How do you know wich version of Lazarus to download?

[jsgsix]

There seems to be little help in determining which version of Lazarus to download. I am running Linux Lite ver 7.2.  I want to install Lazarus on a Dell model Latitude 5580 FHD Buisiness Notebook PC, Intel ® Core (TM) i5-7200 U cpu @2.50 GHz, a 64 bit machine. What version do I need to download? Very frustrating.

[TRon]

First order of business: know your operating system (as in what package manager/system does your OS use).

A quick search landed me here and in particular this paragraph about deb packages

Then put your browser to sourceforge, lazarus files here which offer you a couple of options.
- You are running Linux, that is listed
- You are running on a 64-bit cpu (and assume also running a 64-bit OS), that is listed as well (AMD64)
- Your package manager uses .deb packages.

With this infotmation are you then able to figure out what directory to choose ? and what version and corresponding file to download ?

[jsgsix]

I did manage to get Lazarus down loaded and installed. I still not sure which ver. I installed. The installation says 2.2.0 and I can't find any update button inside Lazarus itself. But when I start to enter Lazarus another error comes up: system .ppu not found.Check your fpc.cfg. How do I do that?!
The program still allows me to log in but warns of instability.

[TRon]

I did manage to get Lazarus down loaded and installed. I still not sure which ver. I installed.

If you downloaded Lazarus from source-forge then the version number depends on what version directory you choose from sourceforge.

The installation says 2.2.0 and I can't find any update button inside Lazarus itself.

version 2.2.0 sounds like the version installed by your package manager unless you specifically chosen to download that specific version.

Indeed Lazarus itself does not contain a download button in order to upgrade itself. Such functionality is a typical windows-ishm that has no place in real world configurations (at least not without compromising security).

But when I start to enter Lazarus another error comes up: system .ppu not found.Check your fpc.cfg. How do I do that?!
The program still allows me to log in but warns of instability.

That indicates that either the Free Pascal compiler was not installed, the Free Pascal compiler was not configured correctly or that Lazarus was not configured correctly.

But, let's take a few steps back first as it seems you are new to this.

Does your package manager provide Free Pascal and Lazarus for you ? If so, then please use that option unless you have a specif need for a particular version of Lazarus.

In case you do actually need to have a particular version of Lazarus then consider opting to use FPCUpDeluxe to install everything for you. Before you do so, please make sure to remove any pre-installed version of both FPC and Lazarus in order to prevent possible future issues. If you go the FPCUpdeluxe route then never use another method to install FPC and Lazarus unless you know what you are doing.

If you have any questions or issues then please ask/mention them before continuing on your own (as it seems you are struggling there).

[Guva]

I did manage to get Lazarus down loaded and installed. I still not sure which ver. I installed. The installation says 2.2.0 and I can't find any update button inside Lazarus itself. But when I start to enter Lazarus another error comes up: system .ppu not found.Check your fpc.cfg. How do I do that?!
The program still allows me to log in but warns of instability.

open synaptic and delete lazarus, fpc and fpc-source

download and install these three packages. https://sourceforge.net/projects/lazarus/files/Lazarus%20Linux%20amd64%20DEB/Lazarus%203.6/

[Dzandaa]

Hi,

@jsgsix:

I don't know about Linux Lite, but I don't recommend installing the Lazarus from the repository, but directly from Sourceforge.

But you have to uninstall 2.2.0.

As Linux Lite is an Ubuntu I suppose you have the "synaptic package manager".

Search for "fpc", look what is installed (Green square), select  it with Right Click and  "Mark for Removal" then "Apply"
Do the same with "lazarus"

I use the version 3.4 on Linux Mint.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/lazarus/files/Lazarus%20Linux%20amd64%20DEB/Lazarus%203.4/

Install in that order:

fpc-laz_3.2.2-210709_amd64.deb  -> Free Pascal Compiler
fpc-src_3.2.2-210709_amd64.deb -> Free Pascal Sources
lazarus-project_3.4.0-0_amd64.deb -> Lazarus Project

Good luck.

B->

[jamie]

it's simple logic!

Go for the largest version number and the largest binary file sizes!

Size does matter! 

Jamie

[Joanna from IRC]

it's simple logic!

Go for the largest version number and the largest binary file sizes!

Size does matter! 

Jamie

That’s very reckless 

[Warfley]

The problem is, you use Linux Lite, which is based on Ubuntu LTS, which is based on Debian, which is designed to ship outdated software.

On Windows it's quite common to have packaged installers, so if you download Lazarus installer for Windows it will install Lazarus together with FPC. This is Windows philosophy and the Lazarus team follows that. BUT this has it's drawbacks. If you install multiple Lazarus versions like 2.2.6, 3.0, 3.2, 3.4 and 3.6, they all been released with the same FPC version due to the long release cycle, so besides your 5 Lazarus installations, you will have the exact same FPC version installed 5 times as well (with FPC being like 500mb in size, thats like 2GBs of wasted space).

Linux on the other hand goes the route of globally installing dependencies. So you install FPC and Lazarus seperately, and can do so through different means. E.g. through the deb/rpm packages, you can install from source, through your system package manager, manually download the binaries, etc.

The most straight forward way to install software on Linux, and also what is usually recommended, is through the systems package manager. Which works great, but has a big drawback. Many distros are based on Debian, which by design is outdated (they call it "stable"), meaning you will only get new Versions of software when you update your OS, so if you are using LTS systems like Ubuntu, it means you only get updates once every 2 years.
While you can manually install newer Versions of the Software, it requires knowledge about your distro.

So my general recommendation to this problem is: If you need up to date software don't use a Linux that is purposefully designed to not do that (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, etc.), but instead use a Distro that provides up to date software (Fedora, OpenSuse, Manjaro, etc.).

Sadly for some reason it has become the norm to recommend new Linux users these "stable" distros, which then in turn get's them to inevitibly run into the problem with outdated software, just to have them get mad at the software, instead of questioning if they actually chose the distro to their needs, rather than trying to make a distro fit their requirements which never was intended to do so.