Best way to upgrade Krita on Linux

Support and Advice General Questions
1

I’ve recently had the opportunity to try Krita on Kubuntu and the whole experience was so much better than OS X, that I am seriously considering installing Linux.

But, being a newbie about that system, I am slightly uncomfortable about the upgrade/installing procedures. Is there a way to have Krita on the repositories so that it automatically tells me where there are updates (kind of like the way it works on Mac) without messing around too much?

2

The appimages are self-contained, but reference a bunch of folders on your OS i.e. your resource folders where your non-default items such as custom brushes are kept.

When a new version is released you download it, allow it to be executed as a program and run it. It will use your existing folders and settings but wont embed itself on your system.

So basically, you delete the old one (I move it to trash so I can retrieve it if needed), enable the new one. You might also need to set the new appimage as the default for opening krita files (I do).

This is my understanding anyway - I’m not a programmer so might not have it quite right. :man_shrugging:

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3

I’m using kubuntu and yes, the appimages are the main way of getting krita. Very handy as you don’t need to install anything - just download, change one checkbox in properties and run.

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4

There are too many ways of doing things on Linux…

  • Distribution packages: for Kubuntu there’s our ppa: https://launchpad.net/~kritalime/+archive/ubuntu/ppa , but also the kubuntu backports ppa which often has an updated version of Krita. BUT: these builds use the distribution version of Qt, the framework we’re using, without all the patches that we think are needed
  • Snap: another option on Ubuntu, but because of sandboxing, has sometimes weird bugs and integration issues. Also uses unpatched Qt.
  • Flatpak: another sandboxed packaging format. Active maintainers, who react quickly to bug fixes.
  • Appimages: the only binary builds on krita we, as the project team, make ourselves. Has a patched Qt, but no platform integration, so the file dialog is ugly and doesn’t have previews. Makes it easy to keep older versions on standby. From 5.0, appimages will automatically update.
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5

The appimage on my system will update?! :open_mouth:

6

@halla , Will the appimage auto-update be optional as selected by the user?
(If not, I’ll have to learn how to use the firewall control to stop it, on principle.)

7

Thanks all for the explanations! Now I feel much less intimidated! Can’t wait for 5.0!

8

As far as I understand, but I haven’t used it yet, it will be completely optional.

9

Just for curiosity, what are the most important patches added to the patched QT? I’ve tried the distribution ppa for a couple of hours and everything felt very smooth already.

10

You can find them here: https://invent.kde.org/graphics/krita/-/blob/master/3rdparty/ext_qt/CMakeLists.txt#L163

11

Thanks @halla!

12

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