Why are there no new versions Gqrx in Debian?

[Виктор Левченко]

Hello,

I have been using old Qgrx v2.6 in Debian 9 / 64 bit for a long time.
Why didn't new versions of Gqrx appear in Debian?
I am very saddened by this circumstance :(

[DJ Longhorn]

same story here!!!! i had no idea there was updates forever!!! 

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[Виктор Левченко]

DJ Longhorn написал:

same story here!!!! i had no idea there was updates forever!!! 

I do not understand you, unfortunately :(

[Alexandru Csete]

On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 1:40 AM Виктор Левченко <vetka...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I have been using old Qgrx v2.6 in Debian 9 / 64 bit for a long time.
> Why didn't new versions of Gqrx appear in Debian?

If you run Debian Stable, then it is kept stable. This means that new
software releases that introduce new features are not applied because
there is a risk that the new features introduce new bugs in the
software.

On the other hand, if you look at Debian Testing, it has gqrx 2.11.5:
https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=gqrx&searchon=names&suite=testing&section=all

Alex

[Robin Gape]

Viktor,

new versions of GQRX in any distribution, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora or whatever, require someone to package them, plus compile, test, bugfix. That takes work, and given that there are over 48,000 packages in Debian stable, that is a lot of work in total.

If you're feeling brave, then version 2.11 is in Sid (Debian unstable). Alternatively, one could compile GQRX (and GNU Radio) from source, but that is not recommended for someone who is new to software compiling. On the other hand, it is a wonderful learning experience.

There doesn't seem to be a Debian repository that includes up-to-date GQRX.

Another option is to use Ubuntu, where there is a set of repositories (http://gqrx.dk/download/install-ubuntu). One can install Ubuntu to a removable device, such as a USB stick, and boot from that. It's easiest to do this if you have some local support, since this is another learning experience.

hope that was helpful,

Robin, G8DQX

[Alan Corey]

This is a major drawback to most package systems, they're never up to date.  I'm building llvm at the moment so I can build Firefox because the Firefox from the debs crashes on Facebook unless I run safe mode.  I need current llvm and Rust to do that, there are specific version requirements, the deb versions aren't new enough.

For things that nothing else depends on (probably nothing depends on gqrx), you have the freedom to uninstall the deb version and build from source.  But don't try it with a package that another package depends on, the proper way there is probably to build your own package and install it.  That way it's up to date but satisfies the requirements of what depends on it.

There is some ability to install Ubuntu debs under Debian if you download them and install with dpkg -i, but I wouldn't mess with adding Ubuntu repositories to your sources.list.  Or put testing or unstable repositories in there, because once you mix that stuff into stable it's about impossible to get it back out.  Staying outside the deb system by building from source is sometimes better.