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GNU/Linux installer bundle (OSX Style) for QGIS 0.8 available for testing

Submitted by Tim Sutton on Sat, 2007-01-06 04:27.

As you may realise, packaging QGIS 0.8 for all the different linux distros is a near impossible task. Additionally we have the issue of older distros not having qt 4.2.x and many IT depts probably won't be keen to start deploying new versions of distros to meet QGIS dependencies. When I was promoting the move to qt4 I promised to build a statically compiled version of QGIS or something to provide an option for folks with no Qt4 on their machines. Compiling statically has some issues though - it requires tweaking the build system and it can create very large binaries.

So I've been looking at using an approach similar to MacOSX application bundles and Frank Warmerdam's FWTools. My first effort worked only on new distros like Ubuntu Edgy. Today I rebuilt using Ubuntu dapper as a basis and got it working. I tested on Slax and Ubuntu Dapper live CDs and Aaron Racicot has tested it on Fedora Core 6.

I would like to invite more people to test. My hope is that it will work on all the linux distros in general use. I have not yet packaged grass into it - Ill probably do that on monday. If you are able to test please reply to this with a one liner email (tim at linfiniti.com ) in the format:

Distro, Version, Works/Partially Works/Doesnt Work. e.g.

Ubuntu, Dapper, Works
Fedora Core, 6, Works

In the case of Partial and Doesnt Work please add any diagnostics you can to explain the issues encountered.

The test bundle can be downloaded here:

http://qgis.org/uploadfiles/testbuilds/qgis_linux_bundle.tar.bz2

To use the bundle simply extract it and run the ./qgis.sh script therein.

The download is around 55mb. Once the bundle is completed (grass support added), I will probably package it up using a windows style installation wizard using BitRock.

Many thanks for any help testing this.

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Ubuntu Feisty

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2007-02-14 04:11.

With Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty (devel version) it works but there is some library load problems.

At start time i can see:
------------------------------------------
./qgis.sh

Failed to load /home/danilo/qgis_linux_bundle/usr/bin/../lib/qgis/grassplugin.so
Reason: QLibrary::load_sys: Cannot load /home/danilo/qgis_linux_bundle/usr/bin/../lib/qgis/grassplugin.so (/home/danilo/qgis_linux_bundle/usr/bin/../lib/qgis/libgrassplugin.so: impossibile aprire il file oggetto condiviso: Nessun file o directory)
Failed to load /home/danilo/qgis_linux_bundle/usr/bin/../lib/qgis/grassprovider.so
Reason: QLibrary::load_sys: Cannot load /home/danilo/qgis_linux_bundle/usr/bin/../lib/qgis/grassprovider.so (/home/danilo/qgis_linux_bundle/usr/bin/../lib/qgis/libgrassprovider.so: impossibile aprire il file oggetto condiviso: Nessun file o directory)

-------------------
Italian "impossibile aprire il file oggetto condiviso: Nessun file o directory" message is like
"cannot open shared object: no file or directory"

I checked the failed files and permission and i think they are ok.

HTH

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GRASS errors...

Submitted by racicot on Mon, 2007-01-08 06:59.

Me again...
I just tried to play with GRASS via the bundle and I get the following error when opening the grass tools. I seem to be able to open a mapset and even view a vector layer, but when I try to open the tools I get an error and a blank tools window pops open.

The config file (/home/timlinux/dev/cpp/qgis_linux_bundle//share/qgis/grass/config/default.qgc) not found.

Looks like there is some hard coded timlinux path stuff still in there. Anyway, I have GRASS set up on this laptop so I am more than happy to test some more when you get this one figured out.

Aaron

www.reprojected.com
www.ecotrust.org

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FC4 works great

Submitted by racicot on Mon, 2007-01-08 06:52.

Hey Tim,
Just wanted to let you know I had a chance to do a quick install on a FC4 laptop this weekend and the bundle seemed to work great. Nice job on getting this done!

Aaron

www.reprojected.com
www.ecotrust.org

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