[Building/Packaging] Debian version of OpenBoard

[paolodongilli]

Would it be possible to have a Debian 12+ version of OpenBoard? Ubuntu version is not always compatible with Debian unfortunately. How could we help (info@fuss.bz.it)?

Have you ever thought of an AppImage version?

[letsfindaway]

For Debian you have several options:

• There is an official openboard package in the Debian package sources, see https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=openboard&searchon=names&suite=all&section=all. Here however you still get version 1.6.4, while we're on 1.7.1 since quite some time.
• There is a Flatpak maintained by a community member. See https://flathub.org/apps/ch.openboard.OpenBoard. This package is typically updated quite soon after a new release.
• I'm building experimental builds for several distros, including Debian: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:letsfindaway:experimental/OpenBoard. These packages are based on the latest release candidate including some patches. Currently the base is 1.7.2~rc.240531. Click on the distro name to come to the download link.
• As you can see from the README https://github.com/OpenBoard-org/OpenBoard#supported-platforms there are plans to switch to Debian 12 for the official builds starting with 1.7.2. However I do not have a timeline for that.

[paolodongilli]

Dear Martin, thanks so much for your kind reply and very good news. We're going to test your experimental build for Debian 12 right away. You can count us as beta testers of OpenBoard for Debian 12+ since our project called FUSS (https://fuss.bz.it) uses OpenBoard in around 74 schools in South Tyrol, Italy on ~4.500 PCs. Best regards, Paolo.

[letsfindaway]

Please be aware of the following difference of my experimental builds:

As I'm aiming to create packages which could become part of a distribution, I'm building them with a FHS compliant layout, i.e. the binaries go to /usr/bin/, the config files to /etc/openboard and the library data files to /usr/share/openboard/, while the official release packages install OpenBoard to /opt/. In fact this was necessary to get OpenBoard into the openSUSE repositories, and also the maintainer of the Debian openboard package does this.

The user's data files are however at the same location ~/.local/share/OpenBoard, so that there is no problem to switch between those two.

Instead of downloading and installing the .deb files from build.opensuse.org, you could also add the repository to the apt sources and install the package from there. You find the link to the repository also on the download page: https://build.opensuse.org/projects/home:letsfindaway:experimental/packages/OpenBoard/repositories/Debian_12/binaries.

While the official builds check the web page for updates, this mechanism is disabled for the experimental builds. If you want to have automatic updates to the latest experimental builds, this repository link could provide a way.

Edit: All the patches I'm adding are named after the pull requests they represent, so you can always get more information about the patch by visiting the PR. For 9117-disable-software-update.patch it is based on letsfindaway#117