scratch team mailing list archive

[Juha Erkkilä <juha.erkkila@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> On 10/11/2011 08:40 AM, Juha Erkkilä wrote:
> > Hi, I just found this software called scratch, and I noticed that
> > on page http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Scratch_on_Linux you recommend
> > installing it on 64-bit AMD-architecture with:
> >
> > sudo dpkg --force-architecture -i
> > ./scratch_1.4.0.1-0ubuntu5_i386.deb
> >
> > If that works, then files in package are very likely architecture
> > independent, and it would be better to simply create a
> > debian-package
> > that installs without that "--force-architecture"-switch.
> >
> > You can do this by changing the line "Architecture: i386"
> > to "Architecture: all" in
> > http://ppa.launchpad.net/scratch/ppa/ubuntu/pool/main/s/scratch/scratch_1.4.0.1-0ubuntu5.diff.gz
> > (or from where that is generated, actually), and building
> > a new package.  This makes the package architecture independent,
> > and installing it on 64-bit will not be such a hassle.
> >
> > Juha

> Is it that easy?! That would be so great... :)
>
> However, it looks like "all" means all architectures, and we don't
> expect it'll work on stuff like powerpc. Also, the plugins won't
> compile
> properly for 64 bit architectures AFAIK. I think that's our
> roadblock.
>
> Do you think it's worth trying i386,x86_64 ? Is that an option?

According to
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#s-f-Architecture:

  ... "a list of specific and wildcard architectures separated by spaces" ...

"Architecture: i386 x86_64" might work.

But I was actually a bit too hasty, as I did not check that the package contains
its own squeak_vm binary, so it should not be flagged "all" or "x86_64".
If it would simply rely on an external squeakvm binary, the scratch package could
be made architecture independent.

Anyway, my motive for writing about this is that I am considering trying it out
on a 64-bit setting where using --force-architecture is not a reasonable option,
but if there are issues with the software itself then I think using it only in
32-bit environments is perhaps a better idea.

Juha