How to update in Linux
Hello!
I LOVE MuseScore in Linux, I feel like in general it just works way better than it ever did for me in Windows. That said, a constant pain point is how to update it.
I just got a prompt that there is an update from 4.3.1 to 4.3.2, I said "install update", it downloaded an appimage and...now I'm kind of stuck.
The appimage wants to write to a disk and the impression I get is it's going to actually overwrite the ENTIRE disk.
So I don't know how to actually...update 4.3.1 to 4.3.2 - since the update seems to be broken in someway? How should I go about this in a smoother fashion?
Edit: In the past what I did was instead manually download the FULL version ( 4.3.1 previously ) and just use that instead of actually "updating" the existing version. I just assume there must be a better way than doing this, like an actual in-place upgrade
Comments
The most recent release is 4.3.2. You can't upgrade to 4.3.3. Sure this is a MS appimage?
To upgrade, one can use the upgrade or update command line switch. Or download the appimage and use the commandline install switch.
In reply to The most recent release is 4… by graffesmusic
I use Ubuntu and prefer to keep separate appimage files in the downloads directory and double-clicking them to run. I have a lot of musescore versions and don’t want to install and uninstall various versions (multiple 3.x and 4.x).
This requires setting an appimage to be executable and possibly installing libfuse2.
The .config directory file is probably shared among all musescore 4 versions but hopefully fewer general unintended interactions occur when using multiple appimages rather than multiple installed versions.
In reply to I use Ubuntu and prefer to… by TDYama
What exactly do you mean with 'multiple installed versions'?
When you 'install' an appimage, the symlinks mscore, mscore4portable and musescore4portable are changed to link to the 'installed' version.
Installing an appimage further handles mime types.
You can of course have several appimages without installing.
In reply to What exactly do you mean… by graffesmusic
Yes. I don’t install them and run them as appimages via libfuse2. It’s an option.
In reply to The most recent release is 4… by graffesmusic
I ran MuseScore 4.3.1 yesterday as normal and was prompted that there was an update to 4.3.2, the prompt was through MuseScore itself
EDIT: Fixed, you are right I had the versions mixed up, but the question still remains - I don't know how to update from 4.3.1 to 4.3.2, the "Install Update" button just downloads an appimage and running that appimage prompts me to overwrite a disk which...I don't want to do...there must be a better way I just don't know about because I'm a newbie.
I can't find any documentation on this site or the forums that explicitly says what to do. People will comment like you have and say something like "just run the commandline" and I don't know what that means exactly. I know how to go into the terminal and run something like "sudo dnf update" ( Fedora ), but that doesn't automatically update musescore
EDIT2: FWIW, I did try to run "sudo dnf update musescore*" ( since 4 things showed up ), it says it completed and resolved dependencies but I still get the prompt when I run MuseScore 4.3.1 so...not sure how to proceed
musescore-4.3.0-10.fc40.x86_64
musescore-data-4.3.0-10.fc40.noarch
musescoreicon-fonts-1.0-10.fc40.noarch
musescore-soundfont-0.2.0-10.fc40.noarch
Fedora 40 - x86_64 - Updates 23 kB/s | 26 kB 00:01
Fedora 40 - x86_64 - Updates 716 kB/s | 3.0 MB 00:04
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:02 ago on Fri 14 Jun 2024 09:39:17 PDT.
Dependencies resolved.
Nothing to do.
Complete!
In reply to I ran MuseScore 4.3.2… by carobs_bake05
You installed a 3rd party rpm package. You should upgrade with an rpm from the same source (probably packaged by a volunteer). If that volunteer does not package the updates, you are out of luck.
Are you sure you already have 4.3.1? Your rpm says 4.3.0. Check in MS: Help > About MuseScore Studio for the correct version.
Your packager should also have adapted MuseScore4.ini to checkForUpdate=false . This is for appimages and will not work with rpm's.
You have some options:
-find an up to date rpm package for fedora. (Ask fedora)
-package it yourself
-abandon the rpm. Uninstall the rpm and use the Appimage, which is the only official package: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/download-and-installation#Linux
In reply to You installed a 3rd party… by graffesmusic
EDIT: first I just wanted to thank you for how responsive you are, I really appreciate it!
I think I see what has happened - so I followed that guide for 4.3.0 originally, and all was well.
Then the update to 4.3.1 came out, I had the same issue, and I somehow managed to run 4.3.1 as a "portable image" and is what I've been using all this time. Then I got prompted for the 4.3.2 update which led me to this post.
I followed the guide again, installed properly from where I downloaded the official appimage via terminal (./Musescore. HOWEVER - in the general app list in Fedora - I still only see the original 4.3.0, and the "portable" 4.3.1, and neither is 4.3.2...So now I don't know how to actually run 4.3.2, and I'm unsure how to uninstall and try to start over again because I don't want to lose my Scores directory where I've got a lot ( they are in Cloud and I have manually backed up the folder to another drive but still... )
./MuseScore-Studio-4.3.2.241630832-x86_64.AppImage install
/lib64/libjack.so.0
/lib64/libnss3.so
Installation step 1 of 3.
PREFIX is '/home/userX/.local'.
Preparing to install resources to:
PREFIX/share/applications/*
PREFIX/share/icons/*
PREFIX/share/man/*
PREFIX/share/mime/*
gtk-update-icon-cache: Cache file created successfully.
Resources installed to '/home/userX/.local'.
Step 2 of 3.
MuseScore is at: /home/userX/Downloads/MuseScore-Studio-4.3.2.241630832-x86_64.AppImage
Moving AppImage to 'PREFIX/bin'.
Finished installing MuseScore to /home/userX/.local
Step 3 of 3.
Symlinks can be created to make it easier to launch MuseScore from
the command line. (Symlinks are like shortcuts or aliases.)
Edit 2: I thought maybe I should just stage things, since I installed 4.3.0 properly originally. I manually downloaded and installed ( via terminal ) the 4.3.1 image, then the plan was to do the same with 4.3.2 after. However the installer for 4.3.1 is weird - it runs MuseScore 4.3.1 immediately but in the terminal it shows a ton of errors like:
11:24:49.402 | ERROR | main_thread | App::run | error: qrc:/qml/MuseScore/UiComponents/FlatButton.qml:179:5: QML Loader: Binding loop detected for property "itemImplicitWidth
I let it completely finish, check the main apps and run MuseScore Studio 4.3 and it's still loading 4.3.0 :(
I have confirmed I have Read/Write for the appimage and it is set to "Executable as Program", so I don't think it's permissions, I did try this as sudo just in case, but no change and same errors.
I think I need to start over completely, so maybe the question is...how to do this properly without possibly breaking my config/preferences in particular ( for MuseScore )
In reply to I think I see what has… by carobs_bake05
The errors can be ignored. seems 'normal'...
The appimage executable is located under /home/userX/.local/bin after the install. This should be in your $PATH
There are some symlinks to the appimage in this directory.
In any case, starting /home/userX/.local/bin/mscore (or mscore4portable or musescore4portable which are all symlinks to the appimage) should start 4.3.2
Probably you still have the old rpm installed?
In reply to The errors can be ignored… by graffesmusic
OK so you are right, I had initially installed via Fedora's DNF update system. So I removed it, and now I only a "portable" link/shortcut/launcher in the system apps GUI.
I did run the appimage/installer for 4.3.2 again just for good measure, and it completes, but when I run the "portable" link in the app GUI it's still running 4.3.1 even though I can see in /home/userX/.local/bin that the symlink is pointing to the new appimage so...I'm into the weeds now a bit, this is maybe less a Musescore issue at this point and a linux/how to in general.
I suppose as a final question in a way, if I ever figure this out, in the future when 4.3.3 comes along ( or whatever version ), the normal process would be to download the appimage ( either directly or through the install/update prompt in MuseScore ), then make it executable ( either via terminal or GUI ), install it, and that should be it?
FWIW this is what it looks like currently while I figure out how to get the "right" version to show up in the system app GUI:
userX@fedora:~/.local/bin$ ls -al
total 336584
drwxr-xr-x. 1 userX userX 258 Jun 14 12:55 .
drwx------. 1 userX userX 26 May 31 12:33 ..
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 userX userX 48 Jun 14 12:55 mscore4portable -> MuseScore-Studio-4.3.2.241630832-x86_64.AppImage
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 userX userX 48 Jun 14 12:55 musescore4portable -> MuseScore-Studio-4.3.2.241630832-x86_64.AppImage
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 userX userX 172324032 May 31 12:21 MuseScore-Studio-4.3.1.241490902-x86_64.AppImage
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 userX userX 172324032 Jun 14 12:54 MuseScore-Studio-4.3.2.241630832-x86_64.AppImage
EDIT: this may be because I'm using Gnome ( default for Fedora ) and it's relatively unfamliar from a GUI perspective, maybe I will switch to KDE or something if it makes stuff like this simpler
FINAL EDIT: I'm leaving all the above in case anyone else runs into my similar issue/fumbling around in Linux.
Gnome stores the "GUI apps" ( the apps that show when you click the "show apps" button from the Dock" here:
~/.local/share/applications/
I found the link for org.musescore.MuseScore4portable.desktop and it was still pointing to the old 4.3.1 appimage which was located in ./local/bin - probably because of my fumbling around with the old RPM and confusion in general since I had 2 different types of installs at the same time ( via the RPM and via direct install per the Linux guide here ). I deleted the file entirely to remove it from the Apps menu - both the shortcut in /share/applications and the appimage in /bin. Restarted Gnome to confirm the "app" was gone.
Finally I re-installed ( over top of itself I guess since it already existed in /.local/bin and I was too lazy to manually add the missing symlinks elsewhere ) the 4.3.2 appimage and...everything works!
At least now I know better how this is all interconnected, and hopefully if I follow the standard procedure of installing the app image it'll actually work properly and "upgrade in place" so I don't have to do this whole process again.
Thanks so much for your help and responses!