How to Install the Latest Version of Evince on Linux
Introduction
Evince is a popular, lightweight document viewer primarily used for viewing PDFs, PostScript, and other document formats. It’s the default document viewer for GNOME-based systems like Ubuntu, but it can be installed on any Linux distribution. This guide will walk you through the process of installing the latest version of Evince, whether you’re using Ubuntu, Debian, or any other major Linux distribution.
Step 1: Install Evince from the Default Repository
Most Linux distributions include Evince in their default software repositories. To install the version available in the repository, you can use your system’s package manager. On Ubuntu or Debian-based systems, you would run the following command:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install evince
This command installs the stable version of Evince available in your distribution’s repository. However, depending on your distribution, this version might not be the latest release.
Step 2: Adding a PPA (For Ubuntu-based Systems)
If you’re looking to install the latest version of Evince and it’s not available in your default repository, you can add a Personal Package Archive (PPA) that provides more up-to-date software. For Ubuntu-based systems, there’s a PPA for GNOME that often includes the latest Evince version.
To add the PPA and install the latest Evince version, follow these steps:
Add the PPA:
Open a terminal and run:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
This command adds the PPA for the latest GNOME packages, which include Evince.
Update your package list:
After adding the PPA, update your system’s package list:
sudo apt update
Install Evince:
Now, install or upgrade Evince to the latest version:
sudo apt install evince
This will either install the latest Evince or upgrade your current installation.
Step 3: Installing Evince on Fedora
If you’re using Fedora, you can easily install Evince from the default repository. Use the dnf package manager as follows:
sudo dnf install evince
For Fedora users, the latest version of Evince is typically available in the default repositories, so you won’t usually need any additional repositories.
Step 4: Installing Evince on Arch Linux
On Arch Linux and its derivatives, Evince is available from the official repositories. Since Arch is a rolling-release distribution, you will usually have access to the latest version of Evince. You can install it with the pacman package manager:
sudo pacman -S evince
This command installs the most up-to-date version available in Arch’s repository.
Step 5: Building Evince from Source
If you’re using a distribution where the latest version of Evince is not available, or you prefer to build it from source, follow these steps:
Install dependencies:
Before building Evince, ensure that you have the required dependencies installed. These may include packages like gtk+, libxml2, and others.
On Ubuntu, you can install the required dependencies with:
sudo apt install build-essential libgtk-3-dev libxml2-dev libpoppler-glib-dev
On Fedora:
sudo dnf install gtk3-devel libxml2-devel poppler-glib-devel
Download the latest source code:
Visit the Evince GitLab repository to download the latest source code.
You can also clone the repository using git:
git clone https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/evince.git
Build and install Evince:
Once you have the source code, navigate to the directory and build Evince:
cd evince
./configure
make
sudo make install
This will compile and install Evince on your system.
Step 6: Verifying the Installation
Once you’ve installed Evince, you can verify the installation by running:
evince –version
This command will display the installed version of Evince. If the installation was successful, you should see the latest version number.
Step 7: Launching Evince
After installing Evince, you can launch it from the terminal by typing:
evince
Alternatively, you can find it in your system’s applications menu under “Document Viewer.”
If you would like to improve yourself in server management, you can purchase a server from our site, experiment and improve yourself in an affordable and reliable environment. I wish you good luck.
Conclusion
Evince is an excellent tool for viewing a variety of document formats on Linux. Whether you’re using Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch Linux, or another distribution, the steps above will help you install or update Evince to the latest version. Keeping Evince updated ensures that you benefit from the latest features and performance improvements. By using PPAs or building from source, you can ensure you’re always running the most recent version of this powerful document viewer.
For more details or to download the source code, visit the official Evince GitLab repository.
