Source install on Ubuntu

Software
1

I would like to compile Kicad from source on my Ubuntu box. Is there a script that will apt-get all the tools I need or do I have to pay a visit to each and every one of the 17 sources and download /install by hand?

John Eaton

2

I doubt you will find a specific script for Kicad. I normally just compile until it stops on an error and get what the error message says is missing. If you have compiled anything at all then there has to be some development libraries already on your system. If you use something like Synaptic you can do a quick search on the names and just add them to the list of things to install. Once the list is complete click apply.

Build environments typically grow overtime so there probably aren’t too many people that start from scratch so the need for a script would be kind of unlikely.

3

Apt-get has a command that downloads all ‘build dependencies’ of a package.

apt-get build-dep kicad

1 Like
4

That looks exactly like what I need. Learn something new every day.

John

5

Interesting. Is this something specific to using sources that are packaged for Ubuntu?

6

It’s a debian feature. It works only if a package has a corresponding source package. This is usually the case. But some 3rd party repositories only contain the ‘binary’ packages. By the way, all launchpad ppa’s (like kicad ppa) contain source packages. That’s how launchpad works.

There is also a command that will download source package of a debian package: apt-get source. As you may guess this will download the exact sources that is used to build the debian package, not the git version.

3 Likes
7

Thanks. Used Mandrake until it crashed and burned plus worked in a Red Hat shop for a while. I went with Debian because I wanted something stable after the Mandrake debacle. When I started using Mandrake it was kind of what Ubuntu was to Debian but the Red Hat variety. Hardware was changing way too fast in those days so Red Hat was painful. Still lots to learn about the apt system and Debian in general for me.

But to the topic, even if you use the source from Lauchpad it seems there is a good chance the command will still install most of what you need.