Blackmagic Design's Resolve video editor, V14.0.1, requires libpng12. Unfortunately, only libpng16 is provided with the new 17.10 release.
Is there a way to revert to libpng12 under 17.10? If so, how do I get libpng12 - synaptic doesn't list it when I search for it.
There are Ubuntu packages for libpng12-0 for trusty (14.04LTS) and xenial (16.04LTS), but not for 17.10. You must ask to the software manufacturer (i.e. Blackmagic Design) to update the program and/or the installer to use the most recent libpng16-16.
As a workaround, you may download and install the .deb package for Xenial from the Ubuntu web page before installing the Blackmagic Design's Resolve video editor.
Installing libpng12
$ wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/libp/libpng/libpng12-0_1.2.54-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i libpng12-0_1.2.54-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb
NOTE: Installing packages from older distributions may break your
aptinstallation system.
Is it safe to install the libpng12 package from Xenial (16.04LTS) ?
Using packages from older distributions can be dangerous. It may break the apt installation system because older packages may introduce dependencies to non-existing packages or replace packages that the new versions require. Try to use packages and repositories for the Ubuntu version you are using, i.e., the official Ubuntu repositories and well-known PPA repositories (that test their packages).
To check if the installation of libpng12 can break the apt, I checked the package information.
The libpng12 depends on libc6 (>= 2.14) and zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4) that are included in the recent Ubuntu versions.
$ apt-cache policy libc6 # gives me 2.24-9ubuntu2.2
$ apt-cache policy zlib1g # gives me 1.2.11dfsg-0ubuntu1
Note that no other Ubuntu package requires a recent version of libpng12 because it is not included in the repository. The most recent programs depends on libpng16-16 and both libraries can coexist.
apt. Do not try to install a package of an older distribution if you are not sure of what you are doing.
sudo apt upgrade, you would have to put the imported package on hold. Better off compiling libping12 and installing it in say /usr/local .
libpng16-16 package before installing libpng12 for answering this question. Both libraries resulted installed. I did an apt-get upgrade at the end. -- Right now, I think the rules in the repository does not consider libpng16 as a recent version of libpng12. In turn, libpng12 only depends on libc6 (>= 2.14) and zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4). -- I think this solution for libpng12 may be safe for using apt-get update.
libc6 and xzlib1g (that exists in 17.x), which is independent of the included libpng library, and which no other package depend on it, can break the apt? -- I think that programs such as WPS and the Resolve video editor depends on the (old) libpng12 and they will not result hold. Recent Ubuntu programs does not depend on libpng12 but libpng16-16. These apps will not be hold neither. -- For this concrete case, I think this solution is safe.
libpng12 is uploaded to the 16.04 repositories, you will not automatically get this update, which is a concern especially if it is security-related. This can be fixed by adding the 16.04 repositories to your sources list and using apt-pinning so they are used only for libpng12 (assigning priority < 100 to all other packages).
Instead of using the binary package, you may compile libpng.
.deb installer, e.g., if the program is a commercial product, you must install a package to avoid errors during the installation. You can create the package from source code using instructions below.Compiling libpng from the official source code
Note that old libpng v1.2.x may have a lot of vulnerabilities. It is recommended to use the most recent 1.2.x version from sourceforge or github. This is for the v.1.2.59 version.
Install the packages to compile software (if they are not installed)
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential
Obtain and extract the source code
$ wget https://github.com/glennrp/libpng/archive/v1.2.59.tar.gz
$ tar xvfz v1.2.59.tar.gz
Compile and install the library
$ cd libpng-1.2.59/
$ ./configure
$ make check
$ sudo make install
NOTE: Installing the library will not set the dependency to
libpng12as met inapt. You must use a.debpackage to install it and support the installation of other.debfiles that depend on it. To create the corresponding.debpackage, you can use the following instructions.
Using the source code of the Ubuntu package
the libpng12-0 package corresponds to libpng 1.2.54. Ubuntu has a customized version they named 1.2.54-1ubuntu1.
Install the packages to compile software and create Ubuntu packages (if they are not installed)
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot dpkg-dev devscripts
Download source code files using the .dsc file from the page
$ dget -d http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/libp/libpng/libpng_1.2.54-1ubuntu1.dsc
Extract the source code applying the patched provided by Ubuntu
$ dpkg-source -x libpng_1.2.54-1ubuntu1.dsc
Check the dependencies for the package
$ cd libpng-1.2.54/
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b
It shows unmet build dependencies. In my case...
:
dpkg-checkbuilddeps: error: Unmet build dependencies: debhelper (>= 8.1.3) libtool automake autoconf zlib1g-dev
Install the dependencies
$ sudo apt-get install debhelper libtool automake autoconf zlib1g-dev
Compile
$ fakeroot debian/rules binary
The resulting packages will be located in the parent folder
../libpng12-0_1.2.54-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb
../libpng12-dev_1.2.54-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb
../libpng3_1.2.54-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb
Use the resulting package
$ cd ..
$ sudo dpkg -i libpng12-0_1.2.54-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb
NOTE: Compiling and installing packages for old distributions is as dangerous as using binary packages for old distributions. The described compilation process for the
libpng12package uses only packages in the Ubuntu 17.x repositories and does not result in errors. I think that using the resulting package will not break theapt.
This source worked for me on Ubuntu 18:
sudo echo 'deb http://cz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty main universe' \ > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extra.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt-get install libpng12-0
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extra.list
Found it here while trying to install printer drivers and it seems to be working.
IMO you are safer compiling from source than you are using old packages from old repositories.
Best advice I can give you is to file a bug report with blackmagic, they need to update their dependencies.
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/
To compile, go to the relevant ubuntu package to identify the package and upstream source
https://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial/libpng12-0
So you want "libpng_1.2.54.orig.tar.xz"
https://sourceforge.net/projects/libpng/files/libpng12/older-releases/1.2.54/
download, extract, compile, install (starting after download and extracting the tar ball).
cd libpng-1.2.54
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make install
To remove again (if needed)
#run within libpng-1.2.54 directory
sudo make uninstall
I understand it seems like a few extra steps, but it is trivial to download and compile in this way and there is no risk of breaking apt.
make install, the .deb installer will not find the dependency to libpng-12 as met. The installer will fail. -- This solution will work if you can get access to the source code or other type of installer for the software. -- If you cannot get the source code, you may compile the sources for the Ubuntu package and install the resulting file before installing the software you want.
ldd ./path/to/<program>to show the libraries the given binary will try to load. Compile or download the obsolete libraries either adjacent to the binary or manipulate envron LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include them. Beware, any software not distributed by your maintainer's package repository is not going to get security updates from thier security team; you're going to have to manually update the library yourself, four times a day is ideal :)