[Qgis-developer] Compiling QGIS on Debian Etch (testing-release)

[Peter Ersts]

Thank you for the helpful responses to my initial questions regarding 
plugin development.

Before diving into trying to develop a plugin, I thought I would try to 
download and compile the most recent version of QGIS. I had some initial 
trouble compiling QGIS on an older Debian box because of some GDAL 
library conflicts with OpenEV. It was just a simple matter of modifying 
the makefiles but I was unable to find a way to resolve the conflict 
from the initial step using autogen.sh, so I chose to try a fresh 
install of Debian on another box. Additionally, libgeos-dev was 
initially missing and not explicitly mentioned in any of the build 
instructions for Linux, though references to GEOS are in the OSX and 
Windows build instructions. Once everything was in place the compilation 
went beautifully and with out a hitch.

So I thought I would share the steps I took for compiling QGIS on a 
fresh install of Debian Etch, testing release, just using packages and 
libraries downloaded and installed with apt-get.

Great job on the newest version!

-pete


=========

1) Download the GUI installer iso from 
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/GUI and burn to CD.  **For this 
install I used the mini.ios (Intelx86) image which is only 9.2 megabytes.

2) Boot from the CD.

3) Follow the instructions for installing the Debian Etch (testing 
release) desktop environment and standard system, which are the default 
components to be installed. **This is a network install and I would not 
recommend it for people with low bandwidth.

4) Login as a normal user and open a Terminal window.

5) In the Terminal window, become the superuser by typing:
        su root

6) Add your normal user to the sudoers list using:
        visudo

7) Exit from superuser account.

8) Install the necessary packages using the following commands;
        sudo apt-get install subversion automake1.9 libtool 
libsqlite3-dev libgsl0-dev
        sudo apt-get install postgresql
        sudo apt-get install grass libgrass libgrass-dev libgeos-dev
        sudo apt-get install gdal-bin libgdal1-1.3.1-dev
        sudo apt-get install qt4-designer qt4-dev-tools

9) Update the system database
        sudo updatedb

10) Open a new Terminal window.

11) In the new terminal window, make a development directory for your 
normal user:
        mkdir devel

12)  Enter the development directory and download the most recent 
version of QGIS
        cd devel
        svn co https://svn.qgis.org/repos/qgis/trunk/qgis qgis-unstable

13) Enter the source directory and run autgen.sh.
        cd qgis-unstable
        ./autogen.sh --with-qtdir=/usr/share/qt4 --with-grass=/usr/lib/grass

14) If all of the packages are found simply type make to start compiling 
QGIS
==========================================
qgis 0.8.0
------------------------------------------
GDAL/OGR       : yes (Version 1.3.1)
GEOS                :yes (Version 2.1.4)
PostgreSQL       : yes (Version 8.1.0)
GRASS             : yes
SPIT                  : yes
Georeferencer     : yes
GPS/GPX           : yes
PROJ4               : yes
SQLITE3           : yes
Python                : no

Debug         : no
Plugin dir    : ${exec_prefix}/lib/qgis

The binary will be installed in /usr/bin

The build is using Qt in /usr/share/qt4
Linking with Qt using -lQtCore -lQt3Support -lQtGui -lQtNetwork -lQtSvg 
-lQtCore -lQt3Support -lQtGui -lQtNetwork -lQtXml -lQtSvg -lQtTest 
-lQtDesigner
------------------------------------------
Configure finished, type 'make' to build.
pete at mwavi:~/devel/Qgis/qgis-unstable$
 
15) Once the compilation is complete, install QGIS
        sudo make install

16) This is it!

**Note additional configuration may be necessary to get PostgreSQL and 
other system component running properly and securely. Additional 
packages may need to be installed if you choose to develop plugins using 
KDevelop or anyother IDE.


-- 
====================================
Peter J. Ersts, Project Specialist
American Museum of Natural History
Center for Biodiversity and Conservation
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, New York 10024
Tel: (212)-496-3488 or (212)-769-5742
Fax: (212)-313-7295 or (212)-769-5292
Web: http://cbc.amnh.org

Visit the Indo-South Atlantic Consortium on Humpback Whales 
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