super frustrated trying to uninstall / reinstall

[jbowles]

I am getting the "Can't find unit contnrs used by Masks" error when attempting to compile a simple plain one-form application.

Advice given to others with this problem tends to indicate a configuration problem, probably related to conflict(s) with a previous version.

I have tried everything I can think of to uninstall / reinstall Lazarus, but each time I do, the problem persists.  I suspect some aspect of the configuration remains, even after an uninstall.  I've tried using the GUI Ubuntu Software Center to do the uninstalls, as well as trying Synaptic.

Would some kind person please post a walk-through of the steps I need to take to do an "absolutely completely gone" uninstall, so I can reinstall cleanly?

Thank you,

Jeff

[typo]

http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_Faq#When_compiling_lazarus_the_compiler_can_not_find_a_unit._e.g.:_gtkint.pp.2817.2C16.29_Fatal:_Can.27t_find_unit_GLIB

[Martin_fr]

You didn't mention your OS.

On Windows Lazarus is in C:\Lazarus and fpc is inside this folder. Config is in (Vista) C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\lazarus / "Documents and setting.\....." for XP

On Linux config is in ~/.lazarus
Lazarus and Linux will be somewhere in /usr/.....
Look out for /etc/fpc.cfg (or any fpc/cfg you can find, check your home dir / use find) and check the paths in there, make sure they match the version of fpc actually used.

[jl]

You didn't mention your OS.

On Windows Lazarus is in C:\Lazarus and fpc is inside this folder. Config is in (Vista) C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\lazarus / "Documents and setting.\....." for XP

For my Windows 7 Laz 0.9.31, it is inside the FPC \bin\i386-win32\ folder, same folder as fpc.exe is found.

A tip for noobs such as myself - to avoid pulling out hair, use a VM, install everything else you need, and then take a snapshot before installing Laz.  Place project folders on a shared folder with the host OS. 

If there is a need to upgrade, just use the original snapshot - install from scratch.

[Bart]

On Windows just delete that Lazarus folder, then install a new version.
(Make sure you do not save your project in the Lazarus folder!)

Should work.

Bart

[User137]

Just quick note to prevent more confusion, this thread is under Linux category.

As for actual help i cannot give any   Gave up trying to get Lazarus to work under Ubuntu i guess... it really was frustrating. No issues at all on Windows 7.

[Bart]

The errormessage usually means that the .ppu that fpc finds is compiled with a different version than the current fpc compiler.

Probably you had a previous install with a different compiler version.

If you compile the program with -va, there is lots of output from fpc, including which fpc.cfg it uses, and wich ppu's it uses when trying to build your program.
Maybe this will show a remnant of the past fpc install.

Try to get rid of the old fpc installation.
(I don't know how to do that in Ubuntu, I'm on Suse, which uses rpm's)
(Or uninstall fpc/lazarus completely, then search for any file called fpc.cfg and any *.ppu (you should not find any) and simply delete them. After that install fpc, try to compile a simple hello worl program and see if  that works. Only then install Lazarus)

See what config fpc uses and what paths. Check if they are OK (as in belonging to the newest fpc).

If there are no more old fpc remnants on your system, and Lazarus still won't compile any project, try to rebuild Lazarus (make clean all) and see if that helps.

Personally I prefer installing fpc from the binary package (somewhere in the download section), by running install.sh.
(http://freepascal.org/download.var -> from Binaries select Linux (in my case Intel/i386) -> Choose mirror-> fpc-2.4.4.i386-linux.tar )
Then I build Lazarus from sources (in a subfolder of my homedirectory).
If I need to upgragde fpc, I simply delete the fpc folder (the package manager is not involved) and install the new one, the rebuild Lazarus from the sources again.

Hope this helps in any way.

Bart