[Haskell-cafe] installing Haskell

[Erik de Castro Lopo]

love_pku wrote:

>   It is true that I have asked about the installation of Haskell on
> the beginners list. But the problems appeared one after another. I
> just felt very sorry to trouble other peopel again and again.

Its still better to keep it in one place so that people can see the
thread of conversation and see all the information you have provided
about the issue.

The beginner list is also better for issue like this because that
list is only beginners and people willing to help them. Here the
discussion ranges more widely and as far as I am concerned, the less
beginners hear about ZygoHistomorphicPrepromorphisms the better.

> Thus ,I begin to wonder if I am too stupid or the installation of
> Haskell is really troublesome.

No. I tried it and I had problems similar to yours. See below.
  
>   Another thing, I am using the platform you have recomended in the
> letter.

Which instructions are you using?

> And I want to install it on Ubuntu 8.04 System.

That version of Ubuntu is the Hardy Long Term Support version. In the
next month or so the new LTS release of Ubuntu (Lucid Lynx) will come
out. This new release has the current version of ghc (6.12.1) and all
of the Haskell Platform packages available via the standard Debian/
Ubuntu apt-get/apititude/synaptic tools.

If you can wait a month or two, that would be a very easy and familiar
way of getting something which is very, very close to the current
official Haskell Platform release.

If you are brave, you could probably upgrade to Lucid Lynx now and
get the benefits of apt-get now, but you should be prepared for
some minor bugs in the rest of the Lucid Lynx install if you install
before the official release.

If you know enough to set up a chroot system, you could probably
set up a lucid chroot and use the lucid system for haskell work
while leaving the rest of your system with the stable hardy release.

> The problems I run into as described in the letter I send to
> Haskell-cafe list ,I think , is difficult. It seemed that there is
> version conflict among cabal, network, and Http packages  in the
> Haskell platform 2009.2.0.2 .  I am unable to install the package cabal.  

Which version of ghc do you have installed? Ubuntu hardy comes
with ghc-6.8.3 which is unlikely to be compatible with the
Haskell Platform which required ghc-6.10.4.

This page:

    http://hackage.haskell.org/platform/

says this:


    For unix systems, there is a generic source installer.

    You need GHC 6.10.4 installed. You should get this from your
    distro or alternatively you can get a GHC 6.10.4 generic binary.

    * haskell-platform-2009.2.0.2.tar.gz

    Download and unpack the installer. Then (possibly with 'sudo'):

        ./configure
        make
        make install


I've just tried following these instructions in a hardy chroot and
I ran into a bunch of problems.

  - The install of ghc-6.10.4 in /usr/local resulted in some files
    not being world readable.

  - It was tricky to figure out what tools and libraries needed to
    be installed to make it all work (required build-essential, 
    libgmp3-dev and libz-dev).

  - On the final install of the platform I got the following error:

        erikd at hardy > sudo make install
        scripts/install.sh
        Installing mtl-1.1.0.2...

        Error:
        The mtl-1.1.0.2/Setup script does not exist or cannot be run

With this in mind, I would recommend that you try the Lucid Lynx
path (either an upgrade of your hardy system or a Lucid chroot on
your hardy system). You won't get something exactly like the Haskell
Platform (ie you get ghc-6.12.1 instead if 6.10.4), but you are more
likely to get a working compiler.

If you are using a chroot, also consider trying a Debian Testing
chroot because the Ubuntu haskell packages all come from Debian
so sunning Debian places you a little closer to the source making
it easier and more effective to log bugs.

FWIW, I run Debian Testing and only use the Debian packaged
libraries.

HTH,
Erik
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Erik de Castro Lopo
http://www.mega-nerd.com/