[Mono-dev] Compiling Mono? - I give up (Not proceeding)

[Rob Wilkens]

I hate trying to get other people's program's to build properly on a 
different computer than it was originally built on/for, but i gave 
building mono an honest effort before giving up.  I've been trying 
different troubleshooting steps for something like 5 hours now; and that 
doesn't count changing any code, just building what was already written 
by others and trying existing programs with the output (in theory, if 
.net binaries are cross platform, you'd think the binaries on the same 
platform would be compatible with different builds of the runtime).

Only read further if you're interested in my struggle.  I am basically 
writing this to say why i probably won't be able to debug this issue i 
earlier reported myself.  Anyone know if i should file a bug report on 
that one?

First, i tried building mono from the latest git source, but despite 
compiling and installing fine it gave me enough problems with 
compatibility with existing programs, that i just thought i'd try the 
same version i was already running on the system.

Ok, So i'll get to where i'm at now:
1) I did an "apt-get source mono" ran an autogen, make..... (and 
eventually make install) -- figuring this would get me the same version 
that i was running.
2) This built, or would build, version 2.10.8.1 -- in theory the same 
version i had installed.
3) libmonogc.la in libgc directory never built (and it was needed by 
other parts of the compile process.)  There were no errors that i could 
tell; it just said something like "LD  libmonogc.la" in the output from 
the makefile in that directory, and then continued on without actually 
building it.  I half wonder if i'm missing something important to build 
it with.  I actually had it echo the command line behind the 'LD' it was 
displaying, then tried strace/ltrace on it, but got lost following it 
and my frustration just led me to do the following:
4) I copied the two missing 'libgc' libraries (the binaries) from the 
git version which i earlier compiled....  Yes, i know it's not smart, 
but it got the whole thing to compile.  I then did make install.
5) Afterwards:

If I try to run monodevelop:

-It gives me a few errors,they basically all say Mono.Addins version 
0.6.0.0 is not found.. I googled it and saw that the current version is 
something like 0.6.2.0.  I didn't bother redownloading it.
-But it is there, if i remove my /usr/local version of the mono 
binaries, and run the same monodevelop, it runs

If I try to run GhettoGtkAdmin.exe (the binary from the project i gave 
earlier):

-Direct from the command line without 'mono' command: It works fine, but 
i suspect that this is using the /usr/bin version

-If I run it with mono command (from /usr/local) i.e. 'mono 
GhettoGtkAdmin.exe', it complains that it can't "load type 'MainWindow'" 
which is one of the types in the program -- it's a 
System.TypeLoadException. -- but again, like monodevelop, if i remove 
the /usr/local version of the binaries for mono, it runs fine even with 
the 'mono' in the command line.

I even ran a 'make check' in the mono source directory, and most (or 
many) of the tests passed -- at some point one of the check's failed to 
compile (the test source for Address.cs in versiontolerantserialization 
test was missing it said.)

I tried running a build from apt-get source of libmono-addins, and i was 
going to rebuild monodevelop too, but i thought this was getting a 
little nuts.

I realize i'm on my own with building from apt-get source, as these are 
ubuntu files and not mono project files.  But i've put in enough time on 
this problem.  I'm retired/disabled, i've got plenty of time, but 
there's a reason i'm disabled and it's not a physical disability.  This 
is generating enough unneeded stress that i don't think this activity 
which i took on as a stress reliever is working out that way, it's more 
having the opposite effect.  I swear i used to find programming to be 
one of those activities that relaxed me, i don't know if it's the 
illness, age, or years of being on disability (not working full time), 
but nowadays it just seems like more stress than it's worth for me.

-Rob