Running KiCad 4.0.0 on Ubuntu 12.04

[anachrocomputer]

I'm currently running an older version of KiCad on my Linux machine, which runs 12.04. It's a long-term support version of Ubuntu, but not the very latest one (that's 14.04 LTS). I have read about the PPA for installing KiCad on Ubuntu, but as far as I can see, that only supports 14.04 and newer versions. I'd like to upgrade to the latest version 4 KiCad.

Is there any way to get a pre-compiled package for Kicad 4 on Ubuntu 12.04? Or do I need to compile from source code? And if I try the latter, will it work? has anyone done this?

[con-f-use]

Launchpad lists a version from this month for 12.04.



ou should be able to install the .deb via SoftwareCenter. If that doesn't work try:

Code: [Select]

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:js-reynaud/kicad-package-daily-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kicad
After you enable backports in general and add those listed on the site liked above under "Dependencies".

[anachrocomputer]

Thanks for a detailed answer! I set up the PPA and sure enough, I was able to apt-get a newer version. But it was dated July 2014, not December 2015. That .deb file looks like it's for AMD64, is that right? I'm running a 32-bit Linux installation here. I wonder if the newest KiCad for 32-bit is in fact the one I got, and the version for 12.04 from recently is 64-bit-only?

[con-f-use]

.deb files for 32bit systems

On processors that are not more than 5-10 years, you should use 64bits.