I'm new to linux/debian/kde, but not new to computing, so I thought I would share my experience installing my first application from source, KMyMoney.

First off, this was very helpful:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... ams-45094/

because it told me the basic steps of installing from source -- specifically the three steps of ./config, make, and make install.

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Quick-start 0: Precondition
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In the KMyMoney package (is that the right term?) I was guided by the README.cmake file. First I went through a loop because I didn't have cmake installed, and tried to figure out what is cmake and how to install it. I could have avoided that loop if I would have skipped to the instruction for debian users to "sudo apt-get build-dep KMyMoney" because that not only checked required packages, but also installed them.

SUGGESTION: break Quick-start 0: Precondition into Step A: for non-debian/ubuntu users and Step B: for debian/ubuntu users. As it is currently written, I thought I had to do both steps.

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Quick-start 1: Build KMyMoney
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The instruction currently says "Go to the top level of the git working directory" -- this confused me because I wasn't working a git, I was working with a downloaded tarball file. So I interpretted this to mean that I should extract the tar file to a directory (./build). It was not clear if I should mkdir in my home directory, or the root directory (if it matters).

All this indicated to me that the ./build directory would be temporary for the purpose of building the package (this is not clear to me).

Next I tried "cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr" but it failed after repeated attempts. However, I saw:
$ ccmake .
to change the configuration of the build process. (optional)

and from that LinuxQuestions post I knew that config was an important step in the installation process, so I did it. At first I got a copy error, so I tried "sodu ccmake . " and that did the trick.

Next I did "make" and "make install" and the KMyMoney installed. But then I had to figure out how to run it, because nothing appeared on my kde desktop or in my start menu.

Eventually I found a kmymoney file in the ./build directory, and that appears to be the executealble file, which means that the ./build directory is not a temporary directory.

Now I'm thinking of starting over again, installing KMyMoney in a directory that makes more sense than /home/build.

Are there any suggestions for me? I hope this helps the next new linux/debian/kde person to come along.

First of all, you are brave, and you almost nailed it.
We usually encourage users to use the package available from the distro, because that's the easiest way. However, you were so close that it'd be silly to drop it at this point.

Did you run "sudo make install" or "make install"? If the latter, that explains why you can't run it, because it didn't have permissions to install it into system directories.

In the directory, run "sudo make uninstall" or "make uninstall". The opposite of what you've executed before.

Then remove the directory and start over.

You should extract the tarball to a new directory.
*Inside* that directory, create a directory "build". That's where you run the compile commands.

At the end, if there are no errors, run "sudo make install".
When it's done, it should be installed in the correct system directories.

Thanks Hei Ku

I have uninstalled and I am going to trying installing this package:
https://packages.debian.org/jessie/kmymoney

I'll post how it goes.

I have downloaded
kmymoney_4.6.6-1.debian.tar.xz
from
https://packages.debian.org/jessie/kmymoney

but I don't see any installation instructions. An online search revealed this:
http://www.howtoinstall.co/en/debian/wh ... /kmymoney/

and substituting "wheezy" with "jessie" gets me this:
http://www.howtoinstall.co/en/debian/je ... /kmymoney/

Shouldn't there be install instructions with the package?

If you are going to download source, please do it from the official site at kmymoney.org.
4.6.6 is an old version, 4.7.2 is available.

Also there you have more resources with information. Specifically, the developer resources is what you are looking for.

Hei Ku wrote:We usually encourage users to use the package available from the distro, because that's the easiest way.

Hei Ku wrote:If you are going to download source, please do it from the official site at kmymoney.org.

Isn't that contradictory?

You say, "If you are going to download source" -- does that mean there is another way to get KMyMoney -- other than downloading source?

Pardon me, I'm new to linux/debian/kde and I may be unnecesarrily complicating things.

Of course there is, if you are running Debian or Ubuntu, run "sudo apt-get install kmymoney"

As a general reference, for installing software in linux, use the official repositories of your distro. In your case, the apt-get tool should get you what you need. Most people won't need to compile stuff from source, ever.

If you are going to build stuff from source, which you won't need to most of the time, go to the official site of the application and download it from there.

Hei Ku wrote:Of course there is, if you are running Debian or Ubuntu, run "sudo apt-get install kmymoney"

Ahhh! That's my misunderstanding. I didn't know that command would both, download AND install KMyMoney. I thought I had to download the tar, extract it into a directory, then run that command from inside the directory.

Thank you for your patience.

No problem. Welcome to Linux. Feel free to ask when you feel lost.

Exactly what distro are you using? So I can direct you to a proper tutorial on how to install software for that specific distro.

All I did was to use the upate manager (Linux Mint 17.1 KDE), searched for KMyMoney and selected it and clicked on install. OK so I only got 4.6.4 but got there with no issues at all, just a little bit of finger twiddling whilst everything was done for me.

It's so easy that it's almost disappointing

You should receive the new version with the next version of Linux Mint, hopefully.