Compiling from source

Post Reply New Topic

All right, I've been running Ubuntu for a while, and while it's fine for the most part, sometimes the software versions in the repos are out of date or something I want isn't in the repos at all. The solution is to download the source and compile it, but every time I've done this I fail. Any tips?

I have seen a few online guides. I know to tar xvzf [whatever], then ./configure, then make, then checkinstall (or make install if you want to go old-school). However, when I run ./configure I am always told there are some dependencies missing. I don't know how I'm supposed to make sense of the output of ./configure and track down the dependencies I need to install.

EDIT: In particular, I'm trying to get the newest version of lyx (a LaTeX editor). The one in the Ubuntu repos is several versions behind. I finally got ./configure to work, by using the trick "sudo apt-get build-dep <package>" which installed 293MB of dependencies for lyx, hoping that the new lyx wouldn't care that I was giving it the dependencies for the old lyx. It didn't seem to, as ./configure was happy. "make" also seemed to work, but "src/lyx" (to try out the program before installing it) launched lyx with the warning
"The layout file requested by this document,
article.layout,
is not usable. This is probably because a LaTeX
class or style file required by it is not
available. See the Customization documentation
for more information.
LyX will not be able to produce output."

Not being able to produce output sounds like a bad thing, but I figured, what the hell, I'll try checkinstall anyways and see if it works. It didn't.

sudo make install installed it without complaints, but starting up lyx gets the same warning I posted above about how it will not be able to produce output. And also removing it now would be messy because I used make install rather than checkinstall.

Check and see if any of the other debian family repositories have it. Also, go into the package manager, and make sure you click as many repositories as you can. It's under settings.

Yes, it should now show up as installed in synaptic. This may be a help in tracking dependencies.

Sounds messy. What great new features prompted you to go after the latest version?

Avoid installing from source unless the packaged version is particularly broken.

If you really want to be up to date you should use a distribution that updates more regularly (Gentoo, Fedora).

I think the problem I have now is just something for this package in particular, rather than any installation problem. LyX seems, so far at least, to be functioning just fine. A new checkinstall worked, and I have a .deb that was built from that.

Hm... right now I don't have the time to invest in Gentoo, and certainly it will not go on this machine first if I use it at all. I've heard some negative things about Fedora, but it's probably time I gave it a try. How exactly is rpm different from deb anyways? I keep hearing that deb is supposed to be cleaner, but I also get the impression that that's mostly a stereotype left over from the olden days...

As far as why I wanted the newer version, partially because I like to keep everything up to date, and partially because the old version was unable to import some lyx documents I was borrowing a friend who had created them on a newer version. But there are occasionally things I would like to compile from source (say, that aren't in the repos at all) and I was also looking for general tips on how to clear up dependency issues when ./configure fails.

ubuntu has the ppa that people use to upload their own deb poackages they built of certain apps.

when compiling a program, the people normally give a README or an INSTALL text file on what you need to do to compile.

by the way i new here, but i have been looking around this site before i decided to join

Welcome to wrongplanet then GustavHolst.

Firstly, I would like to thank the good people of getdeb.net for providing up-to-date binaries of some of the more popular packages.

Second, it looks like the error warning I got with LyX was because of something wrong with the program itself, and not because I compiled it wrong. The one from getdeb.net turned out exactly the same. I really should just learn emacs, since LaTeX can be edited from emacs, but I'm too lazy to learn a real text editor.

emacs is ok... but have you ever tried using vim or gvim(graphical vim). Easy to learn how to use for basic purposes, but it does have a rather steep learning curve for the more advanced features. But it does everything I've ever needed out of a text editor and more.

try Kile, that's what I use for LaTeX, its a KDE app though. I'm not sure if that bothers you (I'm a KDE user anyway)

Its not like Lyx but I like it.

We haven't had a text editor war on here yet! Vi vi vi is the editor of the beast...


I'm a GNOME type of guy, so ideally I'd prefer to avoid KDE stuff. LyX had a lot of Qt dependencies as well. If I was going to replace it entirely, I'd look for something gtk.

May I do disclose here my age again, but the vi was for me for almost four years the only text editor I used. So when I had at night a nightmare dream, I just pressed in the dream <ESC> :q! and it was over!

I've never actually used vi or emacs- just gedit and sometimes nano. However, /etc/sudoers has to be edited with vi, so I'll be learning at least the basics of that at some point.

rofl. What if you accidentaly did <ESC> :w! (the ! just in case your dream is read-only lol) Would you then be stuck in the nightmare?

Last edited by kalantir on 29 Apr 2009, 4:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

It's really not that hard to get the hang of to be honest... The main thing that confuses/irritates most people i think... Is having to switch back and forth between insert mode and command mode. Although, "gVim Easy" eliminates that problem. Also, if you are really using the original vi, I highly suggest at least trying out vim. It's just vi improved. Supports more options, has color, way more features... but still has all the same older features. And it even has vi compatibility mode for purists or whatever.