Score:1

Problems getting a working installation of gsl 2.6

za flag

I need to run some physics software on my laptop, which is very finicky, so I specifically need to use gsl 2.6 (where I normally run I have found this through trial and error).

I run ubuntu-18.04. I had gsl 2.4 installed but could not get it to update further than that. So I went to the gnu website and downloaded 2.7 in the hopes that it would do. I followed the instructions here: https://coral.ise.lehigh.edu/jild13/2016/07/11/hello/ to install it. Including creating the little example.c test file, which seemed to work just fine. But when I tried to check the version with gsl-config --version it returned 2.4 still.

So I uninstalled gsl and purged it from the system in case the problem was just that I hadn't gotten rid of the other version first (I'm used to unloading and loading gsl as a module normally so I didn't think to remove it first). I tried again with the exact same results except that my laptop now complains that there is no gsl in /usr/bin. I don't know why it is specifically looking there, the old version wasn't installed there, and the new one isn't installed there either.

Can I not just do something like apt-get install libgsl-dev-2.6 ? Not that specifically - I know that doesn't work! I'm also fine to install manually again if anyone knows what I missed.

Thanks!


Edited to add errors after attempting N0rbert's solution *

libtool: install: ranlib /home/cb27g11/Downloads/gsl-2.6+dfsg/debian/tmp/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgsl.a
libtool: warning: remember to run 'libtool --finish /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu'
 /bin/mkdir -p '/home/cb27g11/Downloads/gsl-2.6+dfsg/debian/tmp/usr/bin'
  /bin/bash ./libtool   --mode=install /usr/bin/install -c gsl-randist gsl-histogram '/home/cb27g11/Downloads/gsl-2.6+dfsg/debian/tmp/usr/bin'
libtool: warning: 'libgsl.la' has not been installed in '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu'
libtool: warning: '/home/cb27g11/Downloads/gsl-2.6+dfsg/cblas/libgslcblas.la' has not been installed in '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu'
libtool: warning: 'cblas/libgslcblas.la' has not been installed in '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu'
libtool: install: /usr/bin/install -c .libs/gsl-randist /home/cb27g11/Downloads/gsl-2.6+dfsg/debian/tmp/usr/bin/gsl-randist
libtool: warning: 'libgsl.la' has not been installed in '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu'
libtool: warning: '/home/cb27g11/Downloads/gsl-2.6+dfsg/cblas/libgslcblas.la' has not been installed in '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu'
libtool: warning: 'cblas/libgslcblas.la' has not been installed in '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu'

Does this mean anything to you?

N0rbert avatar
zw flag
GSL 2.4 is available is Ubuntu 18.04 LTS from [official repositories](https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=gsl&searchon=sourcenames). There is a PPA with [2.5 version](https://launchpad.net/~savoury1/+archive/ubuntu/inkscape/+packages?field.name_filter=gsl&field.status_filter=published&field.series_filter=bionic). Please add some details to your question. Currently it is puzzle, so not reproducible.
Knud Larsen avatar
by flag
If you want `/usr/bin/gsl-config` , the "gsl-2.7/" source must be configured with `./configure --prefix=/usr`
N0rbert avatar
zw flag
... to trash the system. Use --prefix=/usr/local to keep it manageable.
user535733 avatar
cn flag
To run newer software, you will have best results if you run a newer release of Ubuntu. For GSL 2.6, specifically Ubuntu 21.04 or pre-release 21.10 have 2.6 in their repositories. If you don't want to migrate away from 18.10, it's possible to run 21.04 in a WM or container.
Knud Larsen avatar
by flag
@N0rbert. »»... to trash the system«« : `libgsl23` / `libgsl[any-version]` is not a system package. GSL / libgsl is not installed by default.
N0rbert avatar
zw flag
Ok, so install stuff to /usr/bin makes system manageable. Very smart. Thanks.
Score:1
zw flag

You can build GSL 2.6 on 18.04 LTS from sources by using commands below:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential dpkg-dev debhelper

cd ~/Downloads
wget -c http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gsl/gsl_2.6+dfsg.orig.tar.gz
tar -xf gsl_2.6+dfsg.orig.tar.gz
cd gsl-2.6+dfsg/
wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gsl/gsl_2.6+dfsg-2.debian.tar.xz
tar -xf gsl_2.6+dfsg-2.debian.tar.xz
rm gsl_2.6+dfsg-2.debian.tar.xz

dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us
sudo apt-get install ../*gsl*.deb

to get

$ gsl-config --version
2.6

and then try to compile your application.

Ciara avatar
za flag
Thankyou for your thorough answer! Unfortunately I seem to have run into some problems at the "dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us" step: I will add full details of the errors in my original post but at the end I get this: dpkg-genchanges: warning: package libgsl-prof in control file but not in files list dpkg-genchanges: info: not including original source code in upload dpkg-source --after-build gsl-2.6+dfsg dpkg-source: info: unapplying manual-page-correction dpkg-source: info: unapplying gsl-cblas-linkage dpkg-buildpackage: info: binary and diff upload (original source NOT included)
N0rbert avatar
zw flag
I thinks that those are just warnings, you can proceed with `sudo apt-get install ../*gsl*.deb` to have deb-packages installed.
Ciara avatar
za flag
You appear to be right, after proceeding with the install step gsl-config --version returns 2.6 ! Thank-you very much!
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