Public bug reported:
current lazarus package in ubuntu does not even start without errors
after installation. It is missing all *.lpk files in the all the
components source directories. If clicking "ignore" on all these errors
it will not be able to compile even the empty default project. And upon
exit it will notoriously try to write config files to /usr/lib/lazarus/
The main problem is not that this is an old version, even 0.9.30 would
work properly if everything were installed correctly and properly where
it belongs (like it would be when compiled and installed from upstream
release tarball). The problem is the packaging on Debian/Ubuntu seems to
be seriously messed up, it seems to have become a maintenance nightmare
with its overly complicated packaging and there also seems to be *zero*
communication between Debian maintainers and Upstream authors. For
example instead of rewriting the "make install" part of the makefile
completely from scratch (thereby forgetting to install essential files
where they belong, introducing new unnecessary bugs) it would have been
much better to contact the upstream authors, file bugs against the
original makefile, subscribe to the Lazarus mailinglist and *discuss*
these matters with the developers (yes, this needs more work and
dedication than just quickly slapping together a bunch of incomplete
debian packages in a day or two and then disappear and never care about
them again, not even test the final result before publishing. If it is
really necessary to rip apart a perfectly working software into a dozen
separate packages, if such a maintenance nightmare is really necessary
to be created for debian packaging then for a project of such
proportions it would be a *full-time* job to maintain it properly. Even
a simple one-package install needs a lot of work to get everything
perfectly right (I know it because I have done it), let alone the same
software split into a dozen of separate packages with ugly hacks to make
it even work that way. This simply cannot be done by a Debian maintainer
who has no primary interest in Lazarus and only does some part-time
packaging on demand but never actually uses this software himself.
Lazarus is such a wonderful piece of software, it is incredibly
powerful, stable, feature-rich and fully usable for many years now
already and the upstream authors put so much dedication and energy into
it but the broken Debian/Ubuntu repository versions totally ruin the
show *every single time*, it almost feels (this is no allegation, its
just how it feels) like someone would intentionally try to make a
perfectly working software look like it is totally unusable and broken,
this really hurts badly!
If a potential new user hears about Lazarus for the first time and then
wants to try it out and then naively does a
sudo apt-get install lazarus
then the worst possible accident that could ever happen has just
happened. I have seen it more than once. From this moment on we have
lost another potential user (or even potential new developer) who will
from then on claim that Lazarus is "buggy", "incomplete", "pre-alpha",
"maybe in another 10 years". This is really sad, its almost causing
physical pain to see such a wonderful software ruined so completely and
totally by wrong and broken packaging.
PS:
Please also forward this bug to the Debian bug tracker, I would have done it
myself but it looks like Debian bug tracker is a Debian-internal thing for
which some specialized software is needed, they do not even have a web
interface, probably this is to make it as hard as possible so they won't be
bothered too much with bug reports from mere mortals.
** Affects: lazarus (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1068109
Title:
lazarus does not install *.lpk files in components, IDE won't even
start without dozens of error messages
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