Help with Installing 3.3.1328 on Ubuntu 12.04

[fgd3]

I'm trying to learn my way around Linux so I installed the 64-bit Ubuntu version 12.04. Now I'm trying to install OpenCPN. So far I haven't succeeded.

Ubuntu is up and running just fine. I downloaded "Download OpenCPN 3.3.1328 for 64 bits *Ubuntu (13.10)" from Download OpenCPN | Official OpenCPN Homepage. It appears in Home/Downloads as "opencpn_3.3.1328-1_amd64.deb".

I followed the steps in the OpenCPN user manual (Installing OpenCPN | Official OpenCPN Homepage). I added "dialout" to the list of groups to which I belong. I installed "xcalib" and "xdg-utils" without difficulty. Before I could run Synaptic I had to install it. That didn't prove difficult. When I ran Synaptic the "Community-maintained Open Source software (universe)" box was already checked, so I figured everything was good to go.

I had already downloaded the .deb package. Clicking on it (as the instructions said) did nothing. When I double-clicked on it "Ubuntu Software Center" opened. After a rather long wait the home page opened, quickly followed by a page for opencpn which posted this error message: "Cannot install 'libgl1-mesa-glx'.

The next paragraph in the manual recommended running "sudo gdebi <downloaded_opencpn_file.deb>" from the command line. I assumed the text enclosed by the angle brackets was to be replaced with the actual path to the .deb file, so I ran "sudo gdebi Downloads/ opencpn_3.3.1328-1_amd64.deb". No such command.

I visited the Ubuntu Software Center, installed gdebi, and tried again. After building the dependency tree, reading state information, and building data structures gdebi reported

"This package is uninstallable
Cannot install 'libgl1-mesa-glx'"

I'm stumped. Where do I go from here?

Fabbian

[cagney]

Fabbian

Use the last download icon for "other ubuntus".
Go to https://launchpad.net/~nohal/+archive/opencpn and download the package for 12.04 64 bits.

The 13.10 version of O is compiled against quite a few othe library versions than were available in Ubuntu 12.04. The launchpad repository solves this problem.

Thomas

[fgd3]

Thanks, Thomas. Would it be better to install 13.10? I don't have any other applications installed yet, so it probably doesn't matter to me which Ubuntu version I use.

Fabbian

[nohal]

Fabbian...
The non-LTS versions of Ubuntu are most of the time, to say, a bit less than perfect. Stay with 12.04 if you don't have other reason not to.

Pavel

[fgd3]

Thanks, Pavel. I'll keep working with 12.04 and see if a different OpenCPN version solves the problem for me. The last time I worked with Unix there were no GUIs for it. Unfortunately, the only command I remember from those days is "ls". Everything else has to be learned all over again.

Fabbian

[fgd3]

Thanks to Thomas and Pavel I got OpenCPN installed. Here's what I went through, offered for the benefit of anyone else who is new to Ubuntu and anyone interested in reviewing issues that are unclear in the documentation. I'll be happy to take a stab at editing the manual once I have a better handle on the download and install processes.


I visited https://launchpad.net/~nohal/+archive/opencpn. The first link I clicked on was "Read about installing". It wasn't very helpful. It ended with "If you're using the most recent version of Ubuntu (or any version from Ubuntu 9.10 onwards), you can add a PPA to your system with a single line in your terminal. " It wasn't until I revisited the page the next day that I noticed the scroll bar to the right and found the detailed instructions I thought were missing were actually there.


Then I clicked the link for "Technical details about this PPA" where I found a button to "Choose your Ubuntu version". That confirmed for me that I wanted the package labeled "precise". Someone with more Ubuntu experience probably would have known that was the correct name for version 12.04, but I didn't. I selected that version and tried to run "deb Index of /nohal/opencpn/ubuntu precise main" [the forum software edited the link so that isn't really what I typed] in Terminal. No luck. "No command 'deb' found."


Well, I thought, I'll just download the file and see what happens. At the bottom of the page was an "Overview of published packages" which included opencpn with a version for 3.3.1328-0~precise1. I clicked on it. Nothing happened. Then I noticed another link, "View package details". The same items showed up in the list but expansion links had been added. I clicked on the one for "opencpn – 3.3.1328-0~precise1" and publishing details, change log, available diffs, builds, built packages, and--most important--package files appeared. I clicked on "opencpn_3.3.1328-0~precise1_amd64.deb" and started downloading it.


When the download was complete I double-clicked the file in my Downloads directory. Ubuntu Software Center opened and eventually presented me with a page for OpenCPN that had an "Install" button. I clicked that. Pretty soon I saw a progress bar and eventually it said "Installed".


OpenCPN appeared in the launcher and when I clicked on it everything looked familiar. It has been a long time since I had to point OpenCPN to my charts directory but I still remembered how to do it. I forced a full database rebuild and the program ground away for quite a while. The only complaint I have about what happened next is it put me in the middle of the Bering Sea. I was afraid of being crushed in the ice like Shackleton's Endurance! I managed to get my position moved back to Florida--which is plenty cold enough these days--and everything looks a lot like it does on my Windows installations.


Fabbian

[cagney]

Fabbian
Great that you're up and running.
By now I think you're ready to learn a bit more about Ubuntu Package Management.
Have a look at these links.
https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/server...anagement.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto
The system is quite advanced but requires a bit of learning.

Thomas

[fgd3]

Thomas

Thanks for the links. I've bookmarked them and look forward to reading them.

Fabbian

[fgd3]

The next step was to get my BU-353 GPS working. I expected a bit of difficulty, since I've been reading a lot about problems making it work with Windows 8. I found a couple of pages of complicated instructions with unfamiliar commands when I Googled "BU-353 Linux". Then I found "Setting Up GPS" in the OpenCPN manual. Once I realized "Options->Connections -> Add Conection" referred to the OpenCPN menu structure and not some unfamiliar Linux setting I plugged in the GPS, added a connection for /dev/ttyUSB0, and data started streaming in the NMEA debug window. As a Windows user, I'm not used to having devices working that easily.

Fabbian