I posted an "idea" about povray and knoppix and was suggested to file a bug 
report.  It's #2 for the 4.0 DVD!

http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Bugs/4.0

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=88147#88147


I may have done a service to povray or I may have tried to remake it in my 
own image in a very annoying way.  Maybe both.

Post a reply to this message

"Greg M. Johnson" <gregj;-)565### [at] aolcom> wrote:
> I posted an "idea" about povray and knoppix and was suggested to file a bug
> report.  It's #2 for the 4.0 DVD!
>
> http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Bugs/4.0
>
> http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=88147#88147
>
>
> I may have done a service to povray or I may have tried to remake it in my
> own image in a very annoying way.  Maybe both.


I doubt if you did any disservice, and if Knoppix adds PovRay so it works
out of the box, then you've probably accomplished something, but I don't
think its a Knoppix problem.  I had the same issue with Slackware.
KPovModeler seems to ship with KDE and get installed with it whether there
is a PovRay available or not. Since I was installing PovRay anyway, no
biggie, but it was annoying to have it on the menu but not able to use it.
(And after trying KPovModeler I decided it only had a couple useful tools
anyways)

RG

Post a reply to this message

"gonzo" <rgo### [at] lansetcom> wrote:
> "Greg M. Johnson" <gregj;-)565### [at] aolcom> wrote:
> > I posted an "idea" about povray and knoppix and was suggested to file a bug
> > report.  It's #2 for the 4.0 DVD!
> >
> > http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Bugs/4.0
> >
> > http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=88147#88147
> >
> >
> > I may have done a service to povray or I may have tried to remake it in my
> > own image in a very annoying way.  Maybe both.
>
>
> I doubt if you did any disservice, and if Knoppix adds PovRay so it works
> out of the box, then you've probably accomplished something, but I don't
> think its a Knoppix problem.  I had the same issue with Slackware.
> KPovModeler seems to ship with KDE and get installed with it whether there
> is a PovRay available or not. Since I was installing PovRay anyway, no
> biggie, but it was annoying to have it on the menu but not able to use it.
> (And after trying KPovModeler I decided it only had a couple useful tools
> anyways)

I believe the problem is that the POV-Ray redistribution licence is
_slightly_ incompatable with the DFSG [Debian Free Software Guidelines] --
which makes distribution slightly difficult; haven't you noticed how there
isn't a pov-ray package for Debian that is any newer than 3.5?  Debian
_does_ have a tendency to try and maintain patches and build it's own
packages from source...

That said, I don't think Ubantu would mind distributing the latest and
greatest POV-Ray packages; it has [among other things] mplayer binaries,
and everything else under the sun, it seems...  -- Thing is, IIRC, Ubantu
packages don't always work on Debian; I don't use Ubantu myself.

AFAIK, it might be easier for Knoppix to use one of those dynamic
install-in-ramdisk scripts for POV-Ray (to get around distribution issues)
and download the latest POV-Ray from the site, and automate the install for
the user.  Doesn't sound too hard [provide a GUI, check for connection,
download, untar/gz, execute install under sudo, execute install user/kde
under sudo].  Would allow you to squeeze it onto the Knoppix CD too,
possibly.

Post a reply to this message

Mike C wrote:
>                                              haven't you noticed how there
> isn't a pov-ray package for Debian that is any newer than 3.5?  Debian
> _does_ have a tendency to try and maintain patches and build it's own
> packages from source...

Hmm...  I primarily use RedHat Fedora, but "dabble" with other distros, 
including Debian 3.1 (Sarge).  I simply downloaded the Linux POVRay 
package directly from povray.org and did a normal install with that. 
Version 3.6.1 installs properly and runs fine.  Although I confess I 
haven't done anything more than a few test renders (from the standard 
"Scene" examples), simply to verify that it does work.

Of course, I can't say anything about Knoppix, but 3.6.1 is okay with 
standard Debian.

      -=- Larry -=-

Post a reply to this message

Mike C wrote:
> I believe the problem is that the POV-Ray redistribution licence is
> _slightly_ incompatable with the DFSG [Debian Free Software Guidelines] --
> which makes distribution slightly difficult; haven't you noticed how there
> isn't a pov-ray package for Debian that is any newer than 3.5?  Debian
> _does_ have a tendency to try and maintain patches and build it's own
> packages from source...

Actually, the reason seems to be more the lack of a competent maintainer 
with sufficient time.  For example the "POV-Ray 3.5" Debian distributes 
contains broken patches and untested code.  And before that they distributed 
(and still do it seems) a completely outdated POV-Ray 3.0 with completely 
obsolete patches added to it, i.e. the macro patch - obsolete since POV-Ray 
3.1 and not even remotely compatible with any official version of POV-Ray. 
In short, the POV-Ray versions Debian distributes are basically useless. 
Unfortunately, pointing this out to the current Debian maintainer (see the 
bug reports) had no effect whatsoever :-(

As such, it can only be recommended to use the official POV-Ray rather than 
the broken versions Debian distributes, even in case of POV-Ray 3.5 or 
POV-Ray 3.0!

	Thorsten

____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich
e-mail: mac### [at] povrayorg

I am a member of the POV-Ray Team.
Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://www.povray.org

Post a reply to this message