[SOLVED] About required versions of GTK+

GTrax · 04-13-2019, 05:03 PM

Frustrating for one who usually hopes to get away with ..

Code:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

If there is a stumble on the way, it is usually because of some missing program, or perhaps the <program_name>-dev version that is needed. Easy enough to use apt-get or Synaptic to get it, and try again.
Hopefully not much more than that, because I am an older guy who is not really a programmer.
This time, I get a confusing situation..

Code:

checking for GTK... no
configure: error: GTK+ 2.24.0 or later is required.

OK then - but when we search in Synaptic, there are many programs installed that clearly do use GTK+, and versions of GTK3 also, but no actual name that seems to be explicitly a GTK install package. I look also among those beginning "libgtk.."
It has to be there somewhere, but there is no sign of what it actually takes to make that message go away.

My system is Linux Mint 19.1 (Tessa) which uses Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver)
I had thought that there would be something in the repository that would be the right thing, and I am convinced that various programs that need GTK are already installed.

Do I really have to fetch a GTK<some_version> source and compile it first?
Before I go there, I ask - what exactly does one do to verify what GTK exists, and what exactly does one do fix it in a Ubuntu-type distro so that a ./configure script will find it?
Thanks if you can help.

hydrurga · 04-13-2019, 05:27 PM

Which software are you trying to build?

GTrax · 04-13-2019, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hydrurga

Which software are you trying to build?

hydrurga: Thanks for the reply.
The package is called "lepton-eda", which is an electronics design suite.
I fetched it from this site -> https://github.com/lepton-eda/lepton-eda

In the last few hour, I risked all in ignoring whatever GTK configurations existed, and I fetched the GTK 2.24.32 version which qualifies.
I compiled it, and installed it. It all went smoothly.
Then I tried again with the lepton-eda install.
This time, the response was different.
No longer did it require a --disable-lua option. Instead, ./configure ran to completion.
We are not out of trouble yet! The attempt to run "make" crashed out.

Code:

graham@box1 $ make
make: *** No rule to make target 'version.h', needed by 'all'. Stop.
graham@box1 $

Eventually I will discover what new fumble this is.
The original question stands, however. I do not understand how something so central to so many programs, maybe even the Mate desktop itself, can have an un-findable GTK package. Can several different releases of GTK co-exist separately? Is there no conflict over "backward compatibility"? If several are present, does the "latest" version get to be the one invoked?

Of course, my new situation (cannot get "make" to find a version.h) is now a different question, no longer on topic.
I will try and resolve it separately before asking again.

dugan · 04-13-2019, 07:18 PM

The package you needed was "libgtk2.0-dev".

hydrurga · 04-13-2019, 09:23 PM

The Gtk+ libraries and code required to run Gtk+ applications, present by default on e.g. Mint, are not necessarily those which are required to compile GTk+ support into an application in order to create executables (but which are usually present in the repos).

I wouldn't advise installing versions of Gtk+ into Mint that are different from those supplied with the distro or in the repos.

ehartman · 04-13-2019, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTrax

The original question stands, however. I do not understand how something so central to so many programs, maybe even the Mate desktop itself, can have an un-findable GTK package. Can several different releases of GTK co-exist separately?

Yes, the three major versions of GTK+ (1.2, 2.0 and 3) are INcompatible with each other and can co-exist on the same system; they use separate symbolic links

Code:

libgtk-1.2.so.0 -> libgtk-1.2.so.0.9.1
libgtk-x11-2.0.so -> libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.20
libgtk-3.so -> libgtk-3.so.0.800.2

The application will normally be linked to the filename at the left (so with the 1.2, 2.0 or 3 in its name, but not the specific version).

GTrax · 04-14-2019, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ehartman

Yes, the three major versions of GTK+ (1.2, 2.0 and 3) are INcompatible with each other and can co-exist on the same system; they use separate symbolic links

Code:

libgtk-1.2.so.0 -> libgtk-1.2.so.0.9.1
libgtk-x11-2.0.so -> libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.2400.20
libgtk-3.so -> libgtk-3.so.0.800.2

The application will normally be linked to the filename at the left (so with the 1.2, 2.0 or 3 in its name, but not the specific version).

Thanks so much. The libgtk2.0 was present. It was the one with "-dev" in the name that was needed. Thanks also to dugan

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

The package you needed was "libgtk2.0-dev".

It installs version 2.24.32, which is exactly the version I took the risk in compiling for myself.

hydruga rightly warns against installing versions of software different to those in the repos, but in this case, the version number is identical. We trust that "sudo make install" invokes processes that are smart enough to discover the libraries are already there, or cleanly overwrite them. I am all too aware of how rapidly I can make a mess when I start using "sudo" and "install" in the same typed line!

hazel · 04-14-2019, 10:59 AM

Any warnings you get about missing libraries at the configure stage are always really about the development package that goes with the library. This is the package that contains the library headers and it is the only thing configure scripts check for. Most distros separate the headers from the runtime libraries because you only need the headers for building software, not for running it.