[Qgis-developer] Some errata on linux installations of qgis

[mccue at acm.caltech.edu]

Developers:

  Several problems  are  disussed here, with the plugins and compiling
from source.  I would classify these problems as "errata", since there
are work  arounds, but since I've spent some time on these I thought I
would share my experience.  Since everything is changing so rapidly on
qgis it probably isn't worthwhile dealing with these at the moment.

  I'm  not really a systems person  but I've been playing around  with
qgis installation the last few days, trying to make plugins work (I am
using  the  newlayer plugin from the  recent workshop).   I  have four
different configurations I am using, arranged as:

          Packages   Source   Version     File version gotten from
  Debian    I          II     lenny/sid     /etc/debian_version
  Ubuntu    III        IV     4.0           /etc/debian_version

(the source is the trunc on svn).  On all these combinations,

  % python /usr/local/share/qgis/python/plugins/new_layer/__init__.py

  runs fine (at least, $? returns 0 and there are no error messages).

as does
  /home/mccue/dev/cpp/share/qgis/python/plugins/new_layer/__init__.py

when I use it for qgis built from source.  This plugin seems to  work,
except  in  case (III),  I  get error  messages in  a separate  window
(labelled "Error"), of the form:

  Couldn't load plugin "newlayer"

  Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "", line 2, in
  ImportError: No module named newlayer

The plugin manager now reports this plugin as __error__
  __error__ appears in the name field on the plugin manager (also in
  the version and description fields)

Packages

Debian (lenny/sid)|qgis from package (I)

  This was installed by a system administrator.

Debian (lenny/sid)|qgis from source (II)

  This install went smoothly--the flag

     cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${HOME}/dev/cpp/ ..

  is needed.

Ubuntu (4.0)|qgis from package (III)

    While  trying to install quantum from  source  I used the  following
  commands   listed  on   http://www.perrygeo.net/wordpress/?cat=2.

  sudo apt-get -y install qgis grass qgis-plugin-grass mapserver-bin gdal-bin
  cgi-python-qt4 python-sip4 python-gdal python-mapscript gmt   \
  gmt-coastline-data r-recommended gpsbabel shapelib libgdal1-1.4.0-grass

  Then has perrygeo suggest, I did

  http://qgis.org/uploadfiles/testbuilds/qgis0.9.0.debs_ubuntu_gutsy.tar.gz

  and run through a few .deb dpkg installations (see perrygeo for details).

  This  worked  (I had to do some tweaking--I  think  libgdal1-1.3.2 was
  what was available so I used it).  I don't know whether these commands
  are available on your website (your wiki  for installation didn't have
  it--I can't check now because the wiki is down).

  This gives me 0.9 of qgis

Ubuntu (4.0)|qgis from source (III)

  Now  I  do  a svn  checkout  and  have  the  following  problems  in
  compiling/installing 0.9.1.  Once again the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX is
  needed

     cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${HOME}/dev/cpp/ ..

cmake/Python.cmake needs to be modified:

Change

#TRY_RUN_PYTHON (RES
#  "import PyQt4.pyqtconfig\nprint PyQt4.pyqtconfig._pkg_config['pyqt_sip_dir']"
#     PYQT_SIP_DIR)

to
TRY_RUN_PYTHON (RES
"import PyQt4.pyqtconfig_nd\nprint PyQt4.pyqtconfig_nd._pkg_config['pyqt_sip_dir
PYQT_SIP_DIR)

since

  PyQt4.pyqtconfig._pkg_config['pyqt_sip_dir']

    doesn't work (PyQt4.pyqtconfig doesn't have _pkg_config) and

  PyQt4.pyqtconfig_nd._pkg_config['pyqt_sip_dir']

    does (PyQt4.pyqtconfig_nd has _pkg_conifg)

  With this change make goes all the way through.  Now, on make install

  BINDINGS_GLOBAL_INSTALL

    had to be set to make the installation work

  Then make install died with this error

  CMake Error: Error in cmake code at
  /home/mccue/dev/cpp/qgis/cmake_install.cmake:50:
  FILE Internal CMake error when trying to open file:
     /home/mccue/dev/cpp/qgis/install_manifest.txt for writing.
  Current CMake stack: /home/mccue/dev/cpp/qgis/cmake_install.cmake
  make: *** [install] Error 255

  But  looking  at  the  cmake_install.cmake  it  seems  that  all the
  installation was  done  before this error was hit, and qgis seems to
  work

                                   Ken McCue
                                   Research Scientist
                                   California Institute of Technology