Kicad daily build PPA for Ubuntu/Debian flavors

[calin]

For all use Ubuntu or other Debian based Linux and like to be on the edge.

There is a daily PPA available: https://launchpad.net/~adamwolf/+archive/kicad-testing-daily

All you need:

Code: [Select]

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:adamwolf/kicad-testing-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kicad

I used to build from code .. but now we all can be "lazy" .

[MBY]

Well, this daily build seems to have a unnoticed bug with missing button functionality for quite some time. See: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/open-source-kicad-geda/dispersing-of-components-in-newpcb-%28kicad%29/

Do you experience this problem? What linux do you use?

[calin]

If got it right the thread says that is missing "Mode Footprint" toolbar button and the "Glob->Move ..." menus. They are in there working no issues in my install which I just updated today. See attached screenshots.

I use Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. It may be that builds for older versions of Ubuntu are older, not sure.

[MBY]

Yes, the menu is missing but the button is there, but cannot be toggled (the autoroute button cannot be toggled either). So it seems like one or some of the builds are broken, for a long time. Quite annoying.

Edit: Btw, what do your install says in the menu/title bar? My says something about 2011-03 i I remember correctly. Rather old for a hour old build I would say...

I shall test the damn thing on another (this) computer from the PPA and see.
Edit2: Well, what to say? It works perfectly on my laptop running Ubuntu 10.10. To sad a laptop is a worthless cad-machine! What the hell is wrong with the version for 10.04? I'm not gonna change OS just for one program, certainly not from a LTS version (10.04) anyway. 

[djsb]

I tried these "daily builds" but they are not as described. It's easier to just compile Kicad following my instructions here

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/open-source-kicad-geda/building-kicad-on-linux-mint-12-%28lisa%29/

or here

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/open-source-kicad-geda/building-kicad-for-windows/

It doesn't take long.

David

[calin]

I agree the name in the title bar is odd ... still I get updates from the PPA almost every day. For me the button does check fine and it works.

So I went ahead and did a build from code just for the sake of testing - KiCad 2012-07-16 BZR 3651 ( this is as fresh as it gets - checked oot 15 mins ago and built). I can confirm "Mode footprint" button is stays checked and the global arrange and move option do work.

I usually do this to "spread" modules. Check the "Mode footprint" , draw the board layout (pcb edges layer) and then I do a right click ...Global Move and Place -> Autoplace All Modules. That distributes all modules inside the polygon defined by PCB edges.

BTW, the "mode footprint" and  "mode track/autoroute" are mutually exclusive, you can't have both checked. One is supposed to use to manipulate easily footprints and second is for track routing.

[MBY]

Just telling that I updated KiCad again from this PPA. Of course, no change. Neither the "Mode track: auto route" nor the "Mode footprint" buttons will check. This is ridiculous. Such a obvious bug should be fixed in the matter of hours.

But now, I have followed the guide on: http://www.wayneandlayne.com/blog/2010/12/03/how-to-build-kicad-on-ubuntu/ and my menu bar now shows "Pcbnew (2012-07-25 BZR 3660)-testing". And, of course, the fucking buttons will not work! They work on windoze, they work on my laptop running 10.10 but not on my workstation, running ub 10.04.

Is there something else besides KiCad that can be broken? In some dependencies or so? Libs? I'm reeeeeeeeally annoyed now. How hard can it be? Toggle buttons are not rocket science, the components themselves has been around for 20 years or so. There must be some idiotic buggy if-stances for checking the mutually exclusive function.

Edit: And, as usual, no other soul on the Internet has the same problem. Non-searchable and/or there is no non-retarded search engine on the planet.

[djsb]

Have a search of this user group

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/

and the list of Bugs on Launchpad

https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad

Have you tried compiling for Windows?

I'm going to do the same now. I'll report back later.

David.

[MBY]

Have a search of this user group

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/

and the list of Bugs on Launchpad

https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad

Have you tried compiling for Windows?

I'm going to do the same now. I'll report back later.

David.

Interesting! Another guy having the same problem: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/message/12667
No answer of course...

No, I haven't tried to build for Windows as I don't run Windows. But I tried the install in wine. It worked for a few start-ups but now it crashing on start-up every time! Why would anybody want do build for Windows? Is not the install exe up to date?

[djsb]

The last official stable build for Kicad is dated 19 Jan 2012. A lot of bugs have been squashed since then (and probably some added as well).
Bye the way the mode footprint and mode track buttons are both working in 3660. I build for Windows AND Linux but mainly use the windows version. I like to check the latest enhancements.

David

[calin]

MBY - you may be right, probably are the libs you have in ubuntu 10.04. Out of curiosity what version of wxLib and wxLib-dev you have ?  BTW, i just refreshed and rebuilt few mins ago from source -- still all good.

[MBY]

MBY - you may be right, probably are the libs you have in ubuntu 10.04. Out of curiosity what version of wxLib and wxLib-dev you have ?  BTW, i just refreshed and rebuilt few mins ago from source -- still all good.

Sorry, I forgot about this thread. Short answer: I don't know. I did a quick google search to find a way to check but ended up with nothing. I've used linux for years as my primary os, but I'm certainly no expert and always have a hard time to find libs and such. But if you know how to check, please tell. I'm not afraid to build or install stuff, whatever it takes.

I get KiCad updates very often, but still I cannot use the buttons mentioned for dispersing on ub 10.04. It works on all other instances I've tested (windows, ub 12.04, etc).

[calin]

Looks like we are slow .... if still matters. I bet is a WX lib binary incompatibility happening on your version. May be worth upgrading Ubuntu.

Here is how you find the versions (that-s what I have on my Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

Code: [Select]

$ dpkg --get-selections  | grep libwx
libwxbase2.8-0 install
libwxbase2.8-dev install
libwxgtk2.8-0 install
libwxgtk2.8-dev install


[MBY]

Yes, we are slow!

Here is my printout:

Code: [Select]

mby@FilaOcties:~$ dpkg --get-selections | grep libwx
libwxbase2.8-0 install
libwxbase2.8-dev install
libwxgtk2.8-0 install
libwxgtk2.8-dev install
Isn't it like exact same versions as you have? Just checked again (have done multiple updates since I last used KiCad), problem remains.

Any other packages to look at?

[justanothercanuck]

Here is a dependency list taken from a gentoo ebuild (I don't use ubuntu, sorry):

Code: [Select]

CDEPEND="x11-libs/wxGTK:2.8[X,opengl]"
DEPEND="${CDEPEND}
>=dev-util/cmake-2.6.0
>=dev-libs/boost-1.40[python?]
app-arch/xz-utils
dev-doc? ( app-doc/doxygen )"
so, wxGTK, cmake, boost, xz-utils (for LZMA), and if you want documentation, doxygen.  Not sure if that helps or not.

[Simon]

For all use Ubuntu or other Debian based Linux and like to be on the edge.

There is a daily PPA available: https://launchpad.net/~adamwolf/+archive/kicad-testing-daily

All you need:

Code: [Select]

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:adamwolf/kicad-testing-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kicad

I used to build from code .. but now we all can be "lazy" .

I assume you have to build yourself in the first place or does this update the software centre installed version ? I just compiled/built myself as the version in the software repository was out of date but a year or more.

[johansen]

http://www.wayneandlayne.com/blog/2010/12/03/how-to-build-kicad-on-ubuntu/

a bunch of things have changed since then but running ubuntu 13.04 i didn't have any problem finding the dependancies.

allegidly the cern code had been merged but i can't get push and shove routing to work. current revision is 4431 or something like that.

also, there's like 5 different bzr code bases now, i haven't figured them all out yet.

[uprightsquire]

I followed that Wayne and Layne thing also.

you need to select interactive routing from one of the menus for push and shove. may need to turn on open gl renderer from view menu.

[SeanB]

Adding it to Synaptic does update automatically or whenever you run the updater more correctly. At least for me that made it work, the repository version just kept crashing, as it is not being updated while the PPA is.

[johansen]

I think the problem is my laptop doesn't support openGL in the video card. I have another laptop that does but i'm not sure i want to upgrade Kicad just yet on my "production" machine.

the daily testing build PPA has been broken for a year or so because launchpad changed a bunch of things, there is a script to automate the update but it doesn't sudo make install, so i just bzr update and recompile the whole thing to update it.

the problem with doing this is installing kicad to /usr/etc/etc/etc results in your libraries getting wiped out each time.
so the custom parts have to go somewhere else, and the internal dialogs don't shorten the library directory so its difficult to see which library you're selecting when its in /home/etc/etc/etc...