different versions of same package, kicad

bai4Iej2need · 2025-09-17 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 · 2025-09-17 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 · 2025-09-17 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 (2025-09-17 12:10:04)

bai4Iej2need · 2025-09-17 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 · 2025-09-17 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 · 2025-09-17 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 · 2025-09-17 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 (Yesterday 01:43:25)

igorzwx · Yesterday 13:34:16

If you cannot compile, you may try Ubuntu debs from PPA
_https://launchpad.net/~kicad/+archive/ubuntu/kicad-9.0-releases

DEBs:
_https://launchpad.net/~kicad/+archive/ubuntu/kicad-9.0-releases/+packages
_https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/kicad/kicad-9.0-releases/ubuntu/pool/main/k/
_https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/kicad/kicad-9.0-releases/ubuntu/pool/main/k/kicad/kicad_9.0.3-0~ubuntu24.10.1_amd64.deb

Deb packages can be repacked and renamed without compilation.

You may also try to compile:

$ dget --extract --allow-unauthenticated https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+sourcefiles/kicad/9.0.3+dfsg-1/kicad_9.0.3+dfsg-1.dsc
dget: retrieving https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+sourcefiles/kicad/9.0.3+dfsg-1/kicad_9.0.3+dfsg-1.dsc
...
dpkg-source: info: extracting kicad in kicad-9.0.3+dfsg
dpkg-source: info: unpacking kicad_9.0.3+dfsg.orig.tar.xz
dpkg-source: info: unpacking kicad_9.0.3+dfsg.orig-doc.tar.xz
dpkg-source: info: unpacking kicad_9.0.3+dfsg-1.debian.tar.xz
dpkg-source: info: using patch list from debian/patches/series
dpkg-source: info: applying fixes/Adjusting-content-in-the-desktop-files.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying reproducibility/doc-Add-field-revdate-to-asciidoc-files.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying debian-hacks/KiCadFullVersion-Drop-hyphen-in-the-string.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying fixes/demos-Adjust-MIME-encoding-to-UTF8-of-some-libraries.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying fixes/python-Use-raw-strings-expressions.patch

$ ls -1
kicad-9.0.3+dfsg
kicad_9.0.3+dfsg-1.debian.tar.xz
kicad_9.0.3+dfsg-1.dsc
kicad_9.0.3+dfsg.orig-doc.tar.xz
kicad_9.0.3+dfsg.orig.tar.xz

Read the Build-Deps:

cat kicad-9.0.3+dfsg/debian/control

Install the Build-Deps

Rename the package (in debian/control)

Rename the binary

$ cat kicad-9.0.3+dfsg/CMakeLists.txt | grep project\(
project( kicad )

cd to SourceDir

cd kicad-9.0.3+dfsg

And compile it with

dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b

You may also want to read the manual:
_https://wiki.debian.org/CreatePackageFromPPA

Last edited by igorzwx (Yesterday 21:25:46)

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#1 2025-09-17 10:51:01

different versions of same package, kicad

#2 2025-09-17 11:35:47

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

#3 2025-09-17 12:04:40

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

#4 2025-09-17 16:03:12

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

#5 2025-09-17 16:16:52

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

#6 2025-09-17 17:12:05

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

#7 2025-09-17 20:27:17

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

#8 Yesterday 13:34:16

Re: different versions of same package, kicad

Board footer