PureBasic Forums - English

I'm trying to install Purebasic on a antix laptop. I've made some progress, but when I run ./purebasic from the /purebasic/compilers folder it says it needs glib 2.38. The internet advises against change the glib version. So my question is, which is the correct Purebasic version to use? I got a 6.12 LTS version working, but I'd like to use the latest 6.21 and that's the one that's complaining.

TIA,
Russ

Hi Russ,

I had a similar issue recently trying to run 6.21 on MX Linux. Same error message. They are both based on Debian so they run with an older version of glibc(2.36).

Unless you are running a 32 bit version of Antix, go for the Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 version, that should do it.

Moulder.

Moulder,

Thanks, I'll give that a try and report back.

Just to give the context, I have an old netbook (n150) and an old Acer laptop (celeron) that I was prepping to donate. Neither was up to running windows anymore, as we have all experienced. So I was experimenting with a couple of Linux distros to see if one of them would make these things usable for someone. I discovered that the AntiX distro made the old n150 quite usable. So I may keep it as a lightweight travel computer, to surf the web, check in for flights and the like. Of course, at that point, why not see if Purebasic will run?

As an aside I tried AntiX on the Acer and it did work, but it sat on a blinking cursor for a good 20 minutes before it would finally boot to the desktop. After much playing, I found that MX Linux worked pretty well. I'm not putting Purebasic on that one as I think I've found a worthy home.

I had follows mk's instructions to install Purebasic on a Raspberry Pi 5 and it went very well.

I can see that making a proper installer for Linux is no joke, but it's a shame, as the OS is quite impressive once you get all the gremlins out of your setup. I imagine that's the problem with general adoption.

Russ

Moulder,

Your suggestion did the trick! My problem is not knowing enough about Linux to solve things like this. And Purebasic came up and I compiled a little program that I would like on this and it runs like a champ. It's really an example of why Purebasic is a good choice.

Thanks,
Russ

Just for grins, I asked chatgpt to make a script to install Purebasic on AnitX. This is what it spit out. I'm not going to run it, as things are working correctly, but it would be interesting if any of the experts could comment on this and tell us Linux newbies if it's usable:

#!/bin/bash

set -e

# === Configuration ===
PB_VERSION="6.03"
PB_ARCHIVE="purebasic-${PB_VERSION}-linux-x64.tar.gz"
PB_URL="https://www.purebasic.com/download/${PB_ARCHIVE}" # Update this URL if using full/paid version
INSTALL_DIR="/opt/purebasic"
SYMLINK="/usr/local/bin/purebasic"

# === Check architecture ===
ARCH=$(uname -m)
if [[ "$ARCH" != "x86_64" ]]; then
echo "Only 64-bit systems are supported. Detected: $ARCH"
exit 1
fi

# === Dependencies check ===
echo "[*] Checking required packages..."
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libx11-dev libxext-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libgtk-3-dev

# === Download PureBasic ===
echo "[*] Downloading PureBasic $PB_VERSION..."
cd /tmp
wget -c "$PB_URL"

# === Extract and Install ===
echo "[*] Installing to $INSTALL_DIR..."
sudo mkdir -p "$INSTALL_DIR"
sudo tar -xzf "$PB_ARCHIVE" -C "$INSTALL_DIR" --strip-components=1

# === Create symbolic link ===
echo "[*] Creating launcher at $SYMLINK..."
sudo ln -sf "$INSTALL_DIR/purebasic" "$SYMLINK"

# === Final info ===
echo " PureBasic $PB_VERSION installed successfully!"
echo "You can run it by typing: purebasic"

Hi Russ,

Glad it worked for you.

I mostly use Void Linux so the typical install scripts don't work for me. As far as that goes, I don't really install it, I just drop it in a folder of my choice, create a .desktop file for it so it shows up in my menu and make sure I've got all the dependencies installed.

A good way of finding what's missing, if anything, is to try running it in a terminal and look at the error messages.

There are some posts on the forum detailing what needs installing and how to do it etc, but because I'm a bit contrary I like to do things the hard way.

Regarding the chatGPT script, it might work on Debian based systems, doesn't look like it installs all the dependencies required and doesn't create a .desktop file. It probably won't blow up your laptop but use it at your own risk!

I'm no expert, by the way. A mate told me years ago that x is an unknown quantity and a spurt is a drip under pressure.

Moulder.

moulder61 wrote: Thu Jul 10, 2025 9:07 pm I mostly use Void Linux so the typical install scripts don't work for me. As far as that goes, I don't really install it, I just drop it in a folder of my choice, create a .desktop file for it so it shows up in my menu and make sure I've got all the dependencies installed.

I do the same thing but for my MX Linux machines - works perfectly!

@ Russ - - sorry I cannot answer your original question directly, I just recently removed my Antix system. It was on a very old PC and I needed the space.

However, I have an old 32-bit Thinkpad with the latest MX 23 and can confirm Purebasic 6.21 x86 Debian installs and works on there. Purebasic 6.12 also runs fine. This 19-year old Thinkpad X60 runs great on MX Linux and Purebasic is completely usable even with large source codes.

moulder61 is correct, for MX 64-bit releases 21 and 23 i use the Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 Purebasic file.

@deeproot

I think that basically, the latest PB release(Ubuntu 24.04) is OK if you have a rolling OS e.g. Void or Arch, or maybe even semi-rolling like Ubuntu, but something more stable like Debian or Slackware typically requires a slightly older version of PB.

There will likely be exceptions to this rule. Just covering my arse.

I'm just happy that people are wanting to use Linux at all, rather than that crap proprietary stuff out there.

Moulder.

Obviously it works with Ubuntu! The clue was in the name. Doh!

Moulder.

moulder61 wrote: Fri Jul 11, 2025 1:08 pm I think that basically, the latest PB release(Ubuntu 24.04) is OK if you have a rolling OS e.g. Void or Arch, or maybe even semi-rolling like Ubuntu, but something more stable like Debian or Slackware typically requires a slightly older version of PB.

Agreed - generally speaking I believe that's most likely the case, in that while still at the current version number, the Purebasic install built for an older Ubuntu release will often be needed for some other Linux distros.

MX Linux is always based on the "Stable" release of Debian because it aims to be reliable and easy rather than bleeding edge with the latest software. That's absolutely fine by me - I want my day-to-day systems to "just work" with no mucking about!

It's necessary for me to also run the commercial OS's but in recent years my Linux systems have been much less trouble and easier to live with!

That's why I also use Mint Linux LMDE 6, which is purely Debian based. The other Mint Linux versions are Ubuntu based.
What I don't like about Ubuntu 24.04 is that it has become very slow and the GUI flickers under VM (Parallels).
This was not the case with Ubuntu 22.04.

Mint Linux LMDE 6 is based on Debian 12 and therefore with PureBasic for Ubuntu 20.04 to 22.04
Only when Debian 13 is out will PureBasic be necessary for Ubuntu 24.04.