Installing latest version of QGIS on Ubuntu 18.04

Question

I'n not an experienced user of Linux. But I just wanted to install the latest version of GRASS GIS and QGIS on Ubuntu 18.04. There are many different ways to do this I guess. There are the ppa's, there are the normal qgis-repositories for ubuntu and than there is also ubuntugis. It's all a little bit overwhelming and in the process of installing QGIS I think I messed some things up.

When I run sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list I added these two repositories:

deb http://qgis.org/ubuntu bionic main
deb-src http://qgis.org/ubuntu bionic main

Then I do all the steps provided here:

https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/alldownloads.html#debian-ubuntu

But when I run sudo apt install qgis I get:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 qgis : Depends: gdal-abi-2-2-3 but it is not installable
        Depends: libqgis-analysis3.10.2 but it is not going to be installed
        Depends: libqgis-app3.10.2 but it is not going to be installed
        Depends: libqgis-core3.10.2 but it is not going to be installed
        Depends: libqgis-gui3.10.2 but it is not going to be installed
        Depends: python3-qgis (= 1:3.10.2+28bionic) but it is not going to be installed
        Depends: qgis-providers (= 1:3.10.2+28bionic) but it is not going to be installed
        Recommends: qgis-plugin-grass but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I don't know if this has anything to do with the one time I tried to add the ppa. When I run ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, I get:

...
ubuntugis-ubuntu-ppa-bionic.list
ubuntugis-ubuntu-ppa-bionic.list.save
ubuntugis-ubuntu-ubuntugis-unstable-bionic.list
ubuntugis-ubuntu-ubuntugis-unstable-bionic.list.save

I just wanted to have the newest version of QGIS and GRASS (due to Python3) and now I don't know how to get back. Does anyone have a pointer?

Answer 1

You have to decide if you want to go the ubuntugis way, or not.

If you don't want ubuntugis, comment out all references to that ppa. You will get GDAL 2.2.3, GRASS 7.4 and QGIS 3.10.2

If you take ubuntugis, you get GDAL 3.0.2, GRASS 7.8 and QGIS 3.10.2.

The error message Depends: gdal-abi-2-2-3 but it is not installable indicates that you request or have a wrong GDAL version. Maybe you already have a newer one from ubuntugis, which blocks the non-ubuntugis QGIS package.

And the final commannd line should be:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qgis qgis-plugin-grass python3-qgis

Answer 2

I would edit and comment out (add # at the start of the line) all of the ubuntugis and ubuntugis-unstable lines in those files in /etc/apt/sources.lists.d/*.

As far as I can tell I have only the following repositories:

deb https://qgis.org/ubuntu bionic main # disabled on upgrade to bionic
deb-src https://qgis.org/ubuntu bionic main # disabled on upgrade to bionic
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable/ubuntu xenial main

and since I'm running bionic I'm pretty sure the xenial one is not used (it doesn't show up when I run an apt update). I'm currently running QGis 3.10.2 with no issues.

Answer 3

After hundreds of unsuccessful attempts, I find the way using a docker image from the oficial repository in docker hub https://hub.docker.com/r/qgis/qgis, this works on ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 and probably any os, after install docker you could do:

docker pull qgis/qgis

and run the image:

xhost +
docker run --rm -it --name qgis \
    -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix  \
    -e DISPLAY=unix$DISPLAY \
    qgis/qgis:latest qgis

If you want to use some folder outside the container just use -v /local/path/:docker/path example (change MY_USER and SOME_NAME):

docker run --rm -it --name qgis \
-v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix  \
-v /home/MY_USER/Desktop:/home/SOME_NAME \
-e DISPLAY=unix$DISPLAY \
qgis/qgis:latest qgis

If you want to use your local network (to connect to postgres or other local service or tunnel) add --privileged --network="host"

docker run --rm -it --name qgis \
    --privileged --network="host" \
    -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix  \
    -v /home/MY_USER/Desktop:/home/SOME_NAME \
    -e DISPLAY=unix$DISPLAY \
    qgis/qgis:latest qgis

This examples are always running latest version of qgis, to run other versions see this https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/tree/master/.docker

Answer 4

After many attempts, I tried an installation using Flatpak. I used it for the first time but it went like a charm. They have an up-to-date Flatpak for QGIS: https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.qgis.qgis

Maybe this is an option for somebody else as well. Using Ubuntu 18.04 I did the following:

Install Flatpak
sudo apt install flatpak
sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Install QGIS
flatpak install flathub org.qgis.qgis//stable (the also have an option for LTS)

Then I had to reboot my system and I could find QGIS being installed.