Hi,
I have installed a Debian buster based OS, and I found there is only Kicad 5 series in the apt source, is there any way to install KiCAD 6 on Debian buster OS?
Thanks
Are you familiar with backports?
If I interpret this info correctly: Install on Debian | KiCad EDA
Then the old Debian buster is still on KiCad V5.0.2 and you get V5.1.9 when using the backports.
I stopped using Debian a long time ago for desktop use (Although I wish them well) When I switched to Linux Mint everything ājust workedā. Iām not very knowledgeable concerning operating systems. I do some updates (about weekly) and install some programs from external sources and thatās about all I do concerning Mint .
A few years ago I booted a PC I had not used for a few years, and just out of curiosity I did an update with apt and found myself in dependency hell, and was ready to format the SSD. Then, just out of curiosity, I started the āMint Update Managerā and it fixed everything. I did have to re-start the update manager, as that first updated itself, and after about half an hour and 2 reboots (some kernel updates need a reboot, but itās quite rare for Linux) it was up and running again and all conflicts were resolved. Then I wiped the whole SSD and used it in another PC.
Hi, The debian buster backportsās kicad is still KiCAD 5 series.
Actually, I installed an OS which is named Deepin, Itās developed by Chinese local team and they have done a lot of localization work, The only issue if it is that is based on debian buster, it canāt install latest KiCAD.
Sorry. I missed ābusterā. Generally since it is free people do the upgrade unless on a server. To keep current on Debian I decided to start compiling my own Kicad. I donāt even know if that is possible on Buster because of dependencies.
Iād contact the Deepin folks. Iād think several of them have all of the development tools and libraries installed. They could download and try to see if it succeeds or their are newer dependencies that just canāt be met.
I ran into the same issue awhile back. So I have yet to use Kicad 6. I donāt need to use it. I have bigger fish to fry.
I would be willing to try compiling kicad version 6 if someone more knowledgeable about its dependencies than me were willing to offer instructions, guidance, and SNAFU-fixing.
OK, thank you very much, Hermit.
Looking forward to your feedback.
Of course there are recent versions for KiCad backported for Buster. The Repology site simply doesnāt care about the -sloppy archives. Means that Download page for Debian would need to get maintained manually for the sloppy versions. BTW: Itās no shame to get in contact with the package maintainers. 
$ rmadison kicad kicad-demos kicad-footprints kicad-packages3d kicad-templates kicad-doc-en -s buster-backports-sloppy
kicad | 5.99.0+really5.1.12+dfsg1-1~bpo10+1 | oldstable-backports-sloppy | source
kicad | 6.0.4+dfsg-1~bpo10+1 | oldstable-backports-sloppy | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, mips64el, ppc64el
kicad-demos | 6.0.4+dfsg-1~bpo10+1 | oldstable-backports-sloppy | all
kicad-doc-en | 6.0.4+dfsg-1~bpo10+1 | oldstable-backports-sloppy | all
kicad-footprints | 6.0.4-1~bpo10+1 | oldstable-backports-sloppy | source, all
kicad-packages3d | 6.0.4-1~bpo10+1 | oldstable-backports-sloppy | source, all
kicad-templates | 6.0.0-1~bpo10+1 | oldstable-backports-sloppy | source, all
As linked from Install on Debian | KiCad EDA there are some instructions how to enable this backports repo. Please see the section The Old-stable-sloppy Suite on https://backports.debian.org/Instructions/.
Updates for 6.0.5 will take some time due regulations from the Debian FTP masters to ensure updates between the releases need to always work. Please note also that the buster release will soon get frozen and wont get updates through usual the Debian maintainers. Users of buster should really think about updating tu bullseye.
3 Likes
Thanks, but I don seem to have access to that tool under buster.
$ apt-cache madison rmadison
N: Unable to locate package rmadison
That āmadisonā seems to be some kind of old thing.
Does the output of:
apt-cache show kicad
make any sense to you?
On my Linux Mint box it shows a few pages of text for 3 KiCad versions:
paul@cezanne:~$ apt-cache show kicad |grep -i Version
Version: 6.0.5-0-202205040755+a6ca702e91~116~ubuntu20.04.1
Version: 5.1.12-202111050916+84ad8e8a86~92~ubuntu20.04.1
Version: 5.1.5+dfsg1-2build2
It just shows that I can install kicad 5.0.2
Package: kicad
Version: 5.0.2+dfsg1-1
Installed-Size: 89784
Maintainer: Debian Electronics Team <pkg-electronics-devel@alioth-lists.debian.net>
Architecture: amd64
Replaces: kicad-common (<< 5.0.0~rc1+dfsg1-1~)
Depends: libngspice0 (>= 28), python (<< 2.8), python (>= 2.7~), python:any (<< 2.8), python:any (>= 2.7~), libc6 (>= 2.27), libcairo2 (>= 1.6.0), libcurl4 (>= 7.16.2), libfreeimage3, libfreetype6 (>= 2.2.1), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.4), libgl1, libglew2.1 (>= 1.12.0), libglu1-mesa | libglu1, libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0), liboce-foundation11, liboce-modeling11, liboce-ocaf-lite11, liboce-ocaf11, liboce-visualization11, libpixman-1-0 (>= 0.15.14), libpython2.7 (>= 2.7), libsm6, libssl1.1 (>= 1.1.0), libstdc++6 (>= 7), libwxbase3.0-0v5 (>= 3.0.4+dfsg), libwxgtk3.0-0v5 (>= 3.0.4+dfsg), libx11-6, libxext6
Recommends: kicad-libraries, kicad-demos, xsltproc
Suggests: extra-xdg-menus, kicad-doc-ca | kicad-doc-de | kicad-doc-en | kicad-doc-es | kicad-doc-fr | kicad-doc-id | kicad-doc-it | kicad-doc-ja | kicad-doc-nl | kicad-doc-pl | kicad-doc-ru | kicad-doc-zh, kicad-packages3d
Breaks: kicad-common (<< 5.0.0~rc1+dfsg1-1~)
Description: Electronic schematic and PCB design software
Description-md5: 21f7e01a3ffe97be9bbafb9e920e7e78
Homepage: http://www.ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā
Tag: field::electronics, implemented-in::c++, interface::graphical,
interface::x11, role::program, science::modelling,
uitoolkit::wxwidgets, use::editing, use::learning, x11::application
Section: electronics
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/k/kicad/kicad_5.0.2+dfsg1-1_amd64.deb
Size: 21074128
MD5sum: fbd55b2e752aed63d6653e8cf8bcb951
SHA256: 99d632b5d7b0948f190af17078e5ce4fe39a6125541cef190bf1b7d09d3fd905
BTW, I am running Arjen Balfourās SolydK variant of Debian Linux with a KDE window manager. He is in the Netherlands.
Thanks, but I don seem to have access to that tool under buster.
rmadison is one tool within the devscripts tools.
$ dpkg -S /usr/bin/rmadison
devscripts: /usr/bin/rmadison
Or you use the online query database to find the package(s) that contain files you are looking for. Debian -- Package Contents Search Results -- rmadison
It just shows that I can install kicad 5.0.2
Then your local apt configuration doesnāt knows anything about the oldstable-backports-sloppy archive. You need to add a valid configuration so apt knows to also query the metadata for that part. Have you read the information from the URL Iāve posted earlier?
$ apt-cache policy kicad
kicad:
Installed: 6.0.5+dfsg-1
Candidate: 6.0.5+dfsg-1
Version tabele:
*** 6.0.5+dfsg-1 500
500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
apt does not know about anything about buster-backports-sloppy (or oldstable-backports-sloppy), so create a sources.list file for that repository.
$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports-sloppy main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/buster-backports-sloppy.list'
Update the local package database afterwards.
$ sudo apt-get update
OK:1 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian testing InRelease
...
OK:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports-sloppy InRelease
...
Now note the extra entry version option to install kicad.
$ apt-cache policy kicad
kicad:
Installed: 6.0.5+dfsg-1
Candidate: 6.0.5+dfsg-1
Version tabele:
*** 6.0.5+dfsg-1 500
500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian testing/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
6.0.4+dfsg-1~bpo10+1 100 <----
100 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports-sloppy/main amd64 Packages <----
2 Likes
I read it, but did not understand it. So I will do some research (google āhow debian sloppy versions workā as well as deduce what rmadison does) with the explicit goal of finding backports of kicad 6.X binaries in debian stable package(s) already compiled for my CPU.
Donāt think to much about the rmadison command itās more interesting for package maintainers and developers.
The main thing you need to understand that the (buster-)backoprts archive is not the same as the buster-backports-sloppy! These all are dedicated archive resources you need to make apt knowing. But yes, the website for Debian Backports isnāt very nice and easy to understand.
If you add a new *.list file like Iāve shown above, update the local apt database and install then the related packages by
sudo apt-get install -t buster-backports-sloppy kicad kicad-footprints [...]
then you can use the backported packages quite easily.
Now in debian buster, it appears that APT knows how to install either kicad version 5.
or kicad version 6.
$ apt-cache madison kicad
kicad | 6.0.5+dfsg-1~bpo10+1 | http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports-sloppy/main amd64 Packages
kicad | 5.0.2+dfsg1-1 | http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/main amd64 Packages
How do I tell APT to install kicad version 6, and not version 5 ?
Try adding -t buster-backports-sloppy or /buster-backports-sloppy to the install command.
1 Like
I added kicad 6.0.5 by following your advice and using these 3 commands:
# apt-get -t buster-backports-sloppy install kicad
# apt-get -t buster-backports-sloppy install kicad-packages3d
# apt-get -t buster-backports-sloppy install kicad-doc-en
Thank you for pointing me in the right direction, qu1ck.
Now in debian buster, it appears that APT knows how to install either kicad version 5.
or kicad version 6.
$ apt-cache madison kicad
kicad | 6.0.5+dfsg-1~bpo10+1 | http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports-sloppy/main amd64 Packages
kicad | 5.0.2+dfsg1-1 | http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/main amd64 Packages
(This output is on two lines.)
How do I tell APT to install kicad version 6, and not version 5 ?
EDIT: I figured out how to install version 6 using APT. Problem solved.