Update Reaper in Linux

[Sternthaler]

Hi,
is there any PPA for getting Reaper updates? What is your workaround to update if there is no PPA.
(Using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS)
Best regards,
Stefan

[JamesPeters]

Download from official REAPER site (see link at the top of the page), use install script or run it portable.

Installing new version "overtop" of previous version works properly.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

Download from official REAPER site (see link at the top of the page), use install script or run it portable.

Installing new version "overtop" of previous version works properly.

That's the way I do it. I click download, Firefox asks what to do with it, I click open in Engrampa, then extract right on top of my existing install of REAPER.

[Sternthaler]

Hi JamesPeters,

Installing new version "overtop" of previous version works properly

avoided it untill now, good to know. Which distribution of Linux you are working on? Mine is Ubuntu 18.04LTS

[JamesPeters]

My system info is in my signature. Well except for the fact I'm running the AntiX kernel at the moment (4.9.126), only since it has all the Spectre/Meltdown fixes.

[Stringer]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I am not quite sure what directory installing "overtop" would be. I have a "Reaper" directory in my documents folder that contains a "reaper_linux_x86_64" folder. Is that the folder to which the updated version should be extracted?

Thanks.

[Lokasenna]

If in doubt:

locate /reaper | grep reaper$

On my system it shows two results, one in my Downloads folder and the other where I've installed it.

[JamesPeters]

Yes plus the installer script provides two install location options by default. If you ran the installer script you probably chose one of those two options, so you can just look in those two locations. If you are running it as portable then you placed it in a certain location yourself. In that case you would probably remember where you put it and if not yeah I would use the information in the post above.

[Stringer]

When I run that command it shows this:

/home/guitarsophist/Downloads/Reaper/reaper_linux_x86_64/REAPER/reaper
/home/ogden/Documents/Reaper/reaper_linux_x86_64/REAPER/reaper
/opt/REAPER/reaper

So there are three locations.

I tried extracting 5.971 to the second of those directories, but when I booted Reaper I still had 5.961. Should I try extracting to the opt/REAPER/reaper location?

For previous installs I used the installer. I may have made different choices both times.

The other complication is that guitarsophist is my superuser profile and ogden is a regular user.

I know just enough about Linux to really screw things up!

Thanks

[JamesPeters]

I recommend you uninstall/remove Reaper everywhere you currently have it, then install it again and pay attention where you install it. That way you can always overwrite it with a new version when you want.

If you need to back up your preferences first, don't forget to do that!

This isn't a big problem anyway. What would be a big problem, potentially: messing up your dependencies. I highly recommend you stick to your official distro's repos for pretty much everything, except "flatpaks" (basically "portable intalls") and maybe Reaper's install script (also LinuxVST plugins). If not knowing where you installed Reaper was concerning...well, if you mess up dependencies, you have no idea the kind of struggle you'll be in for.

[Lokasenna]

/opt/REAPER is one of the default install locations, so that's most likely where you're running it from.

[Stringer]

I ended up trying to do that. Reaper was installed in /opt. However, before I uninstalled, I tried to extract into /opt and it said I did not have appropriate permissions, even though I was superuser. So I uninstalled by right clicking on the icon in the menu and then clicking uninstall, but that just uninstalled the icon.

So I ran the install script and successfully installed 5.971 in /opt, though at first it balked and asked for the password. At any rate, I now have the updated version.

Thanks,

John

[Lokasenna]

Do actually need it in /opt? Installing it in /home/username/opt would fix that issue and is typically recommended for Linux apps.

[JamesPeters]

Originally Posted by Lokasenna

Do actually need it in /opt? Installing it in /home/username/opt would fix that issue and is typically recommended for Linux apps.

Yeah I'm new to Linux but after my first install (to /opt), next time I went "uh...no, I should move that..." Especially when adding scripts etc. to Reaper. I don't want to always change permissions.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

Yeah I'm new to Linux but after my first install (to /opt), next time I went "uh...no, I should move that..." Especially when adding scripts etc. to Reaper. I don't want to always change permissions.

When I first put the native Linux version of REAPER on my machine there wasn't an installer yet, so I selected "~/.local/share", and that's where it still lives and runs today. I saw no real advantage in fixing it since it ain't broke.

[Stringer]

Yes, the installer put it in /opt/REAPER, which is option 1. I want it to be available to regular users and that works. If I put it in "~/.local/share" would it be available to all users?

I realize now that I was being confused because before I was extracting to a directory and then running the installer to install it in /opt/REAPER, so it looked like I had it running from two places.

Thanks for all the help here! It is really cool to run Reaper in Linux. My Win7 partition is a mess these days.

John

[Xasman]

Originally Posted by Stringer

Yes, the installer put it in /opt/REAPER, which is option 1. I want it to be available to regular users and that works. If I put it in "~/.local/share" would it be available to all users?
John

No, anything installed anywhere in your home folder will be available only to you. If you want REAPER to be available to all users then probably the best place to install it is in /opt (as suggested by the installer).

BTW. You don't normally need to worry about permissions for any extra scripts, docs, extra JS plugins etc. you might want to install as these can all be placed in the REAPER resource directory. This is most commonly in ~/.config but in order to be sure, you can open it directly from inside REAPER (Options -> Show REAPER resource path in explorer/finder). Do bear in mind though, that anything stored there will only be available to you and not to other users (but then each user will probably have different setup/config/extras requirements anyway).