Recently, when trying to use a footprint library (.pretty) file, I discovered that the latest stable release of KiCAD is significantly out of date and that it is necessary to install one of the latest builds to make use of new features.
I have decided to continue my KiCAD work on Ubuntu. In the instructions for installing KiCAD on Ubuntu, I am told:
Old stable should be in the official Ubuntu repo. Daily builds are available in js-reynaud’s PPA.
Okay. So I added the js-reynaud PPA using the instructions provided, and the Ubuntu Software Centre now lists this repository and it is enabled. Still, though, when I search for “KiCAD” I only seem to be presented with one install option, which I assume is for the last official build only.
So it seems that I am completely lost at sea with regard to installing a new build of KiCAD. I’ve added the repository, but it’s not clear to me how I would go about installing a build from this repository.
In general I am quite disappointed with the direction KiCAD has taken in this regard. It seems that installing an up-to-date version of KiCAD is both increasingly necessary and increasingly user un-friendly.
Would any experienced users have some advice that might guide me onto the right path here?
It looks like the solution to this, after adding the ppa, was simply to open a terminal and type:
sudo apt-get install kicad
I decided to try that and see what happens, and it did in fact install from the js-reynaud repository. It’s not clear to me why this would necessarily be the case? It seems that I am misunderstanding some fundamental principal of how Ubuntu works.
The other way you could have checked is in the software center. It’s possible that it would have defaulted to that new PPA. Was that what you were trying previously? Where did you read these directions btw? Have a link for us?
APT (the package manager in Ubuntu) will automatically install the latest version of a package that is available. So since the packages is still called “kicad” in the PPA it overrides the one in the main repository as it is newer, only one package is listed and it’s always the newest one. Installing from the software centre should have ended up with the same software (i.e. the PPA version) because it is the newest.
After you add a PPA you need to update your sources list so that it changes the location of the newest KiCad binary (sudo apt-get update).
I understand now that once I added the new ppa, this is the version which would have been installed from the software centre because the newly-added ppa contained the latest version of the software.
This is not obvious to newcomers I would say, but I accept that it’s a problem in being new to Ubuntu rather than a problem with KiCAD. Still, the problem could be solved in an instant by a new stable release from the KiCAD team. It seems to me that the developments in the current build of KiCAD have become a necessity now (specifically, the .pretty support) so it’s time to reflect this in a new stable build.
Chris: The instructions I mentioned were presented on the kicad website. I did just try to fetch the link but it looks like the kicad.org website is down at the moment.
Developers are working on the new stable release as a priority task right now, it is scheduled to be released by second quarter of 2015 if everything goes as planned.
That’s great news. I think this will be very helpful, especially for new users and for people who are considering switching to KiCAD from another package. I saw some other discussions in which it was claimed that the KiCAD team had abandoned stable releases. I am pleased this is not the case.
Brian, I am sad to see that you seem to think that no release is an indicator of a unhealthy project, this is not the case, and the statement about abandoning stable realeases are simply wrong.
Also, do you have any suggestion to improve the understandability for the Download page? Should there really be instructions (or a link) on how to use a PPA?
Well, personally I am willing to accept that the misunderstanding around the PPA is due to my inexperience with Ubuntu/Linux which is really a separate subject. I would say it is probably not the responsibility of the KiCAD team to educate people about how to use Ubuntu.
In my case it was not immediately clear how I should go about installing the latest build after I had added the PPA. I did not understand that sudo apt-get install would automatically install a daily build from the js-reynaud PPA. I thought I would have to explicitly tell Ubuntu to grab from this PPA somewhere in the install command.
But I am very new to Linux and I accept that this is the reason for my confusion.