AppImageLauncher 2.1.3 has been released today. Read on to see what’s new in today’s version as well as the previous release 2.1.2, for which I forgot to write an article about.
Release 2.1.2
The last release, version 2.1.2, mainly contained a few bug fixes. The most visible change is that now, a message is shown asking the user to reboot during uninstallation using the official packages and the PPA packages kindly provided by Peter Jonas. This is mostly necessary to systemd-binfmt, which does not allow to remove the associations of files with launchers properly. Rebooting is for most users the easiest way to resolve the issue. (If anyone knows how to adjust the scripts to avoid reboots, please do not hesitate to send a pull request!)
Before this release, we already had added some official ARM aarch64 packages. Starting with 2.1.2, we also provide 32-bit ARM images which e.g., run on the Pinebook (Pro), Raspberry Pi and many more devices.
A few fallback icons have been introduced for use in AppImageLauncher’s dialogs. Some (standard) icons used e.g., in those dialogs' buttons, are not provided by the icon themes of some distributions. This is then annoying for the user, as there’s empty buttons which only reveal their functionality when hovering over them to see the tooltip. AppImageLauncher now ships with a set of very simple but functional icons which might not look very native, but hey, better than no icon at all, right?
The README also contains a few more links to media coverage of AppImageLauncher. If you ever write about it, make a video or anything else, please feel free to get in touch. I’d love to add your link to the list, and if you’d need more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me either (preferrably via e-mail or over IRC, #appimage on Freenode).
Release 2.1.3
During the period between the last release and the current release 2.1.3, a kind user sent a pull request with a guide showing how to build AppImageLauncher from source. Thanks Jasper Michalke!
AppImageLauncher’s translations have been updated once again. Thanks to Heimen Stoffels for their work on the dutch translations, as well as Dariusz Bogdanski for updating the Polish ones, which now are up to date again. The other translations have collected some dust and we’re looking for more contributors to aid in updating existing and adding support for new languages to AppImageLauncher. Your work is highly appreciated. Please see the corresponding issue on GitHub for more information how to translate AppImageLauncher. Feel free to ask any questions there!
Together with Peter Jonas, we’ve fixed a nasty bug in the PPA packages of AppImageLauncher. There’s a hidden dependency introduced by the installation scripts, which can cause an installation or uninstallation to fail with a confusing error message. We were able to fix the scripts, remove the dependency and provide updates quickly. The daily PPA already provides fixed packages, the stable one will follow soon after this release.
Today, right before the release, another nasty bug was discovered. When updating through AppImageLauncher, the updater entry in the context menu pointed to the wrong path. The bug was tested and should be fixed. Next time you restart appimagelauncherd (e.g., when you repower your system) or run the AppImage, the problem will be corrected automatically.
Lastly, the “you have to reboot” message introduced in the previous release was discovered to be a bit misleading. It is not only shown when AppImageLauncher is removed entirely, but also during every upgrade. To not confuse users, the message was amended with a statement that a reboot is not necessary when AppImageLauncher is just upgraded.
Where to get the new AppImageLauncher
You can download up-to-date binaries for all platforms supported upstream (Debian and some RPM based distributions with the classic AppImageLauncher, almost any somewhat recent distribution with AppImageLauncher Lite) from the GitHub release page. For Ubuntu 19.04 and later as well as and derivatives, there’s a Personal Package Archive (PPA) which allows for keeping AppImageLauncher up to date very easy.
If you encounter any issues, please don’t hesitate to open an issue on GitHub. This is the only way we, the developers, get a chance to analyze the problem and eventually provide a fix. Posting your problems in some distribution specific forums is not very useful, since we can’t monitor them all. So, please, consider posting your issue on GitHub, if you find any. Also, you can create issues for feature proposals there.