[vbox-dev] Updating packages for Linux build instructions (Ubuntu 16.04)

[Federico Franzoni]

Hi Gianfranco,
thanks for your tips.

The problem with HAL (and with most of the packages I listed) is that it 
is not recognized by the 'configure' script.
So, without installing it (or changing the script), the process will stop.

I guess the script should be updated as well.

Regards,
Federico

On 02/20/2017 05:25 PM, Gianfranco Costamagna wrote:
> Hello,
>
>> - libhal-dev: this package is no longer available in the Ubuntu repositories. It used to be replaced by some other package, but this is not the case anymore.
>>    The only viable solution (to the best of my knowledge) is to
>>     add a private repository, named mjblenner/ppa-hal(https://launchpad.net/~mjblenner/+archive/ubuntu/ppa-hal),
>> which cointains the last HAL packages.
>
> HAL is inside systemd (or has been replaced), so please don't use it
>> - linux-kernel-headers -> replaced (automatically) by linux-libc-dev
>>
>> - python-central -> a part from being unavailable, it seems it is simply not needed anymore (since python is pre-installed).
>> - (64-bit systems) ia32-libs -> replaced by lib32ncurses5
>> - mkisofs -> replaced by genisoimage
>> - SSL: libcurl4-openssl-dev is not sufficient, since it does not install the headers. These are installed by libssl-dev
>> - VPX: this is not even included in the list, but it is necessary to install the libvpx-dev package
>> - Qt4: Starting from VBox 5, the correct version is Qt5, and it can be installed through the qt5-default package
>>
>> Another good thing to add would be to add instructions for the watcom package, which has to be installed manually.
>> Currently, the only version I managed to make visible to vbox is
>>     the one from openwatcom.org (http://www.openwatcom.org/download.php).
>> After installing the package (download the linux binary, make it
>>     executable (chmod +x), run the installation choosing the
>>     destination folder),
>> it is necessary to export the WATCOM variable in order to have it
>>     correctly seen by vbox: ' export WATCOM=watcom-full-path'.
>>
>> In my case, these step were enough, but it may vary from system to system.
>> I hope this will help people trying to build vbox for the first
>>     time,
>> and incentivize the administrators to update the online
>>     instructions.
>
> apt-get source virtualbox might help, also I maintain in my ppa the latest version
> https://launchpad.net/~costamagnagianfranco/+archive/ubuntu/virtualbox-ppa
>
> G.