LinuxInstall

Linux Installation

libzip

Previous versions of XTrackCAD were dynamically linked with libzip4.
Newer versions (>= 5.2.1) are statically linked with libzip4 so the dependency on the libzip4 dynamic library has been removed.

Prerequisites

Download

XTrackCad is available as three packages: Fedora RPM, Debian/Ubuntu DEB and a generic archive shell script. In some releases, a flatpak may also be available.

All three are available from SourceForge

See #%this page: [DownloadInstall]#% for download instructions.

General Install Notes

For the Debian and RPM packages, the program will be installed in a fixed location.
For the General Availability (GA) release, the program will be installed in /usr.
For the Beta release, the program will be installed in /usr/local.

If installing a flatpak, see [Flatpak] wiki for notes.

For the generic archive, normal users can install this anywhere they have write access.

Be aware that you don't invoke any other existing XTrackCAD installation when running the program.

As of V5.2, webkitgtk is not used for displaying help. Instead your system browser will be used.

Note: In the notes below, ${VERSION} should be replaced by your current version.

Debian Install

There a variety of methods to install XTrkCad once you have downloaded the .deb file

Graphical Installer

Double click on the downloaded .deb file from the Files app to invoke the system Software Installer. But see below.

Ubuntu 20.04 Issues

Note: newer versions of Ubuntu (20.04) may have installation issues:

Installer Issues

In some cases the default handler for .deb files is the Archive Manager instead of the Software Installer. In which case right click on the the .deb, choose 'Properties', then choose the 'Open with' tab. and select 'GDebi Package installer'. You may need to install gdebi first.

Command line install

From the command line:

sudo gdebi xtrkcad-setup-${VERSION}_x86_64.deb

Installing using gdebi can result in the warning

/usr/bin/gdebi:113: FutureWarning: Possible nested set at position 1
c = findall("[(/\S+[])]", msg)[0].lower()

This is a fault with gdebi. Respond with Y when prompted if you want to continue.
See https://askubuntu.com/questions/1150864/future-warning-with-gdebi-while-installing-some-packages

Installing with dpkg

If all else fails, try this from a command window

sudo dpkg -i xtrkcad-setup-${VERSION}.x86_64.deb
sudo apt-get -f install

RPM Install

Double click on the downloaded .rpm file.

You may see a pause of 25 seconds when starting XTrackCAD.
If so, please upgrade to Fedora-33.

Generic Archive Install

After downloading open a terminal and run

./xtrkcad-setup-${VERSION}.x86_64.sh

You may append > --prefix=some/directory
to install in some other, existing directory.
This will install the executable in either
* the current directory
* a new subdirectory named xtrkcad-setup-${VERSION}.x86_64
* the directory specified by --prefix

$ xtrkcad-setup-${VERSION}.x86_64.sh
By default the XTrackCAD will be installed in:
"/home/dave/xtc-install/xtrkcad-setup-5.2.0GA-1.x86_64"
Do you want to include the subdirectory xtrkcad-setup-5.2.0GA-1.x86_64?
Saying no will install in: "/home/dave/xtc-install" [Yn]:

You will need to be super-user to install to the default directory (/usr for GA and /usr/local for BETA).
Otherwise you will need to set the environment variable XTRKCADLIB to the installed share/xtrkcad directory.

$ export XTRKCADLIB=~/xtc-install/share/xtrkcad
$ bin/xtrkcad

The self-extracting archive expects bash as a shell. So if you get an error message saying ##sh: command not found## try the following command

sudo bash ./xtrkcad-setup-${VERSION}.x86_64.sh --prefix=/usr/local --exclude-subdir

The script uses more to display the GPL. On some systems less is used instead. If you see

(END)

after the GPL, then type q to continue installation.

System Menu Integration and File Association

New in V5.2.1
If you installed XTrackCAD on Ubuntu/Debian from the command line using dpkg or gdebi, then file associations and menu intergration will be done. These include
* XTrackCAD will be the handler for .xtc files
* file icon for .xtc files
* desktop short cut
* menu item added to Graphic sub-menu
When you double click on the desktop icon, you may encounter a message that "xtrkcad.desktop has not been marked as trusted".
If so, right click on the desktop icon, select "Properties" and then the "Permissions" tab, and then check "Allow executing file as program". Or run the "chmod" command as described below.

If you installed using other methods (including graphical installers) the above will not be done.
You can perform this step manually by running the following from a command window as a normal user (not root)

${INSTALLDIR}/xtrkcad-setup install ${INSTALLDIR}
chmod +x ~/Desktop/xtrkcad.desktop

where INSTALLDIR is the XTrackCAD installation directory (usually /usr/share/xtrkcad).

XTrackCAD will be added to the system menu (see alacarte).

The XTrackCad icon may not be added to your desktop, depending on your window manager (lightdm no, gdm3 yes). On some systems you may be able to add the XTrackCad application to your Favorite list.

You may need to restart your file browser to enable File Association (double clicking a .xtc file). Also, the general Text File Icon may be displayed instead of the XTrackCAD* File Icon.

Beta Release Changes

New in V5.3.0Beta1
In order for the Beta and GA releases to co-extist, the name XTrackCAD has been changed to xtrkcad-beta:
* executable is /usr/local/bin/xtrkcad-beta
* install directory is /usr/local/share/xtrkcad-beta
* working directory is $(HOME)/.xtrkcad-beta
* file association for .xtc files is xtrkcad-beta
* the desktop icon is renamed to XTrackCAD-Beta and invokes xtrkcad-beta
The last two changes can be undone by running xtrkcad-setup as described above.

To restore the last two changes run

/usr/local/share/xtrkcad-beta/xtrkcad-setup install /usr/local/share/xtrkcad-beta

xtrkcad-beta requires at least Ubuntu-20.04 or equivalent.

Startup Warnings

If you are running from the command line, you might notice a warning:

Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

This can be removed by

apt install libcanberra-gtk-module libcanberra-gtk3-module -y

Removing XTrkCAD

If XTrkCAD was installed using a package management command such as apt, gdebi or yum then that (or related) command can be used to remove XTrkCAD.

If you used the generic archive, then you can remove the executable binary and the install directories from where ever you specified during the install. You can also remove the working directory and any .xtc or .xti files.

The command

which xtrkcad
or
which xtrkcad-beta

will help locate the installation

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