[cad-linux] Varicad/debian howto

for those (like me) that have yet to get Varicad to
run in a stable manner on debian (sid or better) one
of our new members to the list has given us a how-to
of what worked for him.

=======================================================

I got the 8.1 version up and running on Debian Sid,
and wrote
a very small "HOWTO" about what I did, here it is:

............
1. Download the SuSE version of VariCAD 8.1

2. Convert the rpm package to a deb package by using
alien
   command: alien name_of_package.rpm, in this case
   alien VariCAD-en-8.1.0.0-1_SuSE.i386.rpm
   (You need to be root to do this.)

3. Install the converted VariCAD deb package
   command: dpkg -i name_of_package.deb, in this case
   dpkg -i varicad-en_8.1.0.0-2_i386.deb

4. Copy the file /usr/lib/libqt-gl.so.2.3.1 to another
directory.
   For example make a directory named varicad-Qt-Gl
under /usr/local
   command: mkdir /usr/local/varicad-Qt-Gl and copy
the file to that
   directory,
   command: cp /usr/lib/libqt-gl.so.2.3.1
/usr/local/varicad-Qt-Gl/
   If the file /usr/lib/libqt-gl.so.2.3.1 doesn't
exist on your system,
   then install the package libqt2-gl, (command:
apt-get install 
libqt2-gl).

5. Rename that file to libqt.so.2
   command: cd /usr/local/varicad-Qt-Gl/
   and: mv libqt-gl.so.2.3.1 libqt.so.2
   You can also do the copy/rename operation in one
command, like this:
   cp /usr/lib/libqt-gl.so.2.3.1
/usr/local/varicad-Qt-Gl/libqt.so.2

6. Run VariCAD with the following command line:
   LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/varicad-Qt-Gl/ varicad

This works with Debian Sid and should also work with
Woody (I haven't
tested with Woody, but the kde and other packages in
Woody should AFAIK
be new enough for VariCAD to work).
........

If you want to put up this info somewhere, for helping
other Debian
users to get VariCAD to work on their system, then
feel free to do so.
I don't claim any copyright or any other rights to
this info.
You are allowed to mention my name in this "howto" if
you want.
I have posted this info to VariCAD also, but they
haven't up to
this date added it to their readme file.
........

And an explanation on why this works :)
Debian has it's own way of dealing with the Qt
libraries, there
is one libqt2 library named libqt2 that is compiled
without Gl support,
and one libqt2 library named libqt2-gl that is
compiled with Gl 
support.
All programs that are happy without Gl support use the
first one, and
those programs that need Gl support use the other.
VariCAD 8.1 doesn't
know to use the other one, so therefore it doesn't
work on a Debian Sid
system, but by copying the file
/usr/lib/libqt-gl.so.2.3.1 to another
directory and telling VariCAD to use that with the
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=
command, you can get it to run.

I found a discussion on the mailing list
debian-kde@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
that verifies that my theory of the Qt libraries and
Debian are true.
If you are interested then you can find it here:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-kde/2001/debian-kde-200106/msg00191.html
This describes the background about why the Debian
developers decided
to split the Qt libraries in one library without Gl
and one with Gl.


Regards
Tomas Nykung
Finland

=====
phrostie
Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of DOS
and danced the skies on Linux silvered wings.
http://pfrostie.freeservers.com/cad-tastrafy/
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/cad-linux

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