[ale] HOWTO Install Mono C# development tools in Ubuntu 10.04

Sun Sep 12 20:18:32 EDT 2010

Hello all.  15 years ago, I was a programmer for Delta Air Lines using the 
Clipper language.  Since then, I've been threatening to learn a new modern 
programming language.  Now, I'm at the point of starting to carry out the 
threat.  I now desire to learn cross platform programming in C#, which I 
believe will be a marketable job skill.  After some research, I discovered 
the Mono project ( http://monoproject.org ) and MonoDevelop for an IDE ( 
http://monodevelop.com/ ).  I've installed the latest version of the Mono 
tools on my 3 Ubuntu 10.04 machines.  To the greatest extent possible, I 
intend to install the same tools on the Windows side of my dual boot 
systems.  I haven't figured out how to install MonoDevelop yet, unless the 
procedures I'm about to document put it somewhere and I don't know about it.

I thought I'd document the steps necessary to install these tools on Ubuntu 
10.04.  Anyone is welcome to share this information, just give me 
credit.  See my signature.  At this point, I'm pretty sure I have Mono 
installed, but I don't know exactly what to do with it at the moment.  Any 
advice and assistance is welcome and appreciated.  I'd like to go through 
several C# books I have and do all the example programs both in Visual 
Studio Express 2010 and also Mono / MonoDevelop to the greatest extent 
possible.  Also, if possible, I'd like to use the Mono / MonoDevelop tools 
in the Windows environment.

WARNING, I know just enough about this to be dangerous.  Some of the steps 
I describe may be redundant, superfluous, or incomplete.  If you have any 
doubts about these procedures, do your own due diligence before carrying 
them out.

As I understand it, Ubuntu 10.04 already includes Mono 2.4 as part of the 
base system, and a number of system components depend on it.  I guess there 
is some risk in upgrading to 2.6.7, as I describe here.  I couldn't find 
enough data to quantify the risk, so I decided to take it, since I want to 
be using the same version on both Ubuntu and Windows.  All I know at this 
point is that my computers haven't crashed.  I don't know if there will be 
any long term effects, or what the effect will be when I upgrade Ubuntu 
versions.

Here are the steps I followed.  I prefer to use GUI tools when possible 
rather than the terminal.

01) Start the Synaptic Package Manager.
02) Click the settings menu, then repositories.
03) Click the other software tab.
04) Click the Add button.
05) Type this line in the dialog box: deb http://badgerports.org lucid main
06) Click the Add Source button.
07) Leave Synaptic open and start up Firefox.
08) Type the following into the address bar: 
http://badgerports.org/directhex.ppa.asc and press Enter.
09) The pgp key for this repository will appear.
10) Click the file menu, then save page as.
11) Navigate to the desktop and click Save.
12) Close the tab with the pgp key in it and / or close Firefox.
13) Return to Synaptic.
14) The settings dialog should still be open.
15) Click on the authentication tab.
16) Click the import key file button.
17) Navigate to the desktop.  If desktop is not obvious, navigate to 
/home/<your login>/Desktop.
18) Select the file you saved: directhex.ppa.asc, then click OK.  (Or you 
can double click it.)
19) Click the Close button.
20) A repositories changed notice will probably appear.
21) Click the Close button.
22) Click the Reload button.  This is critical.
23) In the quick search box of Synaptic, type mono-runtime.
24) Select the mono-runtime entry and choose mark for upgrade.  If it 
doesn't say upgrade, ESC out and go back to step 22.
25) Search for mono-devel.
26) Select the mono-devel entry and choose mark for installation.
27) Search for mono-complete.
28) Select the mono-complete entry and choose mark for installation.
29) Apply the changes.  This will install a large number of items.
30) Start a terminal.
31) Type mono --version and press Enter.
32) You should get something like this:

ron at TAZ1:~$ mono --version
Mono JIT compiler version 2.6.7 (Debian 2.6.7-2ubuntu1~dhx1)
Copyright (C) 2002-2010 Novell, Inc and Contributors. www.mono-project.com
	TLS:           __thread
	GC:            Included Boehm (with typed GC and Parallel Mark)
	SIGSEGV:       altstack
	Notifications: epoll
	Architecture:  amd64
	Disabled:      none
ron at TAZ1:~$

33) You may now delete the directhex.ppa.asc file from your desktop.
34) Open the main system menu / programming sub menu.
35) Select Mono Documentation.  The program should open up.

That's all I have for now.  These steps verified you have installed the 
mono tools and documentation.  As I get more info, I'll be glad to 
share.  Anyone with more knowledge than me, feel free to jump in.  Hope 
this information is helpful.

Ron

--------------------------
(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to 
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy 
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier

770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT c3energy.com