MaintenanceTool

[skypuppy]

Is there a Maintenance Tool that is downloadable everywhere-open-source, even source, for Qt 5.5.1? It works just fine in the Debian Jessie for AMD64 desktop from the Debian packages, but trying to get it (AND QT ITSELF!!!!) to install and run on a Raspberry Pi 2 does not even load source or executable for MaintenanceTool. What gives?

So FREAKIN' many problems getting Qt 5.5.1 and QtCreator to work on an RPi2, it's driving me mad. A very old version of QtCreator works sorta, but it does not have the functionality that the new Creator does. If one loads the package from Debian, you get 5.3.2 and a QtCreator that works with that, sorta, kinda, maybe, a little bit.

I need to learn Qt for the desktop as well as embedded.

[anda_skoa]

if you can make actual Debian run on the device then you could use the "unstable" or "testing" branches, which usually have current versions.
(Debian unstable on my machine here has QtCreator 3.6, Qt 5.5.1)

If the device has a compiler, you can obviously always build Qt yourself.

If you have just started learning Qt then any version of Qt 5 will do.

If you are planning to do embedded development across several different devices then it will be a good idea to invest some time into learning about cross-compilation.

Cheers,
_

[skypuppy]

All good advice, anda_skoa. I've not tried the unstable versions yet.

Yes, the device has a full complement of Linux/UNIX tools. Building Qt myself is not viable either and what I am asking about in this thread, and specifically the Qt tool -- Maintenance Tool, a clever utility that apparently does not come with qt-open-everywhere (the version that you build yourself.)

I don't need embedded development across several devices. Yes, I'm already learning about cross-compilation. However, it appears one cannot build Qt itself, nor QtCreator, via cross-compilation as the tools don't exist apparently.

It's weird that Qt everywhere compiled, apparently without reported error the first time I tried it. However, it did not create and install qmake, and a couple of libraries were missing. Took 20 hours for the compile. So a week of research and I *think* I found the missing libraries. Ran 'make -clean' and compiled again and got stopped with several errors! So, 'make clean' again, then untarred the everywhere-source blob, and compiled yet again. This time, qmake was compiled (but not put into /usr/bin) but yet again, stopped partway through with compile errors due to stuff missing. I'm about ready to declare Qt not ready for prime time and move on to find a better development product.

[anda_skoa]

Yes, the device has a full complement of Linux/UNIX tools. Building Qt myself is not viable either and what I am asking about in this thread, and specifically the Qt tool -- Maintenance Tool, a clever utility that apparently does not come with qt-open-everywhere (the version that you build yourself.)

i've never used this tool.
Either using the packages or building directly from git.
That does this tool do?

I don't need embedded development across several devices.

Ok, if the only device you are ever going to use is the Raspberry Pi, then using that with a Linux distribution is probably the best setup.

Just wanted to check if you forsee using any other device.

Yes, I'm already learning about cross-compilation. However, it appears one cannot build Qt itself, nor QtCreator, via cross-compilation as the tools don't exist apparently.

Cross-compiling Qt is the standard way of doing it, since most devices don't come with a system that is backed by a software repository.
And QtCreator is usually run on the developer's workstation.

I'm about ready to declare Qt not ready for prime time and move on to find a better development product.

Getting cross-compiling to work is a bit of a setup hurdle, but boards and their systems are too different to be able to prepackage that.
Qt itself is currently the state of the art application framework across several industries on embedded devices and their many platforms (Linux, Windows, QNX, VxWorks, etc.)

Cheers,
_

[ChrisW67]

The MaintenanceTool is installed by the official Qt online installers and is used to maintain (duh) Qt library, source, and tool versions in one combined install location and from the official Qt repository. Official versions of the online installer exist only for Windows, OS X, and Linux (Intel, not ARM). The tool is not necessary in any way to the installation of Qt on supported platforms. Offline installers cover Andoid and iOS in addition to those above.

Since there are no official Qt builds for RPi and Linux on ARM there is no MaintenanceTool on that platform. To get Qt on RPi Linux is dependent on what your Linux distro repos provide, or what you are willing to build from source. Qt 5 should be fairly easily (not quickly) built on an RPi2 under Raspbian (http://www.ics.com/blog/qt-raspberry-pi-2) but has probably been packaged by now. Once you have a working Qt 5 library on the machine building Qt Creator should straightforward.

[skypuppy]

Thanks for the reply, Chris. No wonder I could not even find the source code for MaintenanceTool. I'm beginning to like Qt less and less. I had *such* high hopes. If I could get it working (ha!) on desktop Linux, which was not easy, that scored one point. If I could get it working for Raspian Jessie, I knew we had a winner.
Too bad, Digia. You've lost several hundred seats (most of them paid.) Guess we'll have to keep doing it the 2nd generation way.

20 something years old and Qt still isn't ready for prime time. Too bad.
/rant off

Skypuppy

[ChrisW67]

The maintenance tool source is readily available but not useful to solve your problem:
https://wiki.qt.io/Qt-Installer-Framework

In the event that your Linux distro does not package Qt 5 you just need to build the Qt library source on your RPi to get a native Qt library, or build the Qt library using a cross-compiler targeting ARM. Either of these things should be doable with a minimum of fuss.

This forum is not Digia. If you are truly an organisation looking for "hundred of seats" then you should be talking to Digia. A sale that size is good encouragement to help.