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gEDA-user: a note from a novice user
I've just started using geda, I actually gave it a shot once before
but gave up when the install hit bumps. This time I pushed
through these bumps and have something that sort of works.
Anyway, I thought that I would share my experience and ask
if this was representative:
First, after digging around a bit I found the ISO image for a CD.
I burned this and it came up and ran pretty easily. I was a little
disappointed, however, when I learned that the install CD just
compiled everything rather than pick from a set of binaries. I
spend enough time waiting for my own software to compile...
but whatever. Unfortunately, after about 20 minutes of it trying
to compile it started to fail so I cancelled it. I dug around a bit
more an found that this was only for i386 machines, I have a
x86_64 desktop. It seems like it could detect this, also seems
like an architecture-specific install REALLY doesn't need to
compile everything.
Next, I located a long list of rpms at
www.sp5pbe.waw.pl/~sp5smk/geda.html
I downloaded all ELEVEN of the rpms and proceeded to
install them. Didn't work, failed due to a dependency on
libgdgeda. What's that? Went digging around a little bit more
and managed to find an rpm for this on a different page.
Installed that first, then the other ELEVEN rpms and
didn't get any error messages.
Fired up gschem, it worked. Entered in the sample
from Bill Wilson's great tutorial. Ran gsch2pcb. That
doesn't work, lots of errors. I went back to the tutorial
and dig around more. Seems like I'm missing things
called "m4 elements," I check the directory and I am
really missing them. I go back to the download page
and check for something that might have "m4 elements"
in it. There is something else on the page called "pcb,"
I kind of assumed that one of the ELEVEN rpms would
have this. Guess it doesn't. Maybe this has "m4 elements"
in it?
Unfortunately, no x86_64 are available for pcb. Search
around, find source code and download it and compile it.
The configure script of pcb complains that I don't have gd
and that this is needed for png HID. I try ./configure with
--disable-png but this doesn't seem to do anything. I go
to the libgd website, download that source code, compile
it, and install it. Retry the pcb configure and it runs without
error. Now gsch2pcb runs a little better, though it still is
generating errors.
I should admit at this point that I had taken slight liberties
in recreating the schematic in the tutorial. Very slight -
I switched the dual op-amp to a single, left out the
follower, and ignored the stuff having to do with slots.
I decide that I should have started by doing exactly what
the tutorial said. Halfway through doing this gschem
segfaults.
I just scrap the schematics that I have and start from
scratch. I now recreate that schematic exactly, this
time I run gsch2pcb and get only warnings (though
they do have exclamation marks!!)
hades:amplifier1> gsch2pcb project
Could not find refdes on component and could not find any special
attributes!
Missing Attributes (refdes and pin number)
Missing Attributes (refdes and pin number)
Could not find refdes on component and could not find any special
attributes!
Missing Attributes (refdes and pin number)
Missing Attributes (refdes and pin number)
WARNING: U? has no footprint attribute so won't be in the layout.
----------------------------------
Done processing. Work performed:
0 file elements and 7 m4 elements added to board.pcb.
1 components had no footprint attribute and are omitted.
I went back to the tutorial, double checked everything and it doesn't
seem like I have any components without a refdes. I tried running
with -v for more information, that printed out more information but
none of it was too useful to me.
I decide that I should just ignore these messages and try to run pcb.
I follow along the tutorial. One the load netlist file step, this dialog
box pops up. That's not mentioned in the tutorial and I've got no
idea what it is trying to tell me so I just close it. When I run optimize
rats nest, I get an error message about a pin that ends in ? etc etc.
I give up on trying to understand what is going on and resort to
randomly clicking on things. When I click on disperse objects,
things disperse but leave behind all of the traces. That doesn't
seem right, so I hit undo. This gives me an error message about
the signature of the undo operation being bad. I've got no idea
what that means, I think it is an internal error. I tried to mess
around with pcb a little bit but all of the key commands are
different from gschem and so I just give up.
Anyway, I've given up on geda. I think that I gave it a pretty good
go, but in the end I'll just find software that it easier to use. I wasted
hours trying to get it to just install, and once it was installed I couldn't
get it to do anything. I searched for documentation but found little
and the docs I did find were scattered and incomprehensible. And
I just hit bug after bug after bug...
I hope that the intention of this email is not lost. I don't intend it
as a flame, I would really love to see open source EDA software,
and it looks like there is a lot of promise in this software. I just
thought that the developers might benefit from a detailed
explanation of a path that a novice user might take, and why a
novice user would probably just give up before getting this
software going.
Best of luck,
Jim
PS: Maybe you guys should put together a little conference. It
seems like with all of the gEDA developers in one room, there
could be some solid work on consolidating these programs into
a more unified project.
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