the Kickoff Application Launcher, but not PeaZip.

Shall I start a new post requesting help? I asked for help installing a package, and I got that. The package is installed. However, it ain't working. The problem may be something else.

This is frustrating.

[HalationEffect]

With Ark, I get the error message: "Error Opening Archive-Ark Loading the Archive [path to .rar file] failed with the following error, Failed to locate program unrar in PATH"

I know you said that you weren't interested in fixing the problem with Ark... but it would be so very easy to fix...

sudo apt-get install unrar

Enter the above command in a terminal (Konsole) window. It will ask you to enter your password, then it will install the unrar utility which Ark relies upon for decompressing RAR archives. After you've done that, Ark should no longer have any problems opening and extracting .rar files.

[DeadlyOats]

I know you said that you weren't interested in fixing the problem with Ark... but it would be so very easy to fix...

sudo apt-get install unrar

Enter the above command in a terminal (Konsole) window. It will ask you to enter your password, then it will install the unrar utility which Ark relies upon for decompressing RAR archives. After you've done that, Ark should no longer have any problems opening and extracting .rar files.

I followed your advice and did your easy fix. Now Ark can open .rar files, and I ended up uninstalling PeaZip as well.

Thanks for your help.

[HalationEffect]

If you ever find yourself needing to handle .7z (7zip) archives, you should also install the package p7zip-full so that Ark will be able to handle those as well.

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

Ark can also handle .ace archives if you install the package unace-nonfree, and it will handle .lzh / .lza archives if you install the package lha. You probably won't need them though, as they are fairly uncommon archive formats. I haven't seen a .ace archive in years, and .lzh / .lza archives aren't much used outside of Japan these days.