Debian on BlocNotes

How to compile KiCad 5.1.x for Debian 10

Tue, 13 Aug 2019 19:39:24 +0000

I was looking to use InteractiveHtmlBom plugin for KiCad but unfortunately, Debian maintainers did not set KICAD_SCRIPTING option in the official package. After a few failing attempts I even tested the official flatpak package but it is an old version (currently 4.x) and scripting is not enabled too.

So I dug further until it actually succeeds to compile :-)

Pellet stove

Here is the thing: KiCad official documentation still recommend packages for python2, and v5.1.4 is not compatible with new versions of libglm-dev if compiled with GCC; this is now fixed in master. So the commands I used are:

# From http://kicad-pcb.org/download/debian/ without Python2 packages
apt install cmake doxygen libboost-context-dev \
  libboost-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-test-dev \
  libcairo2-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libgl1-mesa-dev \
  libglew-dev libglm-dev libngspice-dev \
  liboce-foundation-dev liboce-ocaf-dev libssl-dev \
  libwxbase3.0-dev libwxgtk3.0-dev swig wx-common

# Add Debian Buster/Python3 required packages
apt install python3-wxgtk4.0 libwxgtk3.0-gtk3-dev \
  libboost-filesystem-dev python3-dev

# Add KiCad libraries
apt install kicad-libraries kicad-packages3d --no-install-recommends

# Downgrade libdlm-dev - For 5.1.4 or older only
apt remove libglm-dev
wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/glm/libglm-dev_0.9.8.3-3_all.deb
dpkg -i libglm-dev_0.9.8.3-3_all.deb

# Clone and build KiCad
git clone https://git.launchpad.net/kicad
mkdir -p kicad/build/release
cd kicad/build/release
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON \
  -DwxWidgets_CONFIG_OPTIONS="--toolkit=gtk3" \
  -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON \
  -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=ON \
  -DwxWidgets_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE='/usr/bin/wx-config' \
  ../..
make -j
make install

Now you can use InteractiveHtmlBom which is really pleasant for big boards!

Thinkpad T440p & fingerprint sensor under Linux

Fri, 10 May 2019 18:38:19 +0000

There are a lot of pages stating that the Thinkpad T440p fingerprint sensor is not working well under Linux, but those are old and outdated. For me it worked well after figured out which packets to install:

apt-get install libfprint fprintd libfprintd

The package fprint-demo can also be installed to play with the sensor.

Then to enable login with the sensor in Gnome3, navigate to

Users
Select Enable
Enroll you finger.

Tested under Debian Buster Buster, fingerprint sensor model is vfs5011.

Linux/Gnome - Associate an application with a filetype

Fri, 05 Jan 2018 20:36:57 +0000

I lost some time figuring out how to associate “.stl” extensions with Slic3r. Gnome wrote a good documentation but it is not obvious to find. I did not use the package manager for that because I wanted the up to date AppImage.

Create /usr/share/mime/packages/slic3r.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<mime-info xmlns='http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info'>
  <mime-type type="application/octet-stream">
    <glob pattern="*.stl"/>
  </mime-type>
</mime-info>

Create /usr/share/applications/slic3r.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Slic3r
Icon=/opt/AppImages/icons/Slic3r.ico
Exec=Slic3r
Path=/opt/AppImages/
NoDisplay=false
Categories=3DGraphics;Utility;
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
MimeType=application/octet-stream