How to update Flameshot in Ubuntu? [SOLVED]

Introduction to Flameshot

Flameshot is a powerful yet simple to use open source screenshot software. It has an interactive GUI with controls for selecting the desired capture region, moving and resizing the capture window, making edits with general drawing tools, and selecting (copying) the output destination.

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If you are using Ubuntu 20.04, the following version is in the operating system repository:

foc@ubuntu20:~$ sudo apt search flameshot
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
flameshot/focal 0.6.0+git20191001-2 amd64
  Powerful yet simple-to-use screenshot software

foc@ubuntu20:~$ flameshot -v
Flameshot 0.6.0+git20191001-2(Debian)
Compiled with Qt 5.12.5

The following versions are available for flameshot at packages.ubuntu.com:

• Ubuntu 22.04LTS - jammy
  11.0.0-2: amd64
• kinetic
  12.1.0-1: amd64

Upgrading the package to the latest version in Ubuntu can sometimes cause problems. Let's share the steps to upgrade to the next version. If you want, you can do it for later versions by following the same steps.

 

How to update Flameshot in Ubuntu?

There are 2 methods for Flameshot update. One of them is to download and install the package manually. The other method is to update the Ubuntu repository for a higher version, then update the package.

 

Install New Package Version Manually

There are packages for different versions and different distributions at Flameshot github address. For v12.1.0 version and ubuntu 20.04 right click on the package and copy  link address:

Type the copied link after the wget command and download the package:

foc@ubuntu20:~$ wget https://github.com/flameshot-org/flameshot/releases/download/v12.1.0/flameshot-12.1.0-1.ubuntu-20.04.amd64.deb
...
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 698872 (682K) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘flameshot-12.1.0-1.ubuntu-20.04.amd64.deb.1’

flameshot-12.1.0- 100%[=============>] 682.49K  2.77MB/s    in 0.2s    

2022-11-16 19:15:14 (2.77 MB/s) - ‘flameshot-12.1.0-1.ubuntu-20.04.amd64.deb.1’ saved [698872/698872]

Install the downloaded package with its dependencies:

foc@ubuntu20:~$ sudo apt install ./flameshot-12.1.0-1.ubuntu-20.04.amd64.deb

Updated Flameshot package to v12.1.0.

foc@ubuntu20:~$ flameshot -v
Flameshot v12.1.0 ()
Compiled with Qt 5.12.8

 

Installation from the Repository

With this method, the repository address of the new package is written to the sources.list file in the update process. Add the new repository for Flameshot version 11.0.0-2

root@ubuntu20:/home/foc# echo "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main universe" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

Then pull the updated package list:

root@ubuntu20:/home/foc# apt update
Hit:1 http://tr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease [270 kB]
...

Now installable flameshot package version 11.0.0-2:

root@ubuntu20:/home/foc# apt search flameshot
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
flameshot/jammy 11.0.0-2 amd64
Powerful yet simple-to-use screenshot software

Finally install the package:

root@ubuntu20:/# apt install flameshot -y

Successfully updated Flameshot:

root@ubuntu20:/# dpkg -l | grep flameshot
ii flameshot 11.0.0-2 amd64 Powerful yet simple-to-use screenshot software
root@ubuntu20:/# flameshot -v
Flameshot v11.0.0 (11.0.0-2 Debian)
Compiled with Qt 5.15.2

 

Summary

In this article, we shared the steps to update the flameshot package installed on Ubuntu 20.04. It can be applied in 2 methods, but our recommendation is to just install the package. Packages that come with the repository can sometimes cause package conflicts in the operating system.

You can get help with flameshot with the --help command:

root@ubuntu20:/# flameshot --help
Usage: flameshot [flameshot-options] [arguments]

Per default runs Flameshot in the background and adds a tray icon for configuration.

Options:
-h, --help Displays this help
-v, --version Displays version information

Arguments:
gui Start a manual capture in GUI mode.
screen Capture a single screen.
full Capture the entire desktop.
launcher Open the capture launcher.
config Configure flameshot.

or you can get information from the manual page:

root@ubuntu20:/# man flameshot

NAME
Flameshot - Powerful yet simple-to-use screenshot software

SYNOPSIS
flameshot [subcommands] [arguments]
flameshot gui [gui arguments]
flameshot screen [screen arguments]
flameshot full [fullscreen arguments]
flameshot config [config arguments]
flameshot launcher
...

 

References

flameshot.org - Installation on Linux
github.com/flameshot-org - Installation