"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.

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