Installing Mendeley Desktop on Ubuntu 22.04

Install Mendeley Desktop on Ubuntu 22.04

When attempting to install Mendeley Desktop on Ubuntu 22.04, I encountered the following error:

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mendeleydesktop:
 mendeleydesktop depends on python; however:
  Package python is not installed.

Here’s the solution that resolved the issue for me:

1. Download the Mendeley Desktop .deb package

   axel -a https://desktop-download.mendeley.com/download/apt/pool/main/m/mendeleydesktop/mendeleydesktop_1.19.8-stable_amd64.deb
   

2. Ensure python command points to Python
   If the python command is missing, install the python-is-python3 package:

   sudo apt install python-is-python3
   

3. Extract the .deb file

   ar x mendeleydesktop_1.19.8-stable_amd64.deb
   

4. Extract the control archive

   tar xzf control.tar.gz
   

5. Edit dependencies
   Open control in a text editor and remove python from the dependencies list. Then repack the control archive:

   FILES=$(tar zxvf control.tar.gz)
   tar zcf control.tar.gz $FILES
   

6. Repack the .deb file

   ar rcs mendeleydesktop_1.19.8-stable_amd64_modified.deb debian-binary control.tar.gz data.tar.xz
   

7. Install Python 2

   sudo apt install python2
   

8. Create a symlink for Python 2
   Point /usr/bin/python to Python 2:

   sudo mv /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/python_old
   sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python2 /usr/bin/python
   

9. Install the modified Mendeley Desktop package

   sudo dpkg -i mendeleydesktop_1.19.8-stable_amd64_modified.deb
   

10. Restore the original python symlink

    sudo rm /usr/bin/python
    sudo mv /usr/bin/python_old /usr/bin/python
    

References:

• Ask Ubuntu: Installing Mendeley on Ubuntu 22.04
• Server Fault: Ignoring Dependencies in apt-get