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

[Federico Franzoni]

Hi all,

It's been a couple of years since I started developing on VBox and every 
time I have to build it on a new computer I start from the
Linux build instruction page. Unfortunately this page has (since then) 
obsolete package names and versions, so I always have to go through
the configuration errors, and manage to replace one by one the 
missing/incorrect packages.

I think it would be useful to update the instructions to reflect the 
current situation,
so, in order to help this process, I want to share with you what I had 
to fix in the package list this time.

This is what I had to fix to compile on an Ubuntu 16.04 x64 system.


- *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 
<https://launchpad.net/%7Emjblenner/+archive/ubuntu/ppa-hal>),
which cointains the last HAL packages.

- *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.


Best wishes,
Federico
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