This builds many mate-* packages from upstream Github repos for Ubuntu 20.04 Focal using Docker.

It builds from branch master for all repos. You can also specify the branch in the script per package under # setting custom branches for specific repos

The procedure of rebuilding the package with the latest updates constists of 4 steps:

1. clone the repo with package content (A) (https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-screensaver)
2. clone the repo with package meta content / debian folder (B) (https://salsa.debian.org/debian-mate-team/mate-screensaver.git)
3. copy the debian folder (B) with cleared patches folder to (A) .
4. update the debian/changelog with the new version and rebuild the package with dpkg-buildpackage

Mate repositories used: https://github.com/orgs/mate-desktop/repositories

debian folder (inside deb package) repositories used: https://salsa.debian.org/debian-mate-team/

There exists https://github.com/mate-desktop/debian-packages that contains debian folders for all packages, but is outdated and causes build errors. That's why we're using the ones from https://salsa.debian.org/debian-mate-team which are being updated.

Packages that are being built are set inside envvar MATE_PACKAGES. Modify the content of the list to suit your needs, maybe you need just a single package be upgraded.

Steps

1. Start and get into the Ubuntu 20.04 Focal container.

This will mount the current path. All files are going to be created inside folder build, the deb packages will be available inside build/00-mate-deb-packages folder together with install.sh. With using --rm the container and all it's content (but not the mounted current path) will be removed after you exit.

docker run --rm -it -v $(pwd):/mount -w /mount ubuntu:focal

2. Inside the container run:

./build.sh

At the end it outputs the command to run in a new terminal outside the container to install the packages.

3. In a new terminal on your host:

If you're using btrfs you should first create a snapshot of both system and home volume, just in case something breaks.

Run the command from previous step and one to fix dependency issues:

cd build/00-mate-deb-packages
sudo bash install.sh

# fix dependency issues
sudo apt-get -f install

In case of issues revert the package that is causing the issue. For mate-indicator-applet that would be (check for the latest working package version with apt-cache policy mate-indicator-applet) :

apt-get install mate-indicator-applet=1.26.0-0ubuntu1~focal2.3 mate-indicator-applet-common=1.26.0-0ubuntu1~focal2.3

Issues

A couple packages are not in the build list MATE_PACKAGES due to issues as of May 29th 2022 :

• atril ; error during build : dpkg-gensymbols: error: some symbols or patterns disappeared in the symbols file: see diff output below
• mate-indicator-applet ; the package builds ok but then after reboot the indicator applet is showing text No indicators