Re: gEDA-user: Hm...not much improvement

[Stuart Brorson <sdb@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 20 Sep 2006, Arthur Baldwin wrote:

 > Well, I tried using Yumex to install gEDA from Fedora Extras on a
> clean and fully updated FC5 machine.  What I ended up with is a much
> less integrated collection of useless tools than I did with the
> "recompiler installer" which I said before was a "nightmare".  No menu
> items were added to my KDE desktop at all.  Paths were not added to
> any desktop startup files.  And so nothing works like it should.
> Perhaps I missed a critical rpm file of some kind...but I used the
> search term "geda" without any case sensitivity to search for
> uninstalled items with that term anywhere in the package name or
> description.  Does anyone besides me see a problem here?

Finally, I'll echo Al Davis' point that your installation probelms --
if they are real -- have to do with the package mainatiners, and with
the folks who produce Yumex .... whatever that is.  And likely you
too, since there are so many different options to install gEDA that I
am flabbergasted that you can't make it work.

There are several way to get a working gEDA Suite up and running on a
PC.  None of them are rocket science, so your problems strike me as
being your fault.  Here are some suggestions:

1.  Use stock Fedora Core or SuSE.  RPMs have been developed and
tested for these platforms.  If you insist upon running some strange
Linux distro, be prepared to suffer the consequences.  If you can't
figure out how to install sofware on your strange distro, perhaps you
shouldn't be using a non-standard distro.

By the way, it's standard computer industry practice to support
software only a limited number of platforms, so my point here is not
out of the ordinary.  If you insist upon running Yumex, or Foomex or
Barex or whatever, then you take upon yourself the burden of actually
knowing how to use it and successfully install software on it.  And
yes, you can run into dependency hell on your oddball distribution.
That's why it's standard practice to only support a limited number of
platforms.

2.  Install the RPMs from Fedora Extras of from the SuSE extras site.
If they fail, complain to the package maintainers at Fedora or SuSE.
I personally helped the guy from Fedora, and Werner -- one of the gEDA
developers -- did the SuSE RPMs.  The package maintainers need to know
that their stuff doesn't meet quality standards if there is a real
problem.  Then they will come to us to work on fixing the problem
... if it actually exists.

3.  If the RPMs don't work for you, you can try the install CD.  It
has been tested, and installs cleanly on FC5, SuSE 10.X, and Debian.
If you don't like the way the CD installs things, you can copy the
.iso file to a local disk and modify it.  Or install the prerequisites
yourself.  And if you don't like the installer, you can still install
by hand from the sources living on the CD.

4.  If you don't like the Install CD, get the sources from the
download site and build them yourself.

5.  If you can't deal with any of these alternatives, you could put
out a call on geda-user to hire somebody to install the stuff on your
machine.  I'd be happy to charge $75/hr to install gEDA on Linux
worstations within a 50 mile radius of Boston, MA, USA, if anybody is
interested.

Finally if none of these alternatives appeal to you, and in particular
you don't want to pay for expert advice (regardless of whether it's me
or anybody else), then your level of interest in getting gEDA running
is clearly not high enough to merit any more time from me.

Good luck,

Stuart


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