PT8 (and 9) on Wasta 20

Question

Short version: Does PT8 run on Wasta 20? I assume that, since it is in the focal main repository, in theory it should. But when I try to launch it, nothing happens.

Long version: I recently upgraded to Wasta 20 from 16, so that I could upgrade to PT9. I had PT9 installed and running. Then I decided that it would also be useful to have PT8 installed. I installed it but it would not launch. PT9 continued to work.

I received advice that if you want to have both, it might be better to install PT8 before PT9. So I uninstalled 8 & 9. In reinstalling 8, I still get nothing when launching. I have not tried installing 9 yet. I want to get 8 working first, if possible.

Here’s the output from launching PT8 from the command line:

anon770990@anon770990-ThinkPad-X240:~$ paratext8
Mozilla Roots Importer - version 3.2.8.0
Download and import trusted root certificates from Mozilla’s MXR.
Copyright 2002, 2003 Motus Technologies. Copyright 2004-2008 Novell. BSD licensed.

Importing certificates into user store…
Import process completed.

(1,2): warning CS0105: The using directive for `System’ appeared previously in this namespace
Checking for ParatextProjects.
Apport Ignore file doesn’t need updating.
Updating EncConverts Registry Keys
SLT Resources already Installed.

Then it just stops and returns me to the command prompt.

Any help appreciated!
anon770990

Answer 1

Hi anon770990. This appears to be a problem with PT8 v1.47–it won’t run even when installed by itself without PT9. I was able to make them both worth together by installing the experimental PT8 v1.52, which aims to solve other issues, as well.
You can enable the SIL Experimental repo in “Software Settings” under the “Other Software” tab. I’d recommend enabling that, installing/updating PT8, then immediately disabling it before installing PT9 to avoid also installing an experimental version of PT9. These are the versions I tested and found to work together: PT8 v1.52 and PT9 v0.82.

Comments

@anon770990, @n8_in_car and Justin and I discussed, and we believe that the “experimental” version of PT9 is your best best, along with the “experimental” version of PT8 that n8_in_car notes is needed.

So, once you enable the “experimental” repository, you can go ahead and install both PT8 and PT9.

Keep us posted!

anon247639

Answer 2

Thanks for your suggestions @n8_in_car and @anon247639. I installed both versions from the experimental repository and all seems to be working well. PT9 in particular is less laggy than the version in the main repo.
Thanks again!
anon770990