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Someone avatar Ubuntu

Can there be error if I change the list file of ppa and replace codename with focal even if I am on impish

my flag
Someone

How the question raised in my mind

Today I was looking for a new app store to install apps from, I couldn't find any good app store but found an app called "app grid". It was looking promising.

Following this answer, I tried to add the PPA of the appgrid, unfortunately, there was no release file for the PPA.

So, I was forced to remove it but before removing I tried to mess with it for a bit.

I went to /etc/apt/sources.list.d and looked for appgrid. I found that this was the file from where the PPA works.

It looked like -

some.URL impish 
# some.URL impish foobar

I changed the file to -

some.URL focal
# some.URL focal foo bar

Now, when I ran sudo apt update there were no errors!
I am kind of confused as there were no errors!

Then I thought everything is working

So I ran

sudo apt-get install appgrid

And it worked :)

Question

Now, Is everything fine? Or should I remove appgrid? Can I do it in every case? Am I having the focal package now? Was there some other way to install appgrid?

In one sentence:

What possible errors will be there if I change the codename in a PPA list?

OS details

Here is the output of screenfetch


                          ./+o+-       unknown@linux
                  yyyyy- -yyyyyy+      OS: Ubuntu 21.10 impish
               ://+//////-yyyyyyo      Kernel: x86_64 Linux 5.13.0-21-generic
           .++ .:/++++++/-.+sss/`      Uptime: 25m
         .:++o:  /++++++++/:--:/-      Packages: 2223
        o:+o+:++.`..```.-/oo+++++/     Shell: bash 5.1.8
       .:+o:+o/.          `+sssoo+/    Resolution: 2560x1600
  .++/+:+oo+o:`             /sssooo.   DE: GNOME 40.0
 /+++//+:`oo+o               /::--:.   WM: Mutter
 \+/+o+++`o++o               ++////.   WM Theme: Adwaita
  .++.o+++oo+:`             /dddhhh.   GTK Theme: Orchis-light [GTK2/3]
       .+.o+oo:.          `oddhhhh+    Icon Theme: Papirus
        \+.++o+o``-````.:ohdhhhhh+     Font: Ubuntu 11
         `:o+++ `ohhhhhhhhyo++os:      Disk: 55G / 916G (7%) (SSD) 
           .o:`.syhhhhhhh/.oo++o`      CPU:  AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 x 12
               /osyyyyyyo++ooo+++/     GPU: AMD Radeon™ Graphics
                   ````` +oo+++o\:     RAM:  2045 / 16384 MB
                          `oo++.

I don't think that this question is opinion based as it asks for what can be errors

There is no error till now, appgrid is working fine

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apt
ppa
Someone avatar
my flag
Someone
I know guiverc will comment soon :P
1
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sudodus avatar
jp flag
sudodus
It depends on the particular program package that you install via that PPA. If it works, and does not disturb any other program [package], fine, keep it with the 'wrong' version. You will notice if something does not work, and then you have to remove it or reset it to the correct version. In many cases program packages use other software, and need a particular version, and for that reason there can be conflicts/problems with PPAs and other repositories for the 'wrong' version. (I develop and maintain mkusb, and it is made to work with exactly the same code for all current versions of Ubuntu.)
3
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guiverc avatar
cn flag
guiverc
Don't forget you may have placed a *minefield* that you'll may discover come *release-upgrade* time some time in the future... ie. it may create complications when you decide to move to *jammy* which can be overcome sure, but it'll cost time (*not much time if you recognize this is the issue; but changes like this tend to be forgotten & so often need to be worked out from the packages there were installed by this action*). Not a guaranteed risk; but a risk regardless (*the more complex the program's 'depends' the greater the risk*). Documenting what you do to your system can help
0
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Score:6
avatar Ubuntu
us flag
Archisman Panigrahi

If the program works, and apt does not throw an error while installing other programs, then everything is fine.

However, in general, there can be complex dependency issues with some repositories.

For some general advice, see the comment by @sudodus.

Suppose, the program (say, A) you install also installs a dependency, B, which is available in the PPA. However, suppose you have another package (C) installed, which has a conflicting library with B (but the version of C in 20.04 did not have this conflicting library). Then, apt would need to remove C to install A. Further suppose that the GNOME Shell depends on C. Then, while installing program A, apt will ask you if you want to remove C, gnome-shell, along with a bunch of things. If you agree without carefully reading, you will be greeted with a black screen after the next reboot.

Such things actually happen. Someone carelessly tried to install Steam in Pop OS, which removed the GUI.

I can see in the package details that the same package is copied over between different versions of Ubuntu, so it should work fine as long as all the dependencies are available. I have emailed the maintainer to create a package for Hirsute and Impish.

However, it would be safer to simply download and install the .deb package than adding the focal repository (just in case there are any future revisions, which works in focal, but causes dependency issues in impish).

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Someone avatar
my flag
Someone
This answers my question but I would like a detailed description, let us wait for some more answers, but I also appreciate your answer, thank you I will accept it in a while, I don't know why guiverc didn't comment yet :)
0
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us flag
Archisman Panigrahi
For a detailed answer, someone has to manually do it and eventually check out if the computer turns into a black hole or something like that :) Sure, of course you can wait for other answers.
0
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Someone avatar
my flag
Someone
In your answer, you said that it can cause dependencies issues, I didn't get it! How it can cause that issue? Can you elaborate please, (if you have time) thanks :)
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us flag
Archisman Panigrahi
This package does not have any dependency issue. However, suppose it were a package which depends on some other package, which is available on focal but unavailable in impish (there can be more complex issues due to dependencies of dependencies, also certain packages are not compatible with each other, as an extreme example, suppose, you install some package, and Ubuntu had to remove its GUI to install it, because they are mutually incompatible). Then it could have caused some issue.
0
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us flag
Archisman Panigrahi
Just to clarify, you would see error messages during installation if something like that had happened.
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Someone avatar
my flag
Someone
Ok... You can edit the answer to add these details... Thanks a lot :)
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us flag
Archisman Panigrahi
@someone I have edited the answer.
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