Is it possible to use fpcupdeluxe to *only* install/maintain Lazarus?
As you figured you yourself already, yes.
The reason I ask is that I have found that there is an fpc compiler 3.2.2 available via apt, so I have installed that and it seems to run just fine (at least no exceptions when checking its version).
Seems to run fine does not necessarily means that you have that compiler configured correctly.
This created a working Lazarus IDE for which I created a .desktop file so it appeared in the Programming section of the main menu.
Any lingering files from old/earlier Lazarus installations ? Or perhaps you have multiple Lazarus version installed (or want to do so in the future) ?
Then note the --pcp option, see wiki
multiple Lazarus installations. Even if you do not have multiple installations or really don't care about it: Always use the --pcp option (or lazarus.cfg).
This all worked as normal except for one VERY irritating issue:
Every time I start up Lazarus it gets to the dialog where it asks for the location of fppkg.cfg, which cannot be found on this device...
possible causes:
- you do not have your fpc.cfg file configured correctly, the path to the fppkg files are missing or
- you are using a fppkg.cfg file that is too old (from an earlier installation)
- you do not have a fppkg.cfg at all or you have one but not accessible by Lazarus (From memory I believe read and write).
So what creates this file and where should it reside?
It is created by the
Free Pascal PacKaGe manager.
PS: Note that there are many reports in the bugtracker about this issue and it is usually safe to ignore the error. even when configured everything correct it is still possible to trigger the dialog. Ignoring "the error" will not brake your Lazarus installation (or FPC for that matter), it is just annoying to need to click it away (if not mistaken then I've read somewhere once that there is a solution for that but I seem unable to find it. It was either a commandline option or setting in the lazarus.cfg file from what I remember),
Newer Lazarus releases do not come shipped with that error (anymore).