Hi! I bet someone has asked this before, but i couldnt find it. sorry to beat a dead donkey.

I recently made the swtch to linux, running ubuntu 10.10, and I installed pd vanilla from the ubuntu software center and then installed the libraries from the synaptic package manager. I did this because pd-extended does not seem to come directly from the software center, even from the link on the pd website.

The library externals seem to work but only after I open the help file from the browser for the appropriate object that I want to use, extremely frustrating. Its like I have to remind pd that it knows where my externals are one by one.

Does anyone know a way to have it find all the library files on startup, like the correct path where the external libraries are found?

thanks for holding the linux noobs hand

This happens because the libraries aren't loaded by default. But they instantiate when you open the help patches because the standard library format puts the binaries in the same directory as the help patches, and Pd considers the current directory as part of the search path. Once loaded, the setup routine stays in memory until you close Pd.

I'm not sure about the relationship between the Ubuntu Software Center and the repos accessed through Synaptic. You might ask on the pd-list. In the meantime I think Pd Vanilla will let you set the startup path and startup libraries manually. Just enter the path where you external libraries are installed by going to Media->Preferences->Path, then set the libraries you want to load at startup with Media->Preferences->Startup.

@theblackpeacock said:

I did this because pd-extended does not seem to come directly from the software center, even from the link on the pd website.

Don't sweat it too much if something is not in the Software Center. There is plenty of software out there that isn't available in the Software Center that you can run or compile just fine.

The .deb package from puredata.info is the official distribution of Pd-extended. It's probably just not part of the Software Center because no one has bothered to put it there. But you should be able to install the .deb from the website by double clicking it in the file browser, or from the terminal with something like this:

cd /folder/with/download/package
sudo dpkg -i pd-extended.deb

It'll ask you for your password, then install it. I've found that this method can be more informative if the installation doesn't work. I once tried to install a .deb pack of Pd-extended that I compiled myself, but it would hang up when installing from the file browser without saying why. Using dpkg, it told me that I needed to install lua.