Where can I download it?

Where do I download it?

Precompiled Packages

Your distribution may already have compiled packages that are much easier to install. Refer to the users page for more details or use the instructions provided below to get you going using your native package manager.

Conary: Yes, just run: sudo conary update PackageKit gnome-packagekit
Fedora: Yes, starting with 9, just run: yum install PackageKit gnome-packagekit (as root)
Debian: Yes, packages are available for Debian Sid. Just run apt-get install packagekit gnome-packagekit (as root).
Ubuntu: Yes, starting with Hardy Heron (8.04), that ships an obsolete version (0.1.6) of PackageKit by default. Newer versions are used by more recent releases, but you can find the latest versions of PackageKit for all releases in this Personal Package Archive. Add the repository and install the packages packagekit and packagekit-gnome.
openSUSE: Yes, starting with 11.0, add this repository file and run: zypper install PackageKit gnome-packagekit (as root)
Mandriva: Yes, starting with 2009, just run: urpmi packagekit gnome-packagekit (as root)
Others: Probably not, although you can compile from source. See below for more details.

Released Versions

Released versions are found on http://www.packagekit.org/releases/.

Latest Supported Versions:

These are versions which have new features for each release. We are also willing to break ABI and API to fix bugs and will merge new or modified translations as required or suggested. Releases are normally on the first working Monday of each month.

Version		Date
0.7.3		2012-03-01
0.7.2		2012-01-17
0.7.1		2011-11-10
0.7.0		2011-09-05

ABI Stable Versions:

These are versions where we will not break ABI, API or localisations. Releases are less frequent, usually every few months.

Version		Date
0.6.18		2011-09-05
0.6.17		2011-08-01
0.6.16		2011-07-04
0.6.15		2011-06-07
0.6.14		2011-05-04
0.6.13		2011-03-07
0.6.12		2011-02-01
0.6.11		2010-12-13
0.6.10		2010-11-01
0.6.9		2010-10-04
0.6.8		2010-09-06
0.6.7		2010-08-04
0.6.6		2010-07-01
0.6.5		2010-06-02
0.6.4		2010-05-06
0.6.3		2010-03-29
0.6.2		2010-03-01
0.6.1		2010-02-01
0.6.0		2010-01-04

Obsolete Versions:

These are versions that used to be the ABI stable releases, but are now longer supported. There will not be any more releases of these versions.

Version		Date
0.5.7		2010-03-03
0.5.6		2010-01-05
0.5.5		2009-12-07
0.5.4		2009-11-02
0.5.3		2009-10-05
0.5.2		2009-09-07
0.5.1		2009-08-03
0.5.0		2009-07-06
0.4.9		2009-08-03
0.4.8		2009-06-01
0.4.7		2009-05-05
0.4.6		2009-03-30
0.4.5		2009-03-09
0.4.4		2009-02-23
0.4.3		2009-02-02
0.4.2		2009-01-19
0.4.1		2009-01-08
0.4.0		2008-12-09
0.3.16		2009-06-10
0.3.15		2009-03-30
0.3.14		2009-02-02
0.3.12		2008-12-08
0.3.11		2008-11-24
0.3.10		2008-11-10
0.3.9		2008-10-27
0.3.8		2008-10-20
0.3.7		2008-10-13
0.3.6		2008-10-06
0.3.5		2008-09-29
0.3.4		2008-09-22
0.3.3		2008-09-16
0.3.2		2008-09-08
0.3.1		2008-08-27
0.3.0		2008-08-18
0.2.5		2008-09-06
0.2.4		2008-07-30
0.2.3		2008-07-04
0.2.2		2008-06-05
0.2.1		2008-05-09
0.2.0		2008-05-06
0.1.11		2008-04-05
0.1.10		2008-03-28
0.1.9		2008-03-04
0.1.8		2008-02-21
0.1.7		2008-02-14
0.1.6		2008-01-18
0.1.5		2007-12-21
0.1.4		2007-11-26
0.1.3		2007-11-10
0.1.2		2007-11-01
0.1.1		2007-10-23
0.1.0		2007-10-16

Dependencies

The actual PackageKit daemon requires:

glib 2.14.0
dbus 1.1.3
dbus-glib 0.74
libnm 0.6.4 (optional)
polkit 0.9

gnome-packagekit will need all the usual GNOME libs as well. Just make sure you install PackageKit before gnome-packagekit!

Compiling the latest code

You can get the latest PackageKit daemon and GNOME frontend from the public git repositories on gitorious.org:

git clone git://gitorious.org/packagekit/packagekit.git
git clone git://git.gnome.org/gnome-packagekit

Apper (was KPackageKit) is available from Git in the KDE playground:

git clone git://anongit.kde.org/apper

There are detailed build instructions for different distros available:

Fedora

If you want to commit changes or a new backend, then please email the mailing list and we can give you access to a developer server. The developer server is always up to date, and the anonymous git is synced about twice a day. Having a two tier server lets developers review code for correctness and security problems before it's used in the real world.

Adding backends to PackageKit

PackageKit itself is an abstract daemon, the only bits that are distro specific are the backends.

To make PackageKit work on a new distribution, you have to write a "backend" which is basically a shim layer from the distro tool to packagekitd. A backend can have one or more threads and also spawn other processes.

See the developer information here for more information.

Backends do not have to be complete; often they just contain basic functionality to install and remove but do not provide dependency or file lists for example. See the FAQ here for backends status.

We need people to create backends, and then package (pardon the pun) PackageKit and gnome-packagekit for more distributions. I think it's important that installing and updating software should be as easy as possible.

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