appimage

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cox
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Re: appimage

Post by cox »

sgrogan wrote:our "About FreeCAD" on a non-Ubuntu distro gives me great confidence.
My Arch installation is at least 3 years old, and has a huge number of libraries and packages installed. Would be nice to see it also running on newly installed systems.

I guess if the appimage totally self contained and not relying on anything else, this should not be a problem.
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sgrogan
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Re: appimage

Post by sgrogan »

NormandC wrote:Dude, you need to stop with the telegraphic style. I can't hardly understand what you're saying... :?
Sorry to be so cryptic :oops:
I propose to create a new release on FreeCAD-GitHub-releases dedicated to the AppImages.
In the text box at the top there is the ability to add instructions. The text box uses Markown It would be great if someone could contribute something I could copy/paste into that field.

Installation:
On KDE/dolphin, I download the FreeCAD AppImage, right click on the AppImage file, choose Properties, switch to the Permissions tab, then check "Is executable" and OK. I get this popup (see below)(I don't know how consistent this is across different distro's?)

Then I click "No" twice, and I'm in FreeCAD.
After exiting FreeCAD can I un-intstall by just deleting the AppImage and have no remnants?

Usage:
FreeCAD cannot find the Appimage calculix ccx.exe. I can set the the path to a system installed version and everything works. Tested on
OS: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6707 (Git)
Build type: None
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: 5465bc47c95db45e0be85dc0e2872419efadce0f
Python version: 2.7.6
Qt version: 4.8.6
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

Host system: Kunbuntu 14.04 run from Home/Downloads.
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NormandC
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Re: appimage

Post by NormandC »

FYI,

I asked Debian users in the French forum to test the 0.16.6707 AppImage. It seems to work fine in jessie and sid. :)
sgrogan wrote:I propose to create a new release on FreeCAD-GitHub-releases dedicated to the AppImages.
In the text box at the top there is the ability to add instructions. The text box uses Markown It would be great if someone could contribute something I could copy/paste into that field.
I'm worried that it would confuse users if the AppImages are separate from the 0.16 and 0.17_pre releases. :?

Why couldn't the current text box for the existing release pages be amended to add the instructions? Is it because you fear it may become to long?
sgrogan wrote:The text box uses Markown It would be great if someone could contribute something I could copy/paste into that field.
I could try to whip something up, but it may take a while...
sgrogan wrote:(I don't know how consistent this is across different distro's?)
This is exactly the same for me on Unity/GNOME. I'm pretty sure it will be the same for most desktop environments.

The popup is an AppImage feature I think, and I like it. I haven't clicked yes since I already have two FreeCAD versions installed from the PPA, but it's good for an end user to have a launcher for it.
triplus
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Re: appimage

Post by triplus »

Pop-up adds Launcher for AppImage. If AppImage is deleted everything is removed (note that configuration files for FreeCAD are not deleted). As for CalculiX what should be tested? I did a few tests and it looked like it is using the one from AppImage. But i don't use this functionality ATM therefore somebody will need to explain what to test. As if CalculiX from the AppImage isn't used that should be fixed or it makes no sense to provide it in AppImage.

As for releases page i wouldn't create separate release page for AppImage. Why should separate release page be created for AppImage?
blacey
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Re: appimage

Post by blacey »

triplus wrote:As for releases page i wouldn't create separate release page for AppImage. Why should separate release page be created for AppImage?
I agree, an AppImage is just another type of release package. We should just deploy them along side the existing 0.17_pre release artifacts.
jean.thil
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Re: appimage

Post by jean.thil »

NormandC wrote:FYI,

I asked Debian users in the French forum to test the 0.16.6707 AppImage. It seems to work fine in jessie and sid. :)
I am the one that tried on Jessie.
Yes, it works fine but I have also everything needed to compile 0.16 and .17 so the result may be different on a vanilla Jessie.
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sgrogan
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Re: appimage

Post by sgrogan »

NormandC wrote:I'm worried that it would confuse users if the AppImages are separate from the 0.16 and 0.17_pre releases. :?

Why couldn't the current text box for the existing release pages be amended to add the instructions? Is it because you fear it may become to long?
Ok I'm out voted :) TLDR is one concern, the other is flooding the tracker with packaging issues (I have too many already). I'll add a request to post issues to this thread instead of the tracker for now (some won't read it regardless of where it is)
triplus wrote:As for CalculiX what should be tested? I did a few tests and it looked like it is using the one from AppImage. But i don't use this functionality ATM therefore somebody will need to explain what to test.
I re-named by .cfg files and the started the FreeCAD appimage and did this http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.ph ... tilever_3D I got an error that looked like calculix was not found (error checking and reporting is improved in 0.17 that I haven't tested with AppImage). So I went to Fem Preferences and tried to navigate to the AppImage calculix executable, but I couldn't find it. I instead navigated to my usr/local installed version and everything worked. There is no Ubuntnu calculix package on 14.04 which is why NormandC added it to the PPA. It exists for later versions. I don't remember where I got the version I'm using, I might have compiled myself but I'm not sure, it's v2.9 which is different from the FreeCAD PPA.

So, are we ready to post the 0.16.6707 on the FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases page?
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triplus
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Re: appimage

Post by triplus »

Hi @sgrogan.

I tested and can confirm CalculiX bundled in AppImage currently isn't used. It works for me if i use the package from the package manager:

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/ccx
I checked and the ccx is added to AppImage and i guess it should be seen to AppImage. As it isn't i am guessing this is a path issue @probono would likely be able to address in .yml file. My question would therefore be should we care and try to fix that or should we just remove CalculiX from the AppImage?
cox
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Re: appimage

Post by cox »

My question would therefore be should we care and try to fix that or should we just remove CalculiX from the AppImage?

I do not see the point of an appimage if it does not include everything FreeCAD needs to run at leas its main workbenches.
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triplus
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Re: appimage

Post by triplus »

cox wrote:I do not see the point of an appimage if it does not include everything FreeCAD needs to run at leas its main workbenches.
I was under the impression due to all the discussions on the forum in the past Netgen and CalculiX are hard to get on Linux. It turned out Netgen is only needed at compile time therefore it could be safely removed from the AppImage and nothing got lost. If the situation for CalculiX is similar and it can be obtained easily from the target Linux distribution repositories we might not need to care about it from AppImage perspective. But we could choose to care. Therefore decision should be made on how to proceed.
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