Debian deprecated instructions

Last edit: 2024-06-17 by gbWilly

The following instructions to install Gambas on Debian are also applicable for other Debian based distributions like Devuan or LMDE.

Gambas 3 is available in the Debian official repositories.

Installing official packages

In your Debian installation, open a terminal and enter these commands as super user "root":

$ apt-get install gambas3

In a Debian or Devuan desktop installation, sudo is available, but the usage of su command is the common and preferred way to gain root privileges. Once installed Gambas will appears in the Programing menu category. Depending of your version of Debian installed this will install an officially supported version by Debian Maintainers.

Version Name Branch Gambas version available Install command
7 Wheezy Unsupported apt-get install gambas3
8 Jessie Unsupported apt-get install gambas3
9 Stretch Unsupported apt-get install gambas3

Installing from compilation

  • Installing binaries with a package management system is ALWAYS preferred over compilation and installation.

  • If you not have sudo, use the su command to gain root privileges or please take a shot at using sudo like other derivatives section of this guide and get back here.

Compilation from sources for Debian wheezy (7)

Gambas 3 (version <= 3.4.2)

Step 1. Get the source code (either download and extract the package from main Gambas website or use git clone/checkout)

Note: For using Git checkout see A note on installing from git and Downloading Gambas from Gitlab repository

Step 2. Open a terminal (make sure your user account is part of sudo group)

Step 3. When installing first update the sources: 

$ sudo apt-get update

Step 4. Install these packages : 

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev libfbclient2 libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libldap2-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsage-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libbonobo2-dev libcos4-dev libomniorb4-dev librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libpoppler-private-dev libasound2-dev libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libaa1-dev libxtst-dev libffi-dev kdelibs5-dev firebird-dev libqt4-dev libglew-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgsl0-dev libncurses5-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libcairo2-dev libgmime-2.6-dev llvm-3.1-dev

Step 5. Go into the directory where the Gambas source file are located and run the script : 

$ ./reconf-all

Step 6. Once this script is finished, you can run the common commands to compile and install a program under GNU/Linux : 

$ ./configure -C
$ make
$ sudo make install

Step 7. Type gambas3

Gambas should start and run.

Note: You can make a symlink to start gambas3

Gambas 3 (version >= 3.5 and <= 3.6)

Step 1. Get the source code (either download and extract the package from main Gambas website or use git clone/checkout)

Note: For using Git checkout see A note on installing from git and Downloading Gambas from Gitlab repository

Step 2. Open a terminal (make sure your user account is part of sudo group)

Step 3. When installing first update the sources: 

$ sudo apt-get update

Step 4. Install these packages : 

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsage-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libasound2-dev libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libxtst-dev libffi-dev libqt4-dev libglew-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libcairo2-dev libgsl0-dev libncurses5-dev libgmime-2.6-dev llvm-3.5-dev libalure-dev libgmp-dev libgtk-3-dev

Step 5. Go into the directory where the Gambas source file are located and run the script : 

$ ./reconf-all

Step 6. Once this script is finished, you can run the common commands to compile and install a program under GNU/Linux : 

$ ./configure -C
$ make
$ sudo make install

Step 7. Type gambas3

Gambas should start and run.

Note: You can make a symlink to start gambas3

Gambas 3 (version >= 3.7 and <= 3.8)

Step 1. Get the source code (either download and extract the package from main Gambas website or use git clone/checkout)

Note: For using Git checkout see A note on installing from git and Downloading Gambas from Gitlab repository Step 2. Open a terminal (make sure your user account is part of sudo group)

Step 3. When installing first update the sources: 

$ sudo apt-get update

Step 4. Install these packages : 

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsage-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libasound2-dev libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libxtst-dev libffi-dev libqt4-dev libglew-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libcairo2-dev libgsl0-dev libncurses5-dev libgmime-2.6-dev llvm-3.5-dev libalure-dev libgmp-dev libgtk-3-dev libsdl2-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-image-dev sane-utils libdumb1-dev

For version on master and 3.8 or higher add: 

$ sudo apt-get install libqt5opengl5-dev libqt5svg5-dev libqt5webkit5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev qtbase5-dev

Note: For development version you might need to install more dependencies as new components get developed.
For availability of packages in your specific distribution version see A note on package dependencies

Step 5. Go into the directory where the Gambas source file are located and run the script : 

$ ./reconf-all

Step 6. Once this script is finished, you can run the common commands to compile and install a program under GNU/Linux : 

$ ./configure -C
$ make
$ sudo make install

Step 7. Type gambas3

Gambas should start and run.

Note: You can make a symlink to start gambas3

Compilation from sources for Debian jessie (8)

Gambas 3 (version <= 3.4.2)

Step 1. Get the source code (either download and extract the package from main Gambas website or use git clone/checkout)

Note: For using Git checkout see A note on installing from git

Step 2. Open a terminal (make sure your user account is part of sudo group)

Step 3. Install these packages : 

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev libfbclient2 libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libldap2-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsage-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libbonobo2-dev libcos4-dev libomniorb4-dev librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libpoppler-private-dev libasound2-dev libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libaa1-dev libxtst-dev libffi-dev kdelibs5-dev firebird-dev libqt4-dev libglew-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgsl0-dev libncurses5-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libcairo2-dev libgmime-2.6-dev llvm-dev

Step 4. Go into the directory where the Gambas source file are located and run the script : 

$ ./reconf-all

Step 5. Once this script is finished, you can run the common commands to compile and install a program under GNU/Linux : 

$ ./configure -C
$ make
$ sudo make install

Step 6. Type gambas3

Gambas should start and run.

Note: You can make a symlink to start gambas3

Gambas 3 (version >= 3.5 and <= 3.6)

Step 1. Get the source code (either download and extract the package from main Gambas website or use git checkout)

Note: For using Git checkout see A note on installing from git

Step 2. Open a terminal (make sure your user account is part of sudo group)

Step 3. Install these packages : 

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsage-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libasound2-dev libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libxtst-dev libffi-dev libqt4-dev libglew-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libcairo2-dev libgsl0-dev libncurses5-dev libgmime-2.6-dev llvm-dev libalure-dev libgmp-dev libgtk-3-dev

Step 4. Go into the directory where the Gambas source file are located and run the script : 

$ ./reconf-all

Step 5. Once this script is finished, you can run the common commands to compile and install a program under GNU/Linux : 

$ ./configure -C
$ make
$ sudo make install

Step 6. Type gambas3

Gambas should start and run.

Note: You can make a symlink to start gambas3

Gambas 3 (version >= 3.7 and <= 3.8)

Step 1. Get the source code (either download and extract the package from main Gambas website or use git clone/checkout)

Note: For using Git checkout see A note on installing from git

Step 2. Open a terminal (make sure your user account is part of sudo group)

Step 3. Install these packages : 

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsage-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libasound2-dev libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libxtst-dev libffi-dev libqt4-dev libglew-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libcairo2-dev libgsl0-dev libncurses5-dev libgmime-2.6-dev llvm-dev libalure-dev libgmp-dev libgtk-3-dev libsdl2-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-image-dev sane-utils libdumb1-dev

For version on master and 3.8 or higher add: 

$ sudo apt-get install libqt5opengl5-dev libqt5svg5-dev libqt5webkit5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev qtbase5-dev

Note: For git master/development version you might need to install more dependencies when new components get developed.
For availability of packages in your specific distribution version see A note on package dependencies

Step 4. Go into the directory where the Gambas source file are located and run the script : 

$ ./reconf-all

Step 5. Once this script is finished, you can run the common commands to compile and install a program under GNU/Linux : 

$ ./configure -C
$ make
$ sudo make install

Step 6. Type gambas3

Gambas should start and run.

Note: You can make a symlink to start gambas3

Compilation from sources for Debian stretch (9)

Gambas 3 (version <= 3.4.2)

Step 1. Get the source code (either download and extract the package from main Gambas website or use git clone/checkout)

Note: For using Git checkout see A note on installing from git

Step 2. Open a terminal (make sure your user account is part of sudo group)

Step 3. Install these packages : 

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev libfbclient2 libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libldap2-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsage-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libbonobo2-dev libcos4-dev libomniorb4-dev librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libpoppler-private-dev libasound2-dev libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libaa1-dev libxtst-dev libffi-dev kdelibs5-dev firebird-dev libqt4-dev libglew-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgsl0-dev libncurses5-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libcairo2-dev libgmime-2.6-dev llvm-dev

Step 4. Go into the directory where the Gambas source file are located and run the script : 

$ ./reconf-all

Step 5. Once this script is finished, you can run the common commands to compile and install a program under GNU/Linux : 

$ ./configure -C
$ make
$ sudo make install

Step 6. Type gambas3

Gambas should start and run.

Note: You can make a symlink to start gambas3

Gambas 3 (version >= 3.5 and <= 3.6)

Step 1. Get the source code (either download and extract the package from main Gambas website or use git clone/checkout)

Note: For using Git checkout see A note on installing from git

Step 2. Open a terminal (make sure your user account is part of sudo group)

Step 3. Install these packages : 

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsage-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libpoppler-private-dev libasound2-dev libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libxtst-dev libffi-dev libqt4-dev libglew-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libcairo2-dev libgsl0-dev libncurses5-dev libgmime-2.6-dev llvm-dev libalure-dev libgmp-dev libgtk-3-dev

Step 4. Go into the directory where the Gambas source file are located and run the script : 

$ ./reconf-all

Step 5. Once this script is finished, you can run the common commands to compile and install a program under GNU/Linux : 

$ ./configure -C
$ make
$ sudo make install

Step 6. Type gambas3

Gambas should start and run.

Note: You can make a symlink to start gambas3

Gambas 3 (version >= 3.7 and <= 3.8)

Step 1. Get the source code (either download and extract the package from main Gambas website or use git clone/checkout)

Note: For using Git checkout see A note on installing from git

Step 2. Open a terminal (make sure your user account is part of sudo group)

Step 3. Install these packages : 

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsage-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libpoppler-private-dev libasound2-dev libesd0-dev libdirectfb-dev libxtst-dev libffi-dev libqt4-dev libglew-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libcairo2-dev libgsl0-dev libncurses5-dev libgmime-2.6-dev llvm-dev libalure-dev libgmp-dev libgtk-3-dev libsdl2-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-image-dev sane-utils libdumb1-dev

For version 3.8 or higher add: 

$ sudo apt-get install libqt5opengl5-dev libqt5svg5-dev libqt5webkit5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev qtbase5-dev

Step 4. Go into the directory where the Gambas source file are located and run the script : 

$ ./reconf-all

Step 5. Once this script is finished, you can run the common commands to compile and install a program under GNU/Linux : 

$ ./configure -C
$ make
$ sudo make install

Step 6. Type gambas3

Gambas should start and run.

Note: You can make a symlink to start gambas3

Gambas 3 (version >= 3.9 and <= 3.11)

Step 1. Get the source code (either download and extract the package from main Gambas website or use git clone/checkout)

Note: For using Git checkout see A note on installing from git

Step 2. Open a terminal (make sure your user account is part of sudo group)

Step 3. Install these packages : 

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev default-libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libpoppler-private-dev libpoppler-cpp-dev libasound2-dev libdirectfb-dev libxtst-dev libffi-dev libqt4-dev libqtwebkit-dev libqt4-opengl-dev libglew-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libcairo2-dev libgsl-dev libncurses5-dev libgmime-2.6-dev libalure-dev libgmp-dev libgtk-3-dev libsdl2-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-image-dev sane-utils libdumb1-dev libqt5opengl5-dev libqt5svg5-dev libqt5webkit5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev qtbase5-dev libssl-dev

Only for the Gnome desktop add: 

$ sudo apt install libcanberra-gtk-module

Note: For git master/development version you might need to install more dependencies when new components get developed.
For more recent versions of Debian you might need higher versions of dependencies than mentioned above.
For availability of packages in your specific distribution version see A note on package dependencies

Step 4. Go into the directory where the Gambas source file are located and run the script : 

$ ./reconf-all

Step 5. Once this script is finished, you can run the common commands to compile and install a program under GNU/Linux : 

$ ./configure -C
$ make
$ sudo make install

Step 6. Type gambas3

Gambas should start and run.

Note: You can make a symlink to start gambas3

Gambas 3 (version >= 3.12 and <= 3.18)

(Updated 2023.07.08)
Step 1. Get the source code (either download and extract the package from main Gambas website or use git clone/checkout)

Note: For using Git checkout see A note on installing from git

Step 2. Open a terminal (make sure your user account is part of sudo group)

Step 3. Install these packages : 

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y build-essential g++ automake autoconf libbz2-dev default-libmysqlclient-dev unixodbc-dev libpq-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgtkglext1-dev libpcre3-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev librsvg2-dev libpoppler-dev libpoppler-glib-dev libpoppler-private-dev libpoppler-cpp-dev libasound2-dev libdirectfb-dev libxtst-dev libffi-dev libqt4-dev libqtwebkit-dev libqt4-opengl-dev libglew-dev libimlib2-dev libv4l-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev linux-libc-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libcairo2-dev libgsl-dev libncurses5-dev libgmime-2.6-dev libalure-dev libgmp-dev libgtk-3-dev libsdl2-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-image-dev sane-utils libdumb1-dev libqt5opengl5-dev libqt5svg5-dev libqt5webkit5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev qtbase5-dev libwebkit2gtk-3.0-dev libssl-dev

Step 4. Go into the directory where the Gambas source file are located and run the script : 

$ ./reconf-all

Step 5. Once this script is finished, you can run the common commands to compile and install a program under GNU/Linux : 

$ ./configure -C --disable-gtk3webview --disable-qt5webview --disable-zstd
$ make -j$(nproc)
$ sudo make install

Step 6. Type gambas3

Gambas should start and run.

Note: You can make a symlink to start gambas3

Important notes

A note on installing from git

If you want to compile the latest development version or a stable version from Gitlab Gambas repository, you need to install Git first.

To do this open a terminal and do: 

$ sudo apt-get install git

You will now be able to do a git clone or git checkout.

Downloading Gambas from Gitlab repository

Everybody can make a copy of the repository on his hard disk by using the following command:

For development version

$ git clone --depth=1 https://gitlab.com/gambas/gambas.git

For current stable version

$ git clone --branch stable --depth=1 https://gitlab.com/gambas/gambas.git

For an specific old stable version (e.g. 3.6)

  $ wget https://gitlab.com/gambas/gambas/repository/v3.6.0/archive.tar.gz -O gambas-3.6.0.tar.gz
  $ tar -zxvf gambas-3.6.0.tar.gz
  $ cd gambas-v3.6.0-*

For more info about using Gitlab Gambas repository see in the Git development guide for Gambas

Using sudo like other derivatives

Debian does not use the sudo command as other Debian derived works, due its not the default.

This simply means not have the sudo command. You can install sudo package and add your user to the group sudo.

These are the steps to correct this problem:

1. Open a terminal and type: 

$ su root

Enter the root password and hit <enter>.

Install the sudo package and hit <enter>.

2. Type: 

# apt-get install sudo

Added your USERNAME to the sudo group and hit <enter>.

3. Type: 

# adduser USERNAME sudo

Replace USERNAME with your account name.

4. Type (yes do it twice): 

# exit
# exit

5. Restart your session, then, sudo will work in a terminal for the user you added to sudo group.

What are the latest dependencies to install

As dependencies change over time it is always a good thing to know what you need to install for what Debian version.

Check gitlab-ci.yml for the exact needed dependencies to install latest Gambas3 on Debian. Search for your Debian version and follow the exact instructions there.

Page revisions

Debian deprecated instructions by: W. Raets - June 15th, 2024
- Updated: June 17th 2024 by W. Raets (gbWilly)
- Added copy of "Important notes" from Debian