Getting Started with Elixir Desktop

General notes

Elixir Desktop depends on the bleeding edge versions of

Erlang OTP/24
Elixir 1.12
WxWidgets 3.1.15

Unfortunately these versions are not yet (2021-05-20) available on most OS package managers and such manual installation along these instructions is needed:

Building on Ubuntu Linux

Update: Using ASDF

It has been reported that under linux using asdf it is possible to install the needed dependencies automatically.

asdf plugin-update --all
asdf install erlang 24.0.1

Reference: https://elixirforum.com/t/cannot-run-desktop-example-app/41953/5

Install System Dependencies:

sudo apt install inotify-tools libtool automake libgmp-dev make libwxgtk-webview3.0-gtk3-dev libssl-dev libncurses5-dev curl git

Install wxWidgets 3.1.5:

sudo apt install libjpeg-dev libpng-dev libtiff-dev zlib1g-dev libncurses5-dev libssh-dev unixodbc-dev libgmp3-dev libwxbase3.0-dev libwxgtk3.0-gtk3-dev libwxgtk-webview3.0-gtk3-dev libsctp-dev lksctp-tools build-essential libgtk-3-dev libnotify-dev libsecret-1-dev catch

mkdir ~/projects && cd ~/projects
git clone https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets.git
cd wxWidgets; 
git checkout v3.1.5
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/wxWidgets --enable-clipboard --enable-controls \
      --enable-dataviewctrl --enable-display \
      --enable-dnd --enable-graphics_ctx \
      --enable-std_string --enable-svg \
      --enable-unicode --enable-webview \
      --with-expat --with-libjpeg \
      --with-libpng --with-libtiff \
      --with-opengl --with-zlib \
      --disable-precomp-headers --disable-monolithic

make -j4

Install Erlang OTP/24:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kerl/kerl/master/kerl
chmod a+x kerl
sudo mv kerl /usr/bin/
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/projects/wxWidgets/lib
echo "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\"$HOME/projects/wxWidgets/lib\"" >> ~/.bashrc
export KERL_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS=--with-wxdir=$HOME/projects/wxWidgets
kerl build git https://github.com/erlang/otp.git maint-24 maint-24
kerl install maint-24 ~/maint-24
. ~/maint-24/activate

Install Elixir 1.12:

mkdir $HOME/elixir && cd $HOME/elixir
wget https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/releases/download/v1.12/Precompiled.zip
unzip Precompiled.zip
echo "export PATH=\"$HOME/elixir/bin:\$PATH\"" >> ~/.bashrc
export PATH="$HOME/elixir/bin:$PATH"

Install NodeJS:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.37.2/install.sh | bash
nvm install v12.16.1

Note: If you get "nvm: command not found" after running "nvm install v12.16.1" in the terminal, try closing the current teminal, opening a new one, and then running "nvm install v12.16.1" again. (see https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/blob/master/README.md#troubleshooting-on-linux for more information).

Troubleshooting non-displayed taskbar icons on Ubuntu

Install topicons or topiconsfix GNOME shell extension to access the dDrive GUI.

Building on macOS

These instructions are based on brew.

System dependencies:

brew install binutils automake elixir kerl libtool gmp
export PATH=/usr/local/opt/binutils/bin:$PATH

WxWidgets with recent macOS fixes

brew tap desktop/homebrew-extra
brew install desktop/extra/wxmac@3.1.5 --HEAD
brew link desktop/extra/wxmac@3.1.5

Install Erlang OTP/24

kerl build git https://github.com/erlang/otp.git maint-24 maint-24
kerl install maint-24 ~/maint-24
. ~/maint-24/activate

Install nodejs / npm 12.16.1

brew install nvm
nvm install v12.16.1

Building on Windows

Working and compiling under Windows is probably the most difficult. The setup is using msys2 instead of WSL because we want to produce a native Desktop application that can run on any Windows machine even without WSL installed...

Install Dependencies:

Install Erlang 24: https://erlang.org/download/otp_win64_24.0.exe
- Or Build: https://erlang.org/doc/installation_guide/INSTALL-WIN32.html
Install msys2 https://www.msys2.org/

Install additional msys2 packages from an msys2 64-bit shell

pacman -Syu
pacman -S --noconfirm pacman-mirrors pkg-config
pacman -S --noconfirm --needed base-devel autoconf automake make libtool mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain mingw-w64-x86_64-openssl mingw-w64-x86_64-libtool git

Install Elixir 1.12:

From an msys2 64-bit shell do:

mkdir $HOME/elixir && cd $HOME/elixir
wget https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/releases/download/v1.12/Precompiled.zip
unzip Precompiled.zip
echo "export PATH=\"$HOME/elixir/bin:\$PATH\"" >> ~/.bashrc
export PATH="$HOME/elixir/bin:$PATH"

Install Node *

Get npm & node 12.x from https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v12.x/

Then in msys2 64-bit shell add the nodejs binary path to your PATH variable.

Install dependencies to build an installer

Get nsis https://nsis.sourceforge.io/Main_Page

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