[Eug-lug] Problems building an app from source

[Dave Compton]

I got this to work in two steps on ubuntu 8.04:
Step 1: download and build the stable knowit:

./configure failed with following error message:
checking for Qt... configure: error: Qt (>= Qt 3.0) (headers and 
libraries) not found. Please check your installation!

Installed the following packages using synaptic:
qt3-devtools (may not have needed this one)
libqt3-headers
libqt3-mt-dev
kde
kde-devel

./configure
make
sudo make install

(success!)

can now run knowit as /usr/local/kde/bin/knowit

Step 2: download and build the alpha version:

downloaded knowit-0.11a1.tar.bz2
ran make -f Makefile.cvs - this failed due to tool versioning problems 
and missing automake
sudo apt-get automake
edited admin/cvs.sh to fix versioning problems
make -f Makefile.cvs
./configure
make
sudo make install

can now run /usr/bin/knowit

you can edit admin/cvs.sh with 'patch -p1 < patch' ; here's the patch:

diff -r 9099f8ecebc1 admin/cvs.sh
--- a/admin/cvs.sh      Mon Jun 09 13:27:32 2008 -0600
+++ b/admin/cvs.sh      Mon Jun 09 13:32:26 2008 -0600
@@ -32,7 +32,8 @@ required_autoconf_version="2.53 or newer
  required_autoconf_version="2.53 or newer"
  AUTOCONF_VERSION=`$AUTOCONF --version | head -n 1`
  case $AUTOCONF_VERSION in
-  Autoconf*2.5* | autoconf*2.5* ) : ;;
+  Autoconf*2.5* | autoconf*2.5* | \
+  Autoconf*2.6* | autoconf*2.6* ) : ;;
    "" )
      echo "*** AUTOCONF NOT FOUND!."
      echo "*** KDE requires autoconf $required_autoconf_version"
@@ -47,7 +48,8 @@ esac

  AUTOHEADER_VERSION=`$AUTOHEADER --version | head -n 1`
  case $AUTOHEADER_VERSION in
-  Autoconf*2.5* | autoheader*2.5* ) : ;;
+  Autoconf*2.5* | autoheader*2.5*  | \
+  Autoconf*2.6* | autoheader*2.6* ) : ;;
    "" )
      echo "*** AUTOHEADER NOT FOUND!."
      echo "*** KDE requires autoheader $required_autoconf_version"
@@ -68,7 +70,8 @@ case $AUTOMAKE_STRING in
      echo "*** KDE requires automake $required_automake_version"
      exit 1
      ;;
-  automake*1.6.* | automake*1.7* | automake*1.8* | automake*1.9*)
+  automake*1.6.* | automake*1.7* | automake*1.8* | automake*1.9* | \
+  automake*1.10*)
      echo "*** $AUTOMAKE_STRING found."
      UNSERMAKE=no
      ;;


marbux wrote:
> I got a bit farther with it. It wants kdebase-dev for the x-includes.
> But still no joy. Thanks for trying. It sounds like the problem is
> with the source rather than some peculiarity with VirtualBox. I'll try
> to raise the developer and see about getting a fresh copy from CVS.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Marbux
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 11:45 AM, Allen Brown <abrown at peak.org> wrote:
>> Running Ubuntu gutsy 7.10.
>> Downloaded and unpacked knowit-0.11a1.tar.bz2
>> Installed g++.
>> Noticed despite the INSTALL file, no configure script included.
>> Installed autoconf.
>> $ autoconf configure.in
>> $ sh ./configure
>> checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
>> checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
>> checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
>> ./configure: line 1868: syntax error near unexpected token `knowit,'
>> ./configure: line 1868: `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(knowit, 0.11alpha1)'
>>
>> I don't know what language they are trying to program in there
>> at line 1868 but I don't recognize it.  The configure script
>> doesn't make sense.  Giving up.
>> --
>> Allen Brown
>> http://brown.armoredpenguin.com/~abrown
>>
>>> Would someone with a recent Debian based OS mind trying to build an
>>> app from source and give me a pointer or two? The app is Knowit,
>>> <http://knowit.sourceforge.net/download.php>, and I wish to build the
>>> 0.11a unstable version from source.
>>>
>>> I want the particular build because the deb package of the stable 0.10
>>> version is less than stable. I have previously built the 0.11a version
>>> from source on Mepis 6.0 and reconfirmed today that I still can using
>>> the same "make" command line given on the download page . The 0.11a
>>> version when built from source is far more stable than version 0.10
>>> and cleans up a couple of critical bugs.
>>>
>>> I'm amidst setting up two virtual appliances running on a WinXP host
>>> system using VirtualBox. One is for Mepis 7.0 and the other is for
>>> Kubuntu 8.04 Hardy running as guests. No problems so far other than
>>> the Knowit compilation (although I have not yet got to the stage of
>>> getting the host and guests talking to each other.) I've installed
>>> autoconf and build-essential on both appliances.
>>>
>>> If I try to build KnowIt 0.11a from source with either of those
>>> distributions, I get nothing but error messages and am having no luck
>>> tracking down a fix for my issues. Given that I can build the app
>>> using Mepis 6.0 and not the later flavors of Debian, I'm wondering if
>>> I might need an older version of autoconf or some such. But I don't
>>> build apps from source often enough to tell whether that might fix my
>>> problem or whether installing the older version of autoconf might
>>> screw up the system in other ways.
>>>
>>> I'd appreciate any help here. Without going into details, I've reached
>>> a stage of aging where I really need an outliner in organizing my
>>> thoughts and notes. I've been using Knowit for 2+ years because of a
>>> particular mix of features that make it the best around for my
>>> particular purposes. So this is rather mission-critical for me. If
>>> necessary, I can scrap Mepis 7 and Kubuntu 8.04, sticking with Mepis
>>> 6. But given that I'm setting up a new system, I'd like to start with
>>> the latest and greatest.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Marbux
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> EUGLUG mailing list
>>> euglug at euglug.org
>>> http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
>>>
>>
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