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As a summary: I wanted to install the latest SCilab, which is not available in the Software centre. I downloaded the tar.gz file from the website. I then followed the instructions from response 7 here How do I install a .tar.gz (or .tar.bz2) file?. This didn't work for me. So I removed the file (I think), and extracted the file a different way and ran the program from there.

Okay, so I downloaded Scilab from their website as a tar.gz file.

I then copied the file to /opt:

 sudo cp [download name].tar.gz /opt/

I then extraced the file and deleted the tar.gz file:

 sudo tar -xvf [download name].tar.gz
sudo rm -rf [download name].tar.gz

I found the folder. It was called Scilab-5.4.1. I think the next step changes the "access" settings, and so I changed it as follows:

 sudo chmod 770 Scilab-5.4.1/

So this is owner and group permission to read, write and execute.

I then tried the symbolic link thing:

 sudo ln -s /opt/Scilab-5.4.1/ /usr/bin/scilab

After this, I tried different ways to run the programme from the terminal, but to no avail. I then looked for the Scilab folder, which I found in opt. I tried to delete the folder "Windows-style" (send to recycling bin) but it wouldn't let me. I also tried purge from the terminal but it couldn't find the programme. I then used:

 sudo rm -r /opt/Scilab-5.4.1

The folder disappeared. After this, I downloaded the file again, and transferred it to opt in the process:

 sudo tar xzvf [download name].tar.gz -C /opt/

I then went to the folder (in terminal):

 cd /opt/scilab-5.4.1

And opened Scilab:

 ./bin/scilab

This seems to work. However, there is a Scilab programme logo in the launcher (Unity), but it disappears on closing the programme and there is no logo in the recently used programmes section in the dash.

I want to know that was there an error in my installing process done in the previous unsuccessful install, since I can't find the Scilab logo anywhere ?

Why first method didn't work but the second, simpler method, seemed to work okay (I can at least open the programme) ?

(The final peculiar thing is my "history" in the terminal: using the up-arrow to navigate to previous commands, the history suggests I didn't use rm -r, even though I am almost certain I did.)

Community
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Jayjay
  • 55

1 Answers1

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To make Scilab present in the path, you must modify your symbolic link creation to:

sudo ln -s /opt/Scilab-5.4.1/bin/scilab /usr/bin/scilab

That way you can type scilab in the shell and open it. For creating the icon:

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/scilab.desktop

Now add the following content:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Scilab
Comment=Scilab-5.4.1
Exec=/usr/bin/scilab
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true

Now you can pin it to the dash or just searching for "Scilab".

Braiam
  • 69,112