Are kicad 9 nightlies currently tied to stable release?

Software
1

I’m trying to install some version of kicad 9.99 so that I can modify a couple of projects that were created in this version. When I try to install it, I seem to be getting the stable release version instead. Here’s what I tried (in ubuntu):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kicad/kicad-9.0-nightly
sudo apt update

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kicad/kicad-dev-nightly
sudo apt update
sudo apt install kicad-nightly

But when I open kicad-nightly, it says the version is 9.0 and not 9.99. I also see the following:
dpkg -l | grep kicad-nightly
ii kicad-nightly 9.0.0-0~ubuntu22.04.1 amd64 Electronic schematic and PCB design software
ii kicad-nightly-demos 9.0.0-0~ubuntu22.04.1 all Kicad demo projects
ii kicad-nightly-footprints 202506041221+50df46ece~14~ubuntu22.04.1 all Kicad footprints (modules)
ii kicad-nightly-libraries 1:202204260849+12~ubuntu22.04.1 all KiCad meta-package for deps to all libraries
ii kicad-nightly-packages3d 202506031338+fbf67c7e~13~ubuntu22.04.1 all Kicad packages3d (3d models for footprints)
ii kicad-nightly-symbols 202506032022+5ec4fed9~10~ubuntu22.04.1 all Kicad symbols (schematic)
ii kicad-nightly-templates 9.0.2~ubuntu22.04.1 all Kicad templates

According to chatgpt, this is because the nightly branch is currently just merged with stable, presumably because something is getting worked on in the backend. Seems logical, but this is on the edge of my understanding of linux apt management.

Most pressing, I need to get some version of kicad 9.99 so I can work on this project. Longer term, I need to have both a stable and nightly install so that I can switch between versions for certain projects as needed. Or figure out how to downgrade a project that was created in 9.99 so that it can be open in a stable release, but that seemed complex and inconclusive after a basic google search.

2

i know little about Ubuntu package management, but there does seem to be something a little strange going on. I am doubtful that ChatGPT is correct about it though.

Two notes:
The “9.0-nightly” is a testing build for the current v9 major version. The current stable release is v9.0.2, so changes in the testing build will eventually go into v9.0.3. I’ve found the testing build to be mostly stable for day-to-day use and projects edited using the testing build are fully compatible with the stable build.

The “dev-nightly” is the nightly build for the eventual v10 major version, which is labeled v9.99 in the meantime. You probably should not use this version for real work if you can avoid it, since there are no guarantees of stability or compatibility. In fact, as you mention at the end, going back from v9.99 to v9 is not reallly doable. You could theoretically manually go remove any mentions of new features or structures, but generally assume that files saved in v9.99 are not accessible in v9. (Similarly, files saved in v9 are generally not accessible in v8.)

All that said, if you check the thread above, you’ll see that development certainly is not frozen on the v9.99 (master) branch.

EDIT:
If you check Launchpad, you can also verify that the KiCad PPA is continuing to be updated, apparently 45 minutes ago. PPA for KiCad: nightly builds of dev version with separation sta... : “KiCad” team

Seems likely the issue is on your computer, so perhaps remove and reinstall the nightly PPA? Clear cache? Reboot? (Sorry, not the most helpful answer)

1 Like
3

Everything scone said seems reasonable, but I want to say more forcefully: ChatGPT is wrong here

1 Like
4

Yeah, something definitely got crossed during my initial install, and somehow I had kicad-nightly pointing to the stable release.

Thanks y’all for the input.

5

I think you are playing with fire if you take that approach . . . if your projects are trivial, can take a long as needed and are personal/hobbyist type projects you can take the risk. For anything that matters I wouldn’t use the nightlies . . . other than testing the nightlies to give feedback.