[Mono-list] Installing Mono on Debian

[Paolo Molaro]

On 03/29/06 Tony G wrote:
> Paolo, I must disagree.  In a recent thread of mine here ("Dependency
> issues with 1.1.13") I mentioned that the current Mono was built using an
> old version of SQLite.  A more recent version is installed with Python and
> Gnome desktop utilities written in Gnome.  This means the pre-built
> packages won't install to a system with even the most basic distro
> utilities installed.  For those of us unfamiliar with doing a complete
> build from source of all Mono-related packages, the only solution is to use
> the installer to put all of the mono packages into a unique path - or to
> uninstall anything else that happens to use Python, which is unreasonable.
> 
> This problem is bound to occur with almost every binary build of Mono since
> it relies on other packages, and some of those are bound to be more or less
> advanced than what each of us has in our existing systems.  Less
> sophisticated oftware packages with less rigorous dependencies aren't as
> subject to these issues.  Quite simply, this is DLL Hell for Linux.

If you use the mono packages from your distribution, which is what I
suggested, there is no such issue. They are done so that people won't
have to build from sources and they deal with the dependencies exactly
to solve the issues you had. If you want to ignore my advice it's
possible you'll run into dependency issues, but it's your choice, of
course.
Note that packages can have bugs themseleves, of course, so make sure
you file bug reports about that.
The binary installer, IMHO, should be avaoided or used only for quick
checks and not for 'production' installs. If you're happy with it good
for you, but it doesn't mean that it is the solution to the dependency
issues (the binary installer brings its own share of issues, you just
might be unaware of the).

> I respectfully request that someone provide a clear set of documentation
> that explains how to work around these issues : "How to install Mono when
> installed packages are more or less up to date than current Mono
> dependencies". Existing documentation found on the net is seriously out of
> date and no longer helpful.  I'm basically a Windows/.NET/C# guy with Linux
> admin experience.  I'm not a Linux C developer and not yet familiar with
> building packages from source or hacking software as sophisticated as Mono
> to conform to a unique environment, but I'm willing to learn everything
> required using Mono as a learning project.

Beginners in the Linux worls should always use the packages that come
with their distribution. This is the documentation people need and it
is up to date:) If your distribution doesn't have current mono packages,
complain with them or change distribution.

lupus

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