Linux library paths

#1

I’ve built kicad from source. Seems to work except that everything claims to be missing component libraries.

I’ve looked at “preferences, default paths” - I cant see anything that looks like a path for component libraries.

Downloaded kicad-library-4.0.7, I cant see any instructions or hints where it should live in the README ?

I moving it to /usr/local/share/kicad but It still is not picked up.

Resorted to “strace kicad”, seems to stat every file in $HOME, but I still don’t have any clues where the component libs should live ?

#2

4.0.7 does not have a real central point to store where libs are located. (Each project has its own settings.) However there is a global search path. (eeschema->preferences->component libs, bottom part of this dialog does tell you this. One of the default options is /usr/share/kicad/library/)

So if you install the libs in there they will be found.
Download the libs that normally come with 4.0.7 from: https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-library/releases. With install i mean copy the .lib and .dcm files you downloaded directly into this directory.

New projects get their list of libs (and additional search paths) from the template project. (normally located in usr/share/kicad/template/kicad.pro)

#3

eeschema->preferences->component libs “Current search path list” shows 3 paths:

/home/jon
/usr/local/share/kicad/template
/usr/local/share

Are you suggesting I add “/usr/share/kicad/library” as a user defined path, or do I need to edit something to add this as a default?

Thanks.

#4

Ahh - I see, it picks it up if I make the directory…

#5

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