How can I have Kicad version v5 and the new v6 together in the same machine while v6 is not still official?

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Hey @eeintech, I have a script to install and load Kicad 5.1.12 in a folder while Kicad 6 is already installed in the system. I put it here https://github.com/leoheck/parallel-kicad-5.1. It is pretty easy to install and use. Feel free to test it. my preliminary tests show that this works fine.

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AppImage is a single file self containing all the needed resources… It can run without conflict with other versions and libraries…
It is the same concept of the portable apps in win…
Then you can i.e. run kv5 Appimage and having installed kicad stable v6 side by side… that’s it

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Yeah sure. I just don’t know how this works. Also, does this add kicad on the command line by default? I call Kicad, 90% of the time, from the command line. And I do it more once it accepts scripts and a minimum amount of parameters like version or help as any other software does.

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some info here:

With your scripts you are trying to obtain what AppImage offers.
It can be called by command line, with or without parameters and can be just added to the main Menu of the OS.
FreeCAD has embraced AppImage since long times ago to solve the coexistence of different versions of OCC, python Qt etc.
AppImage is de facto one of the most used way to distribute sw in Linux

Many upstream projects like Krita, Subsurface, MuseScore, KDevelop, and digiKam have started to provide AppImages directly on their download pages. More AppImages for other applications like Atom, Arduino, Blender, Chromium, Firefox, LibreOffice, and QCAD can be downloaded

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@leoheck @eeintech

About version 5.99 available in official Ubuntu repositories:
Few month ago there was an error in a package upload in debian repository. So the maintainer for debian package using this versionning mecanism to work-arround this:
https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg45040.html

About releases.
For version 6.0 (currently 6.0.0) you have to use the PPA: ppa:kicad/kicad-6.0-releases
It will follow all updates of the 6.0 branch

For version 5.1 (currently 5.1.12) you have to use the PPA: ppa:kicad/kicad-5.1-releases
It will follow all updates of the 5.1 branch.
I will keep it active at least until the 5.1 version is supported and event after. But I think that next ubuntu releases could be difficult to support some time. I will do my best to keep it active as long as possible.

I’m not really ok to provide a way to install both version. Generally it is not possible in major distribution for a large part of applications except for nightly builds or libraries.

The proposed solution with appimage make sense for me. Currently there are some efforts from @probono and @KarlZeilhofer but I don’t know the status. If they want to propose some update it could be great. I can also try to provide/maintain appimage if they prefer to let it (ping for that: @Seth_h @stambaughw).

About nightly build
The ppa is ppa:kicad/kicad-dev-nightly. It allow separate installation from releases.
So you can have (5.1.12 and nigthly) or (6.0.0 and nightly).
It always provide a nightly build of the last commit. So sometime it’s broken:

  • Build can be failed => No package in this case
  • Build can be ok but the software is buggy…
  • …

Generally, it’s a bad idea to use it in “production”…

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Great!

you may see my fork which has the updated scripts to the latest repos (I have also added the ability to run pcbnew or eeschema in standalone):

you can also test my AppImage builds… I have tested those on Mint 20.4 LTS and it seems there are no issues:

KiCad-5.1.12.glibc2.29-x86_64.AppImage

KiCad-6.0.0.glibc2.29-x86_64.AppImage

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Wow @maui works like magic! This is a perfect temporary solution for us, this should be the accepted answer for anybody wanting to try V6 without installing it, even better would be to have AppImage made one of the default download options on kicad.org

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Thanks but I just tried @maui AppImage and really pleased with that solution for time being! You should try it too :slight_smile:

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The underlying source is still 5.1.9.

Thanks for this feedback. Then we can see it is was a mistake. But this is still a problem. So, if it the version is actually 5.1.9 and it is called 5.99 it is overriding 5.1.12 the 5.1 PPA anyways. The solution would be blackisting this version. But how? I could not find a way to do it yet.

People like me, using apt thing update software every day. I upgrade the system every day. I don’t know the reason, maybe I am crazy, or maybe I don’t have anything better to do. Anyway, I don’t like AppImage because I cannot upgrade it with the system. Mostly because I don’t know how to do it since I believe it still may be possible.

I’m not really ok to provide a way to install both versions .

I would say that having version 5.1.12 on the 5.1 PPA renamed from kicad to kicad-5 would be an awesome feature.

I use appImage when there no other options. I just don’t like it. You are thinking of you maintaining software. You have to download yourself, update yourself.

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Just create a file /etc/apt/preferences.d/kicad
with the content:

Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-kicad-kicad-5.1-releases
Pin-Priority: 700

Then apt update;apt install kicad
Should work…

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AppImage is perfect for i.e. old stable releases, where there is not a need to update the sw
Then you can have different releases based on different libraries coexistent in the same environment
IMO the best is to have kv5.1.12 as AppImage and kicad v6 and v6 nightly as deb packages

you can also use the updater, in case you rely on dev release

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I see. And what about the stable release. Does it receive fixes and improvements from time to time?

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IMO AppImage is perfect for old release to be kept side by side with the new ones (stable and nightly)…
AppImage is also useful to test i.e. nightly without the need to install anything (it is a single containing file) or the stable after the new transition…
Anyway all the images could be kept in sync with the repos simply if the AppImage would be approved to be automatically built and deployed in kicad official site.

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@maui Any plan to continue on publishing AppImage for each dot release of V6? (eg. On your forked repo: https://github.com/easyw/kicad-appimage/)

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@eeintech
I have uploaded the KiCad-6.0.2.glibc2.29-x86_64.AppImage

AppImage ATM has issue with python console and plugins (at least in my systems).
I have posted a query at AppImage forum, but it seems it is not very active anymore

Is there anyone willing to help with the KiCAD AppImage issue?

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Thanks! Sad to hear this, AppImage sounded like a great option to run concurrent versions of KiCad.

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Any chance flatpak could be an option?

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it should be already available at kicd.org download site…

as in this forum

we would configure bundled python to load python modules only from the appimage… unfortunately I’m not confident enough with AppImg to know how to solve it…

Unfortunately it seems that @probono is not very active ATM nor here nor at AppImage forum

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having some spare time and thanks to @realthunder of FreeCAD forum, I have managed to build KiCad AppImage with plugins support:
here the latest AppImage builds…
I have tested those on Ubuntu and Mint 20.4 LTS and it seems there are no issues:

KiCAD 5.1.12
KiCad-5.1.12.glibc2.29-x86_64.AppImage

KiCAD 6.0.4
KiCad-6.0.4.glibc2.29-x86_64.AppImage

KiCAD 6.0.5
KiCad-6.0.5.glibc2.29-x86_64.AppImage

Since AppImage is a ‘portable’ package, version 5.1 and 6.0 can be used side by side.
Both AppImage have the ability to run standalone each single kicad package like i.e. pcbnew

$ ./KiCad-6.0.4.glibc2.29-x86_64.AppImage pcbnew
$ ./KiCad-6.0.4.glibc2.29-x86_64.AppImage pcbnew ~/Downloads/example.kicad_pcb

Note: after having downloaded the AppImage, you need to make it executable with the Gui or the command:

chmod a+x ./KiCad-6.0.4.glibc2.29-x86_64.AppImage
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