[Digikam-users] Re: Compiling Issues (still no joy)

[Mark Greenwood]

On Monday 20 Dec 2010 22:19:00 Hevï Guy wrote:
> In spite of not hearing back from somebody I went ahead and followed
> these guidelines. At the conclusion of the incredibly longggg build, I
> opened digiKam and looked at the components. Damn; that infuriatingly
> buggy exiv2 1.9 was still there X-(
> 
> Has anybody else got a suggestion or, is everybody tired of this. I know
> that I am but, I've got no choice but to go on if I have any hope of
> getting this program to operate properly. I suppose that I can always
> boot back into Windoze and run Adobe Bridge, eh? Grrrrr....
> 
> I'm sure that there must be a perfectly logical reason for it but, I
> still don't understand why there isn't a simple deb available with all
> of the necessary stuff. 

You've been unlucky to encounter a bug that seriously affected your ability to work with your computer. Such things are rare even in Linux but most definitely not unheard of. You have the choice to try to fix it yourself, see if someone else has already fixed it, or wait until a new release comes along with a fix in it. I call this the price of free software. At least you get the option to try and fix it yourself. 

The way I see it is that in the Windows/Mac world, software is developed, tested, fixed, and (mostly) working before it is released. They're charging money for it after all. What's the release cycle of Windows? One version every 5 years or so. How often does a new Photoshop come out?

Things in Linux change on a month-by-month, sometimes a week-by-week basis. On top of this (apparently) chaotic free for all, distros like Kubuntu try to impose a 6 month release cycle. Unfortunately too, Kubuntu's release cycle doesn't tie in very well with KDE's. On top of that the resources for testing are sparse. Basically, you could well be the first guy to try something. Kubuntu has a policy that once the version of something is set for the release it will not be updated except with minor bugfixes. This policy, many people think, is bananas.

So when a release of Kubuntu comes out, you get a snapshot of what the state of everything was at the time that version of Kubuntu was released. Sometimes it's good, sometimes (9.04) it's truly awful. You've been unlucky to discover one of the bugs that slipped through the net pre-release. If nobody has reported this bug to Kubuntu, or there's nobody there to work on it, or it requires a major update to new versions of libraries, nothing will get done about it. Have you raised it as a bug on launchpad? If not, you can't complain that there's no fix available. Get involved, Linux is a two-way street.

So, the reason a simple deb with all the necessary stuff isn't available is (a) because, probably, nobody has reported it, and (b) because nobody has felt it worthwhile to spend *their own spare time* doing it. As you've found out, it's not simple and it's not fun. 

Mark

> I mean it the humblest manner possible  when I
> ask why must everybody have to reinvent the wheel?? It may be fun to
> some but, for those of us who aren't programmers by trade but are mere
> butchers, bakers and candle stick makers, it ranks up there with going
> to the dentist in terms of pleasure factor.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, 2010-12-20 at 16:33 +0100, Photonoxx wrote:
> 
> > Le Sun, 19 Dec 2010 18:36:53 +0100, Mark Greenwood  
> > <captain_bodge at yahoo.co.uk> a écrit:
> > > Some hints for Ubuntu users:
> > >
> > > sudo apt-get build-dep digikam  (installs all dependencies for building  
> > > digikam)
> > >
> > > apt-get source digikam    (gets the source code for the ubuntu digikam  
> > > package - easiest thing to do if all you want to do is rebuild it  
> > > against a new library)
> > > dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -b  (builds the .deb package from the  
> > > source you just retrieved)
> > >
> > > sudo add-apt-repository ppa:philip5/extra
> > > sudo apt-get update
> > > sudo apt-get upgrade      (sets up a repository with, amongst other  
> > > things, the latest and greatest digikam and kipi-plugins)
> > >
> > > All found via Google. Happy holidays ;-)
> > 
> > Can you confirm you post here two different hint (the one with  
> > dpkg-buildpackage and the other with PPA).
> > 
> > Inspired by this, I found way simpler way two get evix2 0.20 working with  
> > Digikam.
> > 
> > At least you have to pass by a compile step, but don't have to compile  
> > Digikam. May be it's a little late for Hevï Guy...
> > 
> > If more technician could validate this method, it would be nice.
> > 
> > First of all I download exiv2 deb packages from natty repository on  
> > Launchpad.
> > 
> > I think the needed packages are mostly Libexiv2-9 and libexiv2-dev
> > 
> > https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/natty/+package/libexiv2-9
> > https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/natty/+package/libexiv2-dev
> > 
> > For each URL you still have to select which published version you need  
> > (32bits or 64bits ?) and click on the deb link in the new page (under  
> > "downloadable item...")
> > 
> > With this deb you can install Libexiv2-9 and libexiv2-dev
> > 
> > After that, you just have to recompile you libkexiv2-8 that is used by  
> > Digikam.
> > 
> > To do that, I make this in an appropriate folder for exemple src:
> > 
> > mkdir src
> > 
> > cd src
> > 
> > sudo apt-get build-dep libkexiv2-8
> > 
> > apt-get source libkexiv2-8
> > 
> > cd kdegraphics[you-version, just look the name of the created folder]
> > 
> > dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -b
> > 
> > 
> > This last command take a quite long time because I don't knows how to only  
> > generate the deb for libkexiv2, and the command line generate packages for  
> > all the kdegraphics components. but at the end, in the src directory,  
> > you'll get all the generated deb files.
> > 
> > Now, there just stay to install libkexiv2-8[your-version].deb file.
> > 
> > Double-clicking on it to open software-center give me some trouble. In  
> > fact, when I click on "reinstall" button, Software-center says Digikam and  
> > some other software have to be uninstalled to reinstall libkexiv2-8  
> > package, and so, I decided to install gdebi software and Just have to make  
> > a right click on libkexiv2-8.*.*.deb and choosing "open with gdebi...",  
> > and reinstall work without alert.
> > 
> > Launching Digikam give me now exiv 0.20 in component info.
> > 
> > If someone, more expert than me, could confirm there's no matter with this  
> > way...
> > 
>