I normally prefer to use the command line for installing programs.
Copying some lines of text, and pasting them in a terminal window is just simpler and quicker then searching through menu’s.
You can do this by first closing the Update Manager and Software manager ( these lock the databases that the command line uitilities need) then open a terminal window with: [Ctrl + Alt + T] and then paste and execute the following 3 lines one by one.
Well the software manager still refuses to give me access to the nightlies. I will try to access this page via Firefox on the laptop in question and try from there. But I don’t have any logins on that computer so this will take me a little while.
Well I logged in quickly but stuck again. Am I supposed to include your italic text including “yes”?
bob@bob-Latitude-D630:~$ sudo add-apt-repository
Error: need a repository as argument
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
An earlier comment mentioned “dodgy VBA programming.” 10 years ago I struggled with VBA and would have been happier if I could produce dodgy programs which ran sometimes.
I understand you are trying to explain this to me but I have no idea what I am doing here.
I think I need to figure out why software manager is not finding the nightlies.
sudo = "Do the following command with the privileges of another user (usually root)
add-apt-repository = Name of the command to execute.
–yes = Parameter to the command: Accept “yes” to possible questions (may be omitted)
ppa:kicad/kicad-dev-nightly = Name of the repository to install.
so yes, you need the “ppa…” part.
I copied the text directly from: https://kicad.org/download/linux-mint/
and there it was not italic. It’s just a quirk of this forum software I guess.
The mechanism behind the steps are pretty much equivalent.
Add the repository.
Update the database.
Install kicad-nightly
So just those 3 text lines should do the trick.
If they give any error messages back, then copy the text and post it here.
Much easier to diagnose then the GUI stuff.
Well I tried the command lines again and now they seem to be working. Downloading 5 GB. But I wish I did not need to download all of the libraries and sample designs etc. as the stuff I don’t need is much bigger than what I do need. The HDD partition is only 25 GB out of 80 GB total. Right now is 40% downloaded.
I am back to my main laptop. Anyway I assume I can delete a bunch of stuff after downloading it. Mainly just interested in being able to view my designs with more intelligence than what is provided by gerbers.
Thanks a lot for your help but I challenge other’s assertion that Linux Mint is “easy.”
I’m not sure how the triggers work for the additional packages.
All those things can be tweaked by commandline options.
After a (full) install, you can remove some parts with for example:
sudo apt remove kicad-nightly-demos
Or, alternatively.
Now you hate the repositories installed and updated you can use the GUI of the software manager to do the actual install if that suits you better.
Those things can be mixed and matched. (Just don’t run those programs at the same time. that will give an error message).
The 3D libraries will be the most part of those GB.
In Linux there is a command called “su” which is an abbreviation of “switch user”
“sudo” then becomes: “switch user and do something”, and the default user with sudo is “root”, which is the “administrator account” equivalent in Linux.
For help on (almost) any command you can check the manual pages of that command by typing “man” followed by a space and the command you want info of. It’s primitive, but quick and it works.
I have found that keyboard shortcuts can be great. But the older I get the longer they take to learn. Right now I see that I have two versions of Kicad installed and I want to figure out how to uninstall 5.1. Also, Software Manager STILL does not find the nightlies.
If kicad-nightly is installed then typing it from the commandline should work:
paul@medion:~$ kicad-nightly
Removing the normal Kicad V5.1 can be done with:
paul@medion:~$ sudo apt remove kicad
[sudo] password for paul:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
kicad-doc-en kicad-footprints kicad-libraries kicad-packages3d kicad-symbols kicad-templates
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
kicad
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 100 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
My point is that even after installing it via command line, the software manager does not find it. I am just now launching 5.99 and will try to set up the settings path manually.
I think we have a misunderstanding. The software manager cannot find the repository. So if I wanted to install it again (or update it) would still not be able to use software manager.
I just accepted the default settings while installing KiCad.
Linux uses slashes instead of back slashes in path names.
Linux is also case sensitive, so you have to watch your caps.
This can give some annoyance for projects coming from windows. If you used text strings which have some caps, while the actual file names do not, then it “works” on windows, but not on Linux.
I’m also not sure what paths you are referring to.
But it should be minor issues.
There will be some learning curve when you swap a whole operating system.
Ouch!
I wish now I had just lurked after reading this thread.
I downloaded 5.1.7 and… it just worked. End of story.
Still having lots of head scratching moments with Mint, but I expected that, after many, many years of windows.
It’s getting too late in the evening in Australia to experiment with downloading 5.99, but I’ll try to look tomorrow.
Thanks Paulvdh for your tireless support.
The same work I do on Windows 10x 64bit look like this:
I wish we think harder before throw away old stuff. I love XP, Linux, it fast on 10+ year machine. I’m still having hard time to accept the Win10 x64 power, memory, hard-drive, internet hungry – for the same simple day-to-day task work. In fact, I typing this message faster than the computer could display my text. And it is 12 Core CPU, 32GB!
