Upgrade Storagehow to install Linux stand-alone version of Zotero?
Hi,
How do I "install"--if at all--the stand-alone version of Zotero for Linux? I found no instructions for this, either on the website or within the tarball that I downloaded. I do see that after unpacking the tarball, within the Zotero directory there are these files:
run-zotero.sh
zotero
Both are executable, and when I run either from the command-line with either ./run-zotero.sh or ./zotero, the Zotero stand-alone application appears. But, is that the correct thing to do? What's the difference between these two programs, if any? Is there a way to install Zotero in a more permanent fashion? In general, there are lots of options (Autotools type installation into /usr/local/bin, Yum or Apt-Get style package installation, Java JDK-style shell-scripted installation, etc.) Or, are we just to install it "manually" by making sure the right program (whatever that is) is in the $PATH variable? If so, that's fine. I can handle it. It's just that it's always a little unnerving when the trail that leads from a "Download" page goes cold, and you're left with just an unpacked tarball with various bits and bobs in it, and a README that doesn't tell you anything you don't already know and definitely doesn't offer any guidance on how to install or what to do next.
Thanks
How do I "install"--if at all--the stand-alone version of Zotero for Linux? I found no instructions for this, either on the website or within the tarball that I downloaded. I do see that after unpacking the tarball, within the Zotero directory there are these files:
run-zotero.sh
zotero
Both are executable, and when I run either from the command-line with either ./run-zotero.sh or ./zotero, the Zotero stand-alone application appears. But, is that the correct thing to do? What's the difference between these two programs, if any? Is there a way to install Zotero in a more permanent fashion? In general, there are lots of options (Autotools type installation into /usr/local/bin, Yum or Apt-Get style package installation, Java JDK-style shell-scripted installation, etc.) Or, are we just to install it "manually" by making sure the right program (whatever that is) is in the $PATH variable? If so, that's fine. I can handle it. It's just that it's always a little unnerving when the trail that leads from a "Download" page goes cold, and you're left with just an unpacked tarball with various bits and bobs in it, and a README that doesn't tell you anything you don't already know and definitely doesn't offer any guidance on how to install or what to do next.
Thanks
zotero is what you want to use and that's indeed just a file that you run, i.e. "installing" it just means excracting the tarball to wherever you want to run it from. I'd recommend using a location that your user has write access to, so you don't need su privileges to update. A typical location would be something like ~/.local/bin
There are no official packages, though there is both an open ticket
https://github.com/zotero/zotero-standalone-build/issues/52
and an inofficial ppa:
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/25317/install-zotero-standalone-from-ubuntu-linux-mint-ppa/p1
I got a new computer (Elementary OS Loki 64-bit). I downloaded the standard Linux version of Zotero standalone and could get it to run -- see neptunestation's comments above. However, I see now that this was version 4.[something]. When I import my data files from the old computer, Zotero says the database is incompatible, and that I must upgrade to version 5.[something]. And the database won't load.
I can't remember how it is that I installed/upgraded to the 5.x beta. No problem -- I removed the 4.x package, and I did find the 5.x beta source files, and downloaded them.
There does not seem to be, however, a *.sh file in that download. I simply can't figure this out. (And unfortunately I also find incomprehensible the counsel offered at https://www.zotero.org/support/dev/source_code.)
Help would be appreciated. Thank you! Oh and I do not have my files fully backed up to the zotero.org server so that won't work.
What I did was copy the contents of the archive into a folder in /opt, rewrite the desktop file with absolute paths ([edit] because I still haven't figured out how Linux works), and put it in /usr/share/applications. (This also allowed me to add a "Category" entry so Zotero now appears in the app launcher.)
I then replaced the database with the one I had saved from the old computer, and everything seems to work fine. I realize this is pretty crude, but hopefully it doesn't break anything that matters.
/home/USER/.local/share/applications/Zotero_linux-x86_64
If you don't have a bin directory in your /homer/USER/.local/ then make one:
mkdir /home/USER/.local/bin
Make a symbolic link from the Zotero application directory to the .local/bin directory:
ln -s /home/USER/.local/share/applications/Zotero_linux-x86_64/./zotero /home/USER/.local/bin/zotero
Open a terminal and type zotero to start Zotero stand-alone version.