Newbie in too deep, Ubuntu, FPC and Lazarus. lazarus / 1-Linux ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MrJohn · 2014-04-22 04:03 I have spent four days on this..   But I am starting from the very beginning. I am trying to install Free Pascal and Lazarus on a Pentium 4 machine with no other operating system installed. Two days were spent trying to get to grips with Ubuntu 12.04.4 but it defeated me, it did install and it does run but I make many problems including such things as the terminal going into invisible (white on white?) mode. But I did get Lazarus installed and tried for a "Hello world" program which gave an error which I tried to capture with a screen snapshot but that failed by which time I forgot what the error was!  So I put that aside and installed Ubuntu 8.04  i386 which I had a CD for and it installs OK, no problems. Once again I downloaded Lazarus_1.0.14-0_i386.deb,  fpc-2.6.2-0_i386.deb and fpc-src_2.6.2-0_i386.deb.  This time I used the package installer that came with Ubuntu 8.04 to install them but when I got to installing Lazarus I got.. Dependency not satisfiable libgtk2.0-dev   can someone please explain what this error is and is it something I can fix?    Is it too much to expect Free Pascal and Lazarus to run on that old Ubuntu? Thanks MrJohn in New Zealand ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CaptBill · 2014-04-22 04:43 Hi MrJohn, Welcome aboard. If you go to the "package intaller/manager", where you got Lazarus, and do a search for the "libgtk2-dev" package and install it. Simple as that. It needs the Gtk2 development package is all. It should have been downloaded as a dependency with the rest. I would report it as a bug. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MrJohn · 2014-04-22 06:06 Thanks CaptBill, I will be trying that as soon as I can! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MrJohn · 2014-04-22 06:44 Oh well!  I got that file but a lock symbol appears beside it. More study required.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MrJohn · 2014-04-22 08:00 Oh dear, the best part of five days spent on this futile exercise and I regret that I will be leaving Ubuntu/Free Pascal/ Lazarus aside until my blood pressure subsides... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Leledumbo · 2014-04-22 08:57 Relax man, you're getting into two different worlds at one time, that of course could be troublesome. I suggest you learn Ubuntu first (and Linux in general) and get used to its environment (package management, permissions, file system hierarchy, etc). Only after that you can try installing Lazarus and play with it. One advice though, Ubuntu Software Center is somewhat problematic. I suggest using the more technical but working Synaptic Package Manager instead, or the command line version: apt-get. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MrJohn · 2014-04-22 09:53 Thanks, but I expect to be taking a bit of a break from this... Maybe in a day or so.. John ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JD · 2014-04-22 10:07 Quote from: MrJohn on April 22, 2014, 06:03:40 am Dependency not satisfiable libgtk2.0-dev   can someone please explain what this error is and is it something I can fix?    Is it too much to expect Free Pascal and Lazarus to run on that old Ubuntu? Thanks MrJohn in New Zealand Hi there. I had the same problem & this is how it was resolved http://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,23942.msg143630.ht ml#msg143630 Cheers, JD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MrJohn · 2014-04-25 04:45 Another few days and Ubuntu 12.04.4, fpc 2.6.4, Lazarus 0.9.30.2 and Hello World 1.0.0.0 all running well!  I followed http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Install_on_Ubuntu Thanks for the assistance! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cdbc · 2014-04-25 06:07 Hi mate. If you continue to get into trouble, i'd suggest you try PcLinuxOs operating system, preferably the LXDE version, as it is light on resources  We've got lazarus & Fpc in the repository via synaptic... It's a matter of "point and click install" Easy peasy  Good luck my friend... http://www.pclinuxos.com/ Regards Benny ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mdalacu · 2014-04-25 06:27 I think that we have a wrong attitude about Ubuntu. Ubuntu (and derivates) is the biggest linux distribution, by far. So, Lazarus MUST work on Ubuntu first and then on the other distributions for it to gain traction. Unfortunately it does not happen and Ubuntu 14.04  has an old version in repos (1.0.14) and the debs provided on Lazarus site is not installing (dependency problems or bad packaging). I really hope that this situation will change soon. As an alternative you could install Code Typhoon 4.8 which is tested on Ubuntu 14.04. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MrJohn · 2014-04-25 07:19 Thanks guys but I seem to have a system up and working now.  As I indicated I even managed a Hello World compile and run. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JD · 2014-04-25 08:08 Quote from: mdalacu on April 25, 2014, 08:27:33 amI think that we have a wrong attitude about Ubuntu. Ubuntu (and derivates) is the biggest linux distribution, by far. So, Lazarus MUST work on Ubuntu first and then on the other distributions for it to gain traction. ...... I agree with you on this point. Such a move will cover a large part of the Debian/Ubuntu like distros out there right now. I haven't updated my Lazarus version on Linux because I'm waiting for Linux Mint 17 LTS to be released in May. In any case I often download the 3 debs (Lazarus, FPC & FPC sources) & do the installation "manually". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- marcov · 2014-04-25 09:25 Quote from: mdalacu on April 25, 2014, 08:27:33 am So, Lazarus MUST work on Ubuntu first It DOES work. It is just not packaged. QuoteI think that we have a wrong attitude about Ubuntu. Ubuntu (and derivates) is the biggest linux distribution, by far. Then why is it so hard to get packagers for it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Leledumbo · 2014-04-25 10:12 QuoteI think that we have a wrong attitude about Ubuntu. Ubuntu (and derivates) is the biggest linux distribution, by far. So, Lazarus MUST work on Ubuntu first and then on the other distributions for it to gain traction. Unfortunately it does not happen and Ubuntu 14.04  has an old version in repos (1.0.14) and the debs provided on Lazarus site is not installing (dependency problems or bad packaging).I don't think that MUST is appropriate. But since I've moved to Manjaro (which is ArchBased), I always have up to date stable Lazarus. Perhaps Manjaro doesn't have complicated policy as Debian implements. The debs are installing, IF you understand the dependency concept of debian packages. We don't provide standalone debs, simply because shared library duplication is not in the spirit of package management. The required dependencies are all in the repo. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rails · 2014-04-25 10:57 Quote from: mdalacu on April 25, 2014, 08:27:33 amI think that we have a wrong attitude about Ubuntu. Ubuntu (and derivates) is the biggest linux distribution, by far. So, Lazarus MUST work on Ubuntu first and then on the other distributions for it to gain traction. Unfortunately it does not happen and Ubuntu 14.04  has an old version in repos (1.0.14) and the debs provided on Lazarus site is not installing (dependency problems or bad packaging). I really hope that this situation will change soon. As an alternative you could install Code Typhoon 4.8 which is tested on Ubuntu 14.04. Who is the we in this context? The distributions themselves determine what application packages are carried in their repositories. Their (the distros) package maintainers are responsible for building them in accordance with the distribution's own rules and guidelines. Some distros do a better job than others, and not all applications get equal treatment since the maintainers are almost all volunteers with limited time available for their package maintenance activities. For that reason, some distro's Lazarus packages are more up to date than others. Part of the pain and pleasure of moving to Linux is the requirement for the user to research and select from all the available distros. Simply installing Ubuntu just because it is the biggest makes little sense. Like Windows, there is a corporation behind it, Canonical in the case of Ubuntu, and not everything is done in the user's best interests. In the case of Lazarus, the developers also provide packages that can be installed on most Linux distros, but users have to understand their distro's packaging system well enough to avoid conflict between Lazarus supplied packages and those in the distro's repositories. They also need to understand the concept of dependencies that exist throughout the Linux world. Linux comes with a learning curve. So does Lazarus. Both require some work on the part of the user. The Lazarus (and FPC) developers do a fantastic job, but in the end, it is the user's responsibility to make the right choices in order to meet his needs.