Feb 25, 2012

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64bit will make the life easier to Linux CAD users and vendors

As you probably already know all the .dwg-based Linux CAD are 32bit only and their installation on 64bit Ubuntu systems is currently painful. But this will  change soon...
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will come with working multiarch support which will make the installation of these packages easier. This feature also makes the life of Linux CAD vendors easier because they don't have to make different packages of their programs and post some specific installation instructions for 64bit systems.
I have tested the installation of Bricscad V12 on Ubuntu 12.04  LTS Alpha 2 64bit. The only problem I experienced was that I had to install manually ia32-libs in order to get Bricscad to look pretty. Without this package Bricscad worked but looked ugly.




P.S. DraftSight still needs a more tricky installation due to bad packaging but definitely  less painful than Ubuntu 11.10.

7 comments:

  1. About your P.S. (DraftSight install on Precise 64-Bit), would you have some pointers? There's a guy on the ubuntu-fr (french) forum who seems to have trouble, but I haven't installed 12.04 yet.

    Thanks!

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  2. The current Draftsight still needs some tricks on Precise 64bit but it is installable.
    You have to follow the same workaround as 11.10 or a differrent that doesn't skip dpkg.
    You have to modify the control file of draftsight.deb. On a terminal:
    ar x draftsight.deb control.tar.gz
    Then extract the control.tar.gz and edit the control script with gedit. you have to erase the dependency libdirectfb-extra. Save the file and recreate the control.tar.gz archive.
    Then put it back inside the draftsight.deb
    ar r draftsight.deb control.tar.gz
    Then you can install draftsight.deb with gdebi
    Also you have to install manually libdirectfb-extra and ia32-libs to make it work.
    I'm currently away from my desktop for some days. I will post detailed instructions as soon as possible.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's ok, I remember that I once found that method on Facebook (of all sites!) and posted it in ubuntuforums.org, I'll see if I can locate it again.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi, Bricscadv12 on Ubuntu 12.04 64bit installed with force architecture but refuses to run. I opened synaptic and tried to install ia32 libs but I was warned that Ubuntu desktop would be removed. I don't know what to try next. I would use draftsight but it has no support for AutoLISP and it is much needed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Remove Bricscad and install it again via Gdebi.
      If the problem exists try to open Bricscad via terminal and see any possible errors.
      After that try again to install ia32-libs. If you get the same dependency problem try to install ia32-libs-multiarch. It's actually the same package.

      Delete
  5. what about bricscad on ubuntu 12.10? When i install it it is ok. But when i run it and click for a line the programm closes. What causes this problem?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bricscad currently doesn't coorporate well with the version of a shared library that is included on Ubuntu 12.10.
      This problem affects both 32bit and 64bit versions of Ubuntu 12.10.
      I believe that a solution is possible. I will write a new post with the description of the solution after some testing.(Probably during the next week)

      Delete