Thanks but I just tried @maui AppImage and really pleased with that solution for time being! You should try it too 
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.
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…
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?
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.
@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/)
@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.
Any chance flatpak could be an option?
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
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_pcbNote: 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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