Sometimes you can compile a new version without using the PPAs for the source dependencies, and use the great build-dep
feature in Ubuntu. Make sure you have the source packages selected and have this line in your sources.list file:
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse
You can check by entering in the terminal cat /etc/apt/sources.list
.
I have successfully compiled Stellarium 0.11.3
, Scummvm 1.5.0
, and others by obtaining the dependencies with build-dep
; for example:
sudo apt-get build-dep scummvm
For packages already in the repositories, you can check dependencies with:
apt-cache show foxtrotgps
and compare that with the dependencies required for the newer version, which will be listed on the program's website, or in a readme with the source code download.
Usually when obtaining the dependencies via the build-dep
method you must then download the stable source code from the site of the program, and not the development or git version. It will not always be possible to compile a new version in this way, but it is worth trying. (Gimp 2.8, for example, requires a later version of Gtk and that can't be met by using the source files for Precise.)
However, I have used the build-dep
method successfully for Foxtrotgps; simply follow these steps (assuming you have installed build-essential
):
Below is a screenshot of the compiled program, foxtrotgps:
