installing one app in 2 versions, Ubuntu and non-Ubuntu

[Nick]

Two copies of the Chromium browser were on my Ubuntu laptop. (A recent update mentioned Chromium, so maybe that's when it happened.) They were the same version except that one was Ubuntu's and the other was not (75.0.3770.142 (Official Build) snap (64-bit)). I opened both but didn't see a difference except in the version string, but I didn't explore in depth. I checked the Ubuntu Software app and found only one listing for Chromium and it showed as having been installed.

I decided to uninstall. There was no way visible to choose which Chromium would be uninstalled.

The result was that the Ubuntu one uninstalled but the non-Ubuntu one stayed. The Ubuntu Software app then said that Chromium was not installed, although actually the non-Ubuntu version of Chromium was still present. The Ubuntu Software app has the same report even after a cold reboot.

Since the Ubuntu Software app incorrectly says that Chromium is not installed, I installed it ("Version 75.0.3770.142 (Official Build) Built on Ubuntu , running on Ubuntu 18.04 (64-bit)" (sic)). This gave me two icons for Chromium, so I uninstalled one, with the same result as above.

No crash was apparent at any stage.

I prefer that I be given a choice of which version to uninstall and that the Ubuntu Software app recognize that an app is currently installed.

Possibly relevant: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-app-launch/+bug/1670704

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better

In order for this to proceed, we need to know

(1) your release of Ubuntu, architecture, (`apport-collect 1841324`)
(2) your package version of ubuntu-software (apt-cache policy `ubuntu-software`)
(3) how the other Chromium was installed. Was it flatpak?, snap?, appimage? compiled from source? etc

Ubuntu-software only knows about a subset of the packages/meta-packages found in your listed apt sources, but has awareness of some snaps. Many popular package managers present all packages available but usually don't know about snaps. Neither though will know about appimages or flatpaks, and cannot know about software compiled from source.

I am not a developer, but suspect what you want may not be possible, but we cannot know until more information is provided.

If you provide the details, please respond in comment (or description) and return the status to 'New'. Likewise if you believe I'm in error, please respond in comment and change to 'New'.

Thanks again for helping make Ubuntu better.

[Nick (nick-levinson)]

Sorry, I forgot to say: Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS.

Architecture is x86_64.

apport-collect with the bug number yielded "Updating problem report"/"No additional information collected."/"Close [button]". I closed. Nothing replaced the alert box.

The ubuntu-software version table (indents may be omitted by the bug thread):

*** 3.28.1-0ubuntu4.18.04.10 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.28.1-0ubuntu4 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main i386 Packages

Either Chromium came with an Ubuntu installation or update or I got it through the Software app. I think the latter is likelier. I don't use any other method and I don't compile.