Unsupported, but does it work? 2 Arch derivatives

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wsamples
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Unsupported, but does it work? 2 Arch derivatives

Post by wsamples » Tue Sep 06, 2016 5:35 am

Full official Linux support is extremely limited, but LiveCode runs well in many unsupported distros. Sadly, not as well in a few others.

Here's a brief synopsis of my experience testing LiveCode in two distros that are based on Arch; Manjaro and Antergos. Again, KDE Plasma 5, 64 bit using LiveCode versions 8.0.2 and 8.1-RC2. Default DVD installation with nothing additional needed to get LiveCode to work.

Antergos seems to run LiveCode beautifully and the interactive tour completes and compiles to a fully functioning standalone.

Under Manjaro, LiveCode crashed on launch every time initially but my experience trying to get openSUSE Leap to run led me to a solution. Under KDE the font used for GTK apps is set separately from the default system font. Changing the GTK font from "Noto Sans" to "Liberation Sans" solved the crash issue and thereafter LiveCode ran fine and the interactive tour completed and compiled to a fully functioning standalone. The IDE seemed just a bit sluggish to respond to mouseclicks, but this was inside a VM and I don't know if that was a factor. It did not crash at all after the font change. I will try a a non KDE version to see how that runs, given the initial difficulty under KDE. I'll post below when I've done that.

eckhard
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Re: Unsupported, but does it work? 2 Arch derivatives

Post by eckhard » Tue Nov 27, 2018 11:17 pm

Hi,

would you mind to give me the steps to install livecode on Antergos (Cinnamon)?

I don't know how to install libgtk2.0-0:i386 for example.

Thx, in advance

eckhard

wsamples
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Re: Unsupported, but does it work? 2 Arch derivatives

Post by wsamples » Wed Nov 28, 2018 7:03 am

If you've got a 64-bit Antergos installation you should be able to install a 64-bit Livecode version without adding any i386 libs. I am currently running Antergos with Plasma and didn't have to install anything specifically to get Livecode to work. I have a VM with Antergos running Cinnamon and Livecode works well (better in Cinnamon than in Plasma!) without having had to install anything to make that happen. What difficulties are you having?

bogs
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Re: Unsupported, but does it work? 2 Arch derivatives

Post by bogs » Wed Nov 28, 2018 9:36 am

I'm not sure eckhard is a real person, wsamples, which is why I didn't respond to this question.

For instance,
eckhard wrote:
Tue Nov 27, 2018 11:17 pm
I don't know how to install libgtk2.0-0:i386 for example.
This isn't something most people would ask, it is a step I give to people trying to install Lc 6.x (which is 32bit only) onto modern distros, it isn't required to install any of the versions of Lc past 6.5 or so, possibly 6.6.x

Because of that, I just assumed Klaus would be around to blip that post out of the water :D

Your original post was before my time here, so I never saw it till now :wink:

You pretty much found out the main issues involved, if I had seen your post initially, I would have suggested launching Lc from the command line as a first diagnosis step. This usually tells you what Lc isn't seeing that it might need (gtk related things like theme compatibility and the such).

I've also found DMs and the different desktops hold some different behaviors on occaision. Slim and lightdm work well with *most* versions of Lc.

For Desktops, MATE, XFCE, Cinnamon, Gnome3, Fluxbox, IceWM also seem to do ok. I've never personally tested with KDE 4 or 5, but the Trinity desktop (KDE3) seems to work good with most of the newer versions.

There does seem to be more of a hit and miss to working with versions past 8.1.2 on distros outside of 'buntu, but I am not sure why that is yet.
wsamples wrote:
Tue Sep 06, 2016 5:35 am
I will try a a non KDE version to see how that runs, given the initial difficulty under KDE. I'll post below when I've done that.
I take it you never got that far eh? :D
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wsamples
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Re: Unsupported, but does it work? 2 Arch derivatives

Post by wsamples » Wed Nov 28, 2018 4:19 pm

bogs wrote:
Wed Nov 28, 2018 9:36 am
wsamples wrote:
Tue Sep 06, 2016 5:35 am
I will try a a non KDE version to see how that runs, given the initial difficulty under KDE. I'll post below when I've done that.
I take it you never got that far eh? :D
I noticed that, too and thought hmmmmm... I didn't do that... :roll: :oops: :lol:

My Manjaro VM was hosed during an update. This is ironic and, from what i read, not as uncommon as the Manjaro philosophy would lead you to anticipate. I deleted that machine and never went back. I did later switch from openSUSE to Antergos, though :D I dislike reading posts that feel like distro evangelism so I will leave it at that.

I haven't done one of these posts in a long time now. I don't know that they ever encouraged or helped anyone thinking about running Livecode on Linux. I suppose with the introduction of problematic window and palette interactions in the IDE under Plasma (in all distros) and Xfce in some distros, there might be some value in continuing.

eckhard
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Re: Unsupported, but does it work? 2 Arch derivatives

Post by eckhard » Wed Nov 28, 2018 6:25 pm

Yes, I am a real person.
Last time I installed LC in Linux Mint and it did not work fine.
Now I run Antergos and wanted to make sure to install LC the right way from the very start on.

So I read the Installation-Guide and saw something with "libgtk...".
That caused my question.

I now downloaded LC from the website.
Ist this the 64-version or do I find this somewhere else?

Best regards from Germany

Eckhard

wsamples
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Re: Unsupported, but does it work? 2 Arch derivatives

Post by wsamples » Wed Nov 28, 2018 7:21 pm

If you go to https://downloads.livecode.com/livecode/ you will see all downloads from version 4.5.0 of Livecode. The latest official stable version is 9.0.1, there is a "release-candidate" of 9.0.2 (rc2). 64-bit versions are listed as "Linux 64". "Community" is the open-source/free-beer version.

I'm not sure what to tell you about finding out the architecture of what you've already downloaded. A 32-bit version *might* not install or run on a 64-bit system.

bogs
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Re: Unsupported, but does it work? 2 Arch derivatives

Post by bogs » Wed Nov 28, 2018 9:55 pm

eckhard wrote:
Wed Nov 28, 2018 6:25 pm
Yes, I am a real person.
My apologies then, for my mistaken assumption.
eckhard wrote:
Wed Nov 28, 2018 6:25 pm
Ist this the 64-version or do I find this somewhere else?
The 32bit version will be named "LiveCodeCommunityInstaller-Version number-Linux.x86", where as the 64 bit version you most likely need would be named "LiveCodeCommunityInstaller-Version number-Linux.x64".

Libgtk are the libraries for gtk themes, but libgtk2.0-0:i386 is a much older version, where Lc is concerned I think only 2.2 to 6.x actually requires it. The :i386 indicates a 32 bit version of it, which if your running a 64 bit distro isn't going to need for sure. In any case, no version of Lc past 6.7.11 is going to require it, I am pretty sure that 7.x was a complete re-write.

At least you won't have to worry about that or making sure you have multi-arch going :)
wsamples wrote:
Wed Nov 28, 2018 4:19 pm
I suppose with the introduction of problematic window and palette interactions in the IDE under Plasma (in all distros) and Xfce in some distros, there might be some value in continuing.
I think there is always value in continuing, if for nothing other than to have something you yourself can look back on and say "Boy do I feel like a schmultz now!"
You know, like *I* now have with this remark -
I'm not sure eckhard is a real person
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wsamples wrote:
Wed Nov 28, 2018 4:19 pm
I dislike reading posts that feel like distro evangelism so I will leave it at that.
Me too, I thought everyone knew the only one true distro was Debian Sarge anyway :P
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