Hello gEDA users -- Announcing the gEDA CD distribution! This is a collection of gEDA tools bundled together on a CD with an Install Wizard which automates the installation process under Linux. If you're a hardware engineer who just wants an "insert CD and install" method to start using the powerful tools in the gEDA suite, this is it! The CD distribution is perfect for professional and business users of the gEDA suite! More detail about the CD is presented below.
I will send a free CD to the first five people who send me an email requesting a copy. Please e-mail me at sdb (AT) cloud9 (DOT) net, and let me know your street or delivery address. Sorry, but if you live outside of the USA I can't send you a free CD. [1] When I get five responses I will post to the geda-users list a message saying that I cannot accept more orders. [2] In exchange for a free CD, you must agree to test the installation on your machine *and* provide me with a test report (i.e. your distribution, GTK version, a logfile of the installation, whether the installation was successful or not, and how it suceeded/failed). This report will be beneficial to the entire gEDA community because it will help me iron out wrinkles in the installer, which will in turn enable more people to use this wonderful tool suite! Please direct all questions to me. Thanks for trying out the gEDA CD! Stuart sdb (AT) cloud9 (DOT) net [1] If you ask nicely, I can find out how much shipping costs to your country & will ship you a CD if you pre-pay my shipping and customs costs. [2] This assumes I get any responses at all . . . . . . :-) ================================================================== --------- Announcing the gEDA Suite on CD for Linux ------------ Announcing a CD distribution holding your favorite components of the gEDA suite, including: * gEDA/gaf * ngspice * PCB * gerbv * Icarus Verilog * GTKWave This distribution comes bundled with a GUI-based, self-contained, user-friendly installer which automates the installation process. It checks your system configuration, and installs various system utilities required by the gEDA Suite (e.g. guile, readline, pkg-config). The CD makes gEDA installation as easy as running the "Install Wizard" in Windows. -------- A gEDA distribution for the working engineer -------- The target audience for gEDA CD is professional hardware engineers who use Linux, and want to run the gEDA suite, but don't have the time, skills, or inclination to resolve the dependency problems sometimes associated with installing large software packages on Linux. If you have a Linux box, and just want to do hardware design, then this CD is for you [1]! If you're a teacher or professor who needs a license-hassle-free electronics design and simulation suite for your students, this is it! If you are a company which gives away -- or wants to give away -- gEDA software to your prospective customers as a way to get their business, then this CD is ideally suited to meet your needs [2]! -------- Supported Platforms and System Requirements ------------ The install CD has been tested and verified on the following platforms: * Fedora Core 1 * Red Hat 9 * SuSE 9.0 * Debian Unstable (recent version) The installer will fail on these platforms: * Red Hat 8 and below (binary incompatability in glibc) * Any distribution with glibc-2.XX System requirements for installer to run successfully: * gcc * glibc-2.3.2 or above * make * GTK+-2.2 or above Note: If the installer fails, you still have the ability to install the gEDA Suite manuallly since the source tarballs are included on the CD. ----------------------- How It Works ------------------------ The gEDA CD comes with source tarballs of the various components. When you start the CD (usually by inserting it into your CDROM reader), a friendly GUI starts up with guides you through the install process, while controlling the installation of packages behind the scenes. The installer first checks out your system and installs any required system pacakges (prompts for root password). Next it asks for your preferred source and install directories. Then, it untars each source tarball and & does "./configure && make && make install" for all the packages in the gEDA Suite. This way, the "configure" system expertly handles the difficult part of handling dependencies while building your gEDA distribution. The installer is designed to fail gracefully if a problem is encountered, and a log window shows the user what is going on at all times. If desired, the user can also create a logfile of all system messages generated during the installation process. ------------------------- Licensing ------------------------- All components of the gEDA Suite are licensed under an OSI-approved license (GPL or BSD). The installer is also licensed under the GPL. However, if you are a commercial organization who wants to redistribute the CD to your customers, I encourage you to contact me and arrange to receive "branded" CDs with a nice label rather than just copying the CD verbatim. Contact: Stuart Brorson -- sdb (AT) cloud9 (DOT) net. ------------------------- Footnotes ------------------------- [1] On the other hand, if you would rather spend your time customizing and recompiling your kernel, or upgrading your box to the latest, bleeding-edge "development" versions of gcc and glibc checked out of CVS, then this gEDA CD is probably uninteresting for you. Please carry on with your normal work life. :-) [2] Please contact me for more information about "branded" professional copies of the gEDA Suite CD. Contact: Stuart Brorson -- sdb (AT) cloud9 (DOT) net.
