[Solved] Qt package versioning for Ubuntu
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Hello there,
Someone knows an easy way to install Qt 4.7 from Ubuntu Lucid? I can do the compilation process by myself, but I need a solution for end users.
Currently, my Qt project occupies all my time so I can't work on the packaging of Qt for that Ubuntu version. I was looking for some hint in the Launchpad site, but there's no teams working on it, or at least I couldn't find them.
After looking around some Ubuntu forums, I wonder how many users are still using Ubuntu Lucid (10.04), which makes me think about this issue: most of the Linux end users don't upgrade their distribution versions for years, so when a new version of Qt comes out, hardly some of these users can install/test it. In other words, there are too many users out there losing the Qt evolving process and it is not just about Lucid, I'm pretty sure that Maverick (10.10) users will have to face a real mess when they try to test, lets say: Qt 4.7.5
Someone might say: Just tell them to compile the source code, but the truth is end users don't like to do that. So, IMHO, if Nokia wants to enhance the Qt experience for the Linux users community, I think it should care more about the process of versioning/packaging of Qt in at least, most of the popular distros (the new ones and the previous versions).
P.S.: Although a lot of developers think that Nokia doesn't care about Qt any more, I believe that still there are many people inside working hard for this project and expecting to make it better, so, my message is for them.
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Nokia offers binary packages for linux, built with bitrock installer. Just download and run, just like you do on Windows.
http://qt.nokia.com/downloads
This will give you a 4.7 installation for development and still keep the installed system Qt intact.
I would not recommend to replace system 4.6.2 with 4.7 by installing a package from maverick though this is possible. -
Thank you!
I tried the binaries package for the first time and it worked pretty well on Ubuntu Lucid, although I had to change some dependency names from the wizard list before starting the installation.
Ok, I have to admit that this an usable solution, but I think it can get better: A small version of the package without the IDE, binaries really focused to every Ubuntu version and things like that. Just thoughts!Any way, thank you for the tip! :)
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xtingray: Sorry, but if we packaged Qt for all Linux flavors out there then we just would not have the time to work on Qt anymore:-)
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Sure, that's the reason I wrote: "in at least, most of the popular distros..." (not all Linux flavors)
Currently, I am the maintainer of the package for my project in Ubuntu. After I made the scripts to automate the process, I realised that it has not be a bloody mission at all.
This thread started because I tried to run "apt-get install qt4-qmake/qt4..." from Ubuntu Lucid, expecting to get some binaries of the branch 4.7.*, but it was impossible.
Counting on Ubuntu Lucid is long-term support (LTS) and it is supported for three years on the desktop, I think it is worth to offer recent versions easy-to-use of Qt for that platform.Ok, I'm not expecting that you care for all the Linux distros, but at least, for the largest communities.
At the beginning I was thinking: well, that's not a problem of Nokia, it is a problem of Ubuntu and maybe it is... but after all, who is the real interested in to promote the new versions of Qt among Linux users? Who really should care if users deflect an upgrade of Qt because Canonical is not doing a comfortable packaging/versioning process for those packages?The universal binary installer is good option, but I don't think it is the best. Maybe the point is not about Nokia doing all the Linux packaging/versioning stuff... maybe the point is a nice talk between Nokia and Canonical/RedHat/OpenSuse starting with a sentence like: "Hey guys! I think we could do this better. Let's talk about it".
Anyway, although I already solved my problem I always hope the best for Qt
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Nokia should rather not provide 4.7 packages for Lucid because many other packages which rely on Qt need to be at least tested and maybe adapted to 4.7. Providing such a package is the job of Ubuntu and surprise surprise....Ubuntu does this job very well. They provide 4.7 packages and updated dependent packages all shrink wrapped in a new version, for example 10.10 Maverick.
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The problem is not having some packages build. That is really the straight forward part.
The problem is to make sure nothing breaks in the distributions you upgrade Qt in. If you install a system wide Qt (which seems what you want), then all the distribution applications will use the new version. Distributors hate that and rightly so: They get a bugreport that application Y does not work and spend time investigation it only to find that a third party library upgrade broke it. And "breaking" is not referring to binary compatibility here -- We do care about that anyway -- but about some file being in a different place, some configuration option somewhere being different than the distribution expected, etc.
For those people that want a new Qt that is not in the system path we provide binary installer packages. Those work even when a user installs them which is a huge plus since they do not need to poke your local admin to install them for them.