different versions of same package, kicad

bai4Iej2need · Yesterday 10:51:01

I happened to visit KICON 2025 Europe, because of using KiCad software.
The training used Version 9 so I installed from Backports.

dpkg -l kicad
ii  kicad          9.0.3+dfsg-1~bpo12+1 amd64        Electronic schematic and PCB design software

This removed

zgrep -i kicad dpkg.log.2.gz 
...
2025-07-09 10:35:09 remove kicad-packages3d:all 6.0.10-1
...

In the KiCad training I learnt, that other operating systems support different versions of the same Software on the same host.
That will be needed to maintain older pcb Hardware.
Under debian the new versions kick out the old versions.
The debian maintainer answered, that he does not intend to change this behavior.
Commercial use with debian/devuan is such not possible. You do not want to migrate old projects forcefully to new versions, for small changes in a maintenance phase. Migration is not backwards compatible.

KiCad supports flatpak officially but only a "stable" version, which is changing every year.

What can be done ?

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · Yesterday 11:35:47

found a few articles/commentaries/guides/etc but haven't read them yet:
(providing them here for the convenience of all)

https://www.kicad.org/download/linux/

https://linuxvox.com/blog/kicad-linux/

rolfie · Yesterday 12:04:40

bai4Iej2need wrote:

That will be needed to maintain older pcb Hardware.
Under debian the new versions kick out the old versions.
The debian maintainer answered, that he does not intend to change this behavior.
Commercial use with debian/devuan is such not possible. You do not want to migrate old projects forcefully to new versions, for small changes in a maintenance phase. Migration is not backwards compatible.

I think all Linux distributions will do the same: kick out the old versions.

The kicad documentation states that a project once modified can no more be read by an older version of kicad. But does that mean the design data is screwed up?

If you are very conservative and precautios, make up a VM with the older kicad version.

Anyhow: on the kicad home page I can't find any support for downloading older versions either.

Last edited by rolfie (Yesterday 12:10:04)

bai4Iej2need · Yesterday 16:03:12

The kicad documentation states that a project once modified can no more be read by an older version of kicad. But does that mean the design data is screwed up?

Definitely yes as said by trainer. Killer.

Anyhow: on the kicad home page I can't find any support for downloading older versions either.

So do I, asking with the KiCad people right now.
Flatpak support is stated below on their website, a new field of distraction.

greenjeans · Yesterday 16:16:52

You might be better off trying an appimage, a quick search shows them available in kicad versions 6,7,8, and 9.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/kicad-appimage/files/

https://github.com/CyberCircuits/kicad-appimage

RedGreen925 · Yesterday 17:12:05

Either the appimage as mentioned or compiling your own version using perhaps /usr/local/bin as the place for the binary and an edit possibly of the make file to change the binary name to something like kicad7 for version7 for the new name to prevent confusion in running it.

igorzwx · Yesterday 20:27:17

/usr/local/bin is the standard solution.

cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local  < + other options: -S (sourcedir), etc.>

However, debhelper (Devuan) does not permit /usr/local/bin (though there might be a "secret option").
In any case, it is much easier to package it manually, or with CPack .
You may want to rename the deb package, and ProjectName

project( ) is inside CMakeLists.txt

To compile it, you need cmake and ninja

Portable CMake is available here:
_https://github.com/Kitware/CMake
Portable Ninja is available here:
_https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja

PKGBUILD:
build() {
  cmake \
    -B build \
    -S "$pkgname" \
    -G Ninja \
    -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
    -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr \
    -D KICAD_USE_EGL=ON \
    -D KICAD_USE_BUNDLED_GLEW=OFF \
    -D KICAD_BUILD_I18N=ON \
    -D KICAD_I18N_UNIX_STRICT_PATH=ON \
    -D KICAD_BUILD_QA_TESTS=OFF \
    -D KICAD_USE_CMAKE_FINDPROTOBUF=0 \
    -W no-dev

  cmake --build build
}

package() {
  DESTDIR="$pkgdir" cmake --install build

  strip "$STRIP_SHARED" "${pkgdir}"/usr/lib/python*/site-packages/_pcbnew.so
}
_https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/kicad/
_https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/kicad
_https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/kicad/-/blob/main/PKGBUILD?ref_type=heads

EXAMPLE for cmake+ninja
_https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=7175

Last edited by igorzwx (Today 01:43:25)

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#1 Yesterday 10:51:01

different versions of same package, kicad

#2 Yesterday 11:35:47

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

#3 Yesterday 12:04:40

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

#4 Yesterday 16:03:12

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

#5 Yesterday 16:16:52

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

#6 Yesterday 17:12:05

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

#7 Yesterday 20:27:17

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

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