Author Topic: Building software, a bit of a newb question  (Read 4290 times)

Borley

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Building software, a bit of a newb question
« on: September 12, 2020, 11:51:39 am »
When compiling programs on Power ISA, does make need to be directed explicitly to build for Power? Does the compiler default to its host architecture?

I am trying to build and run programs which are not available in the ppc64le Debian repos;

  • OBS Studio: blew away my OS install after running a make install (GNOME began behaving unusually and eventually locked up, the system would not boot back up after hard resetting)

    Openspades: I was able to build successfully on an x86 host. I nearly do the same on my Blackbird but am afraid to run the make install with sudo priv due to my above experience with OBS)

Can anyone offer some insight?

pocock

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Re: Building software, a bit of a newb question
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2020, 12:09:29 pm »

make doesn't really care so much about the architecture, it depends more on the project and autotools, if the project uses autotools

By default, make will use the default compiler, which is usually a compiler for the host you are using.

The Makefile for a project might be fussy though, it might have things hardcoded for some other platform

Looking in Debian, there does appear to be an OBS package available:

https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=obs-studio&suite=buster

Can you please clarify the problem you had installing the OBS package from there?
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Borley

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Re: Building software, a bit of a newb question
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2020, 01:39:40 pm »
OBS was a few months back but, I basically followed their build instructions from git. The damage happened after running the install, which needed to setup things outside of /home/ such as desktop shortcuts, binaries, hardlinks etc so it needed to be run as root. I have since reinstalled Debian on my Blackbird system, and unfortunately haven't toyed with compiling software ever since.

apt search obs-studio
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
     yields no results, with only amd64 listed at https://packages.debian.org/buster/obs-studio

I am actually considering getting another Blackbird just so that I can continue learning software compilation without having to worry about blowing away my primary system again.

EDIT: Remembering now, I tried to install it into the /opt directory.
« Last Edit: September 13, 2020, 02:16:43 pm by Borley »

pocock

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Re: Building software, a bit of a newb question
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2020, 02:18:28 pm »

OK, it looks like they only distribute the package for amd64

Something like this will help you build a local package on your architecture:

Code: [Select]
sudo apt build-dep obs-studio
git clone https://salsa.debian.org/multimedia-team/obs-studio.git
cd obs-studio
sed -i -e 's/any-amd64/any/g' debian/control
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -i.git -b

Something like that will create *.deb package files for you in ../

You can try asking in #debian-devel on IRC for any issues

I will eventually get around to running OBS myself, sometime this month and then I will share more details if the above is not sufficient.
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MPC7500

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Re: Building software, a bit of a newb question
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2020, 03:51:54 pm »
OBS-Studio should be available on sid and Bullseye. Can't you just activate the repository for this package only?

I am actually considering getting another Blackbird just so that I can continue learning software compilation without having to worry about blowing away my primary system again.

You can install multiple distributions on one disk. Or just buy a second hard disk.

Edit: OBS is also available on VoidLinux PPC64le
« Last Edit: September 14, 2020, 06:37:09 am by MPC7500 »

Borley

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Re: Building software, a bit of a newb question
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2020, 05:51:50 pm »
Quote
Or just buy a second hard disk.

This didn't even cross my mind, for some reason. Maybe I could even clone my main drive as a sort of snapshot to work on.

pocock

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Re: Building software, a bit of a newb question
« Reply #6 on: September 18, 2020, 07:23:57 am »

I built the backport of obs-studio from Debian bullseye so it runs on Debian buster.  I'll test it a little and then publish the package and dependencies for anybody who wants to use it
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pocock

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Re: Building software, a bit of a newb question
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2020, 08:22:05 am »
The packages are now available, please see the details in this thread and feel free to provide feedback or ask questions.
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