Hi! I saw a couple of threads around asking about spftware for engineers. And I was lucky enough to discover how to install Piklab in a very simple way. Piklab is a neat software for working with Microchip's PIC and dsPic microcontrollers. It's based here:
http://piklab.sourceforge.net/
So... the easy way (compiling it under Ubuntu is rather complicated, since it is created for KDE and compilation needs many dev packages, which for me were just too many to install) is to just alien-ate an rpm and then make the necessary adjustments. But... enough blah-blah.
1. Download the binary rpm from
http://puzzle.dl.sourceforge.net/sou...-1mdk.i586.rpm
2. Go to the download directory.
Code:
cd <directory where you downloaded the package>
3. (Only where needed) Install alien, to convert rpm to deb
Code:
sudo apt-get install alien
4. Alien-ate the rpm:
Code:
sudo alien piklab-0.3.2-1mdk.i586.rpm
5.Install the resulting deb package:
Code:
sudo dpkg -i piklab_0.3.2-2_i386.deb
6. Now this was about installing the package, but it ain't over yet. It needs a couple of dependencies which it won't show at install-time. So...
Code:
sudo apt-get install gputils libpcre3
(If you have ANY kde app installed it is quite likely you will also have libpcre, so maybe you want to check it out before installing, although I think apt-get skips it anyway if it is already installed and goes on to the missing packages).
7. And last step... Make Piklab find libraries it needs
Code:
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libpcreposix.so.3.12.0 /usr/lib/libpcreposix.so.0
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libpcre.so.3.12.0 /usr/lib/libpcre.so.0
8. That's it! Now, just run
and you're good to go. Oh! It also needs libusb, but it's highly unlikely you don't have it installed, since even hal depends on it.
I must admit I didn't get the chance to really try it out yet, because my hardware setup isn't done yet, for working with dsPic. But maybe someone will tell me how that works out before I get to test it.
Info: This installation wasn't made on a clean install of Ubuntu (I am using Breezy now, but this should apply to other versions too) so there might be packages on my system which piklab uses without my knowing about it. If you run into any problems please post them here. If you have a solution, all the better, otherwise we can find one together and then improve the howto.
I am open to any kind of feedback and/or suggestions.
Enjoy!
EDIT may 6th 2006: some corrections. Thanks egghead3 for pointing them out!
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