If the installation of Gambas from the package sources of the Linux distribution used is not possible, then it is worthwhile to install the current stable version of Gambas3 from the sources of the Gambas project. This installation has the advantage of being similar for many Linux distributions. The descriptions in this chapter follow the instructions for installing gambas on the Gambas project page.

Before you start installing Gambas3 in the current stable version, you should make sure that an existing older version of Gambas has been properly uninstalled! In the chapter' De-Installation of Gambas' you will find a detailed description how to uninstall Gambas.

An overview of the developer packages can currently be found here: http://gambaswiki.org/wiki/install#t5. In addition, the installation of Gambas is described in general after the overview. Special features of selected Linux distributions are pointed out.

You must ensure that all necessary developer packages needed to install Gambas3 are installed on your computer - which is to be verified - or installed. For Ubuntu these are the following developer packages (? http://gambaswiki.org/wiki/install/ubuntu#t6):

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev
libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev
libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsage-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev
librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libasound2-dev libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libxtst-dev
libffi-dev libqt4-dev libglew1.5-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgnome-keyring-dev
libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libcairo2-dev
libgsl0-dev libncurses5-dev libgmime-2.6-dev llvm-3.1-dev libalure-dev libgmp-dev libgtk-3-dev

Either visit the Gambas project site at http://gambas.sourceforge.net/en/main.html and click on the appropriate download button for Gambas3, for example, or call up the download directly for the marked version:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gambas/files/gambas3/gambas3-3.6.2.tar.bz2/download

Figure 2.2.2.2.1: Download dialog

Under Ubuntu 12.04 LTS a download dialog opens, in which you choose the second option where the archive is saved in the standard download folder. After downloading you have to unpack the archive with a suitable program. Then rename the generated folder gambas3-3.6.2 to gb362 and copy it into the home directory.

Then execute these 5 commands one after the other in a terminal to install Gambas3 safely:

$ cd ~/gb362
$ ./reconf-all
$ ./configure -C  # ← during the first installation without -C !
$ make
$ sudo make install

Explanations:

• First change to the directory where the source code of the current version of Gambas3 is located? in the example the ~/gb362.
• With. /reconf-all the configuration script is generated. You must execute this command if you get the source code from the project repository. The reconf phase must always be run through if the control files of the Gambas configuration process have changed since the last compilation.
• The statement /configure -C analyzes the system and configures the package; the Makefile is generated. The -C indicates that cached values are to be configured. After every change to the system (update of libraries, installations, etc.) it is recommended to ignore this cache and restart it - i. e. without -C.
• The created Makefile is used by the program make to compile gambas - if there was no error message before. If errors occur, these must be analysed and rectified in any case.

Then Gambas3 is installed under root privileges - with sudo make install.

You start the installed version of Gambas3 in a console with:

hans@linux:~$ /usr/bin/gambas3
hans@linux:~$ gambas3 # Alternative

It is advantageous if you place a starter for Gambas3 on the desktop, to which you give a suitable icon:

Figure 2.2.4.1: Icon for the Gambas3-Starter

The described procedure has been successfully implemented by the author for many years. Before a new stable Gambas version finds its place on the PC, however, a predecessor version is consistently deleted (–> chapter 2.5 De-installation of Gambas)!