Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Afternoon, gang.

For some reason, I thought I'd already posted about & published these! Apparently not. So....

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If there's one thing we're not short of in the Linux world, it's graphics apps. Raster editors, vector editors, anime readers, photo editors and organisors, you name it.....we've got them. However, as in every walk of life, some just stand out as being that "cut above the rest"....

I've always liked stuff from the KDE Project, despite that they often want a ton of dependencies installed. Many won't function without the full Plasma desktop being installed, due to KDE's high degree of integration between major apps in their distros. But; they almost always have everything you could possibly want, and offer customization to the nth degree.

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I can't remember exactly when I first came across Digikam, but it was around the time I first began to take an interest in AppImages.....which still remain my favourite 'portable' package format here in Puppy-land. I believe it was Mikeslr who first mentioned the AppImages for it. However, having located it on KDE's website, and tried it out, I was quickly 'smitten' by it. This thing is the very best organiser-cum-editor-cum-utility I've yet found for photos on our side of the fence, and really is an all-in-one package.

This version of Digikam is v5.9.0. It's not the newest by any means....but it's rock-solid, ultra stable, and has never failed to work in ANY Puppy I've ever thrown it at, 32-bit and 64-bit alike. Anything from late 5-series on, any way.

These are big packages, I'll not deny. The AppImages obviously contain every single KDE dependency required, but they've definitely been built properly, obviating the need for any messing-about that we often need to do with these things. Make 'em executable, click on 'em, and away they go....

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I've built my usual portable set-up around them, with the express intention of keeping them self-contained. Config stuff is created 'in-house', and sym-linked out to expected locations at run-time, being removed again at close. Scripts permit the addition of a Menu entry, regardless of where you've located them.

Digikam does have one peculiarity. It requires, and generates, its own SQL database. It also wants to read this from the main file-system. So; I've set it to create the database in its internal 'config' directory, then this is sym-linked out at run-time.

I wasn't sure quite where to sym-link this to, initially. My first thought was /mnt/home, naturally, but then upon reflection, this wouldn't work for those among us who run 'Live' sessions without creating a 'save'.....because until the 'save' exists, neither does /mnt/home! Accordingly, I picked "/", alongside /bin, /etc, /lib, /opt, /var and all the rest of it. It's only a location for Digikam to 'find' the database, after all, and because it's a sym-link anything Digikam writes to the database goes straight into the 'portable's config directory anyway. But without exception, "/" will ALWAYS exist, no matter how you run Puppy.

This way, even 'Live' session users can run this from a flash-drive or other portable media, and everything will still work as normal.

(During the first-run setup, when asked where you want to set/save/write to the database, choose

/Digikam-DB

.....and unless your Puppy is really misbehaving itself, the "in-house", sym-linked database directory should be found, and used).

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For anyone who might like to take a look at it, you can find the tarballs at the usual location.....my MEGA.nz a/c. Specifically, here:-

https://mega.nz/folder/qLoEyCrR#TY2L-kDtfjP-cWrtOz5oqg

Same as always; d/l; unzip; place the portable directory anywhere you like.....outside the 'save' is best, of course. Click to enter, click 'LAUNCH' to fire it up. Easy-peasy. Those scripts will let you add that Menu entry if required; read the "MenuReadMe" first to see how they work.

Enjoy!

Mike.

Downloaded 64 bit and md5sum and ran in Xenialpup64-7.5 Runs and does what it should very well Thanks

I keep all downloaded software in one separate folder so no need to muck about with a start menue item. It starts from the executeable or Launch that way.