kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 6/29/2016 7:28 AM, Simon Richter wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On 29.06.2016 11:26, Fabrizio Tappero wrote:
> 
>> sudo apt-get install kicad
> 
>> ​D
>> oing so kicad libs do not get installed and furthermore the version of
>> KiCad that you get will inevitably complain about libs not being installed
>> ​. S​
>> ome people have complained about it.
> 
> In Debian, you get a really ancient version by default, because that was
> the current stable release at the time of the jessie freeze. You can get
> 4.0.2 from the backports.org archive, as documented on the Debian
> download pages. The changes to 4.0.3 are mostly relevant for MacOS, so
> we haven't bothered to update the package.
> 
> The libraries are only missing in the PPA packages, because they are
> packaged separately in that version. The regular Debian packages pull in
> the "kicad-common" package, which contains the libraries.
> 
> The error message about the missing libraries happens if kicad is
> configured to use libraries from github -- here a reorganization has
> taken place after the release. It would be a good idea to tell people
> how to adjust their global footprint path.
> 
>> sudo add-apt-repository --yes ppa:js-reynaud/kicad-4
> 
> That is Ubuntu specific, and while I generally trust Jean-Samuel to do
> good work, I'd be wary to install it on anything but Ubuntu. For Ubuntu
> xenial and yakkety, the version shipped with Ubuntu universe is good for
> users.
> 
> I'm also wary of pointing users at the PPA. While I trust Jean-Samuel to
> make good packages, his efforts are not at all coordinated with the
> normal packaging effort, and the fact that he has a different package
> split will lead to problems for users (if you switch from the PPA to
> Debian packages, you will get file conflicts, because "kicad-library"
> remains behind, for example).
> 
>> I know that libraries installed by default might be an option that some
>> people might not like. The truth however, I think, is that the patience
>> of people who try out kicad for the first time should not be tested.
> 
> Yes, the experience could be better.
> 
>> I also would like to suggest to include the libs in the Windows and OSX
>> installer.
> 
> At least the Windows installer has the libraries included. OS X should
> have them too, but I haven't checked.
> 
>> On a side note. On Ubuntu and similar, in 4.0 verison, there is a
>> "kicad-common" package that does not seem to be necessary and if
>> installed actually removes the main kicad package. Not sure what is
>> happening there.
> 
> Conflict between the PPA and the main distribution. That happens because
> the PPA and the main distribution are not coordinated.
> 
> If you use a PPA, you need to make sure that you pull all the packages
> you need from there -- mixing and matching will not work. The
> "kicad-common" package contains all the footprints and libraries, but in
> a location not expected by the kicad binaries from the PPA.
> 
>    Simon
> 

Sounds like we need separate installation instructions for Debian and
it's derivatives and the PPA and some helpful notes about the differences.

@Fabrizio, please submit a pull request with the changes on the website
repo at github.  I'm sure the web devs are following this list and will
be grateful for the help and commit it.

@Simon, since you are familiar with the various packaging issues would
you please verify Fabrizio's changes to make sure they are correct?

Cheers,

Wayne