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1.11.0. Linux Installation Notes

On Linux, Wing can be installed from RPM, Debian package, or from tar archive. Use the latter if you do not have root access on your machine or wish to install Wing somewhere other than /usr/lib/wingide3.1.

Installing from RPM:

Wing can be installed from an RPM package on RPM-based systems, such as RedHat and Mandriva. To install, run rpm -i wingide3.1-3.1.0-1.i386.rpm as root or use your favorite RPM administration tool to install the RPM. Most files for Wing are placed under the /usr/lib/wingide3.1 directory and the wing3.1 command is placed in the /usr/bin directory.

Installing from Debian package:

Wing can be installed from a Debian package on Debian, Ubuntu, and other Debian-based systems. To install, run dpkg -i wingide3.1-3.1.0-1.i386.deb as root or use your favorite package administration tool to install. Most files for Wing are placed under the /usr/lib/wingide3.1 directory and the wing3.1 command is placed in the /usr/bin directory.

On 64-bit systems, you can install from the Debian package but need to first install the ia32-libs 32 bit compatibility libraries and then install Wing with the command dpkg -i --force-architecture wingide3.1-3.1.0-1.i386.deb The package contains what you need to run your debug process with 64-bit Python but Wing itself runs as a 32-bit application.

Installing from Tar Archive:

Wing may also be installed from a tar archive. This can be used on systems that do not use RPM or Debian packages, or if you wish to install Wing into a directory other than /usr/lib/wingide3.1. Unpacking this archive with tar -zxvf wingide-3.1.0-1-i386-linux.tar.gz will create a wingide-3.1.0-1-i386-linux directory that contains the wing-install.py script and a binary-package.tar file.

Running the wing-install.py script will prompt for the location to install Wing, and the location in which to place the executable wing3.1. These locations default to /usr/local/lib/wingide and /usr/local/bin, respectively. The install program must have read/write access to both of these directories, and all users running Wing must have read access to both.

Using System-wide GTK:

By default, Wing IDE runs with its own copy of GTK2 and does not pick up on the system-configured theme. This is done to avoid problems and bugs sometimes brought out by binary incompatibilities in GTK versions.

On Linux versions that include GTK version 2.6 or later, you can tell Wing IDE to use the system-defined GTK2 by setting the System GTK preference or running with the --system-gtk command line argument.

Using the system-wide GTK2 in this way generally works quite well but may result in crashing or display bugs due to binary incompatibilities in GTK and related libraries. If you set the preference and Wing fails to start, specify the --private-gtk command line option to override the preference.

Non-ascii File Paths on Older Linux Systems:

Some older Linux versions require setting the environment variable G_BROKEN_FILENAMES before Wing IDE's file open/save dialog will work properly with file paths that contain non-ascii characters. The environment variable is already set on some systems where it is needed but this is not always the case.