C and C++ Compilers are missing in live iso image

Feedback Feature Request
#1

Hello,

I have installed the latest Manjaro 20.1.1 to my PC and have noticed that the Qt Designer is pre-installed as it is included in the live image with KDE Plasma 5.

But as soon as I launched the terminal and entered the gcc command, I got a response that it wasn’t found. The g++ compiler was also not found.

Compared to the previous release, the C and C++ compilers along with the Qt Designer are all included in the live image but for the latest release I have mentioned, only Qt Designer is included. This doesn’t make sense as without the C++ compiler, the Qt Designer is useless and now I’m assuming that the latest release may be a mistake.

I wish the latest release should still include both C and C++ compilers along with Qt Designer in the live iso image the way it was. All these applicatons were included in the previous release of Manjaro KDE Plasma making it attractive to users like me.

But now, I’m quite dissapointed with the latest release as the C and C++ compilers were pulled out from the live iso image. I prefer these software to be available for use as soon as the operating system is installed.

#2

Moving to Feature Request.

As an aside, is it that difficult to issue:

sudo pacman -Syu --needed base-devel?

#3

I’m fairly certain these packages (gcc and the rest of base-devel) has not been in the Live ISO images, since Manjaro removed AUR support by default.
If you need to compile software, you should know that you need to double check that the base-devel group is installed. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#4

Qt designer is not “intentionally” included in the isos. It’s just that we get qt packages from Arch linux, and Arch packages qt designer with qt. So any qt apps also pull qt designer even when it is not needed.

#5

I’m not saying it is difficult. It is about convenience.

If the software that I have mentioned would be ready for use after successful installation of the OS, the more convenient it would be as I won’t have to do a separate download as the tools I need are ready on the spot.

Hopefully, the newer release would again include the C and C++ compilers together with the Qt Designer in the live iso image the way it was.

Thanks for moving this topic of mine to feature request and I hope this would be granted.

#6

Guess I could hijack this thread to ask why iso-profiles’ mhwd package list pulls in GCC and other dev tools via zfs and mesa-opencl. It feels like a lot of stuff in there is quite useless, am I wrong? I removed them from my manjaro spin and haven’t felt any negative consequences so far, except of course for a smaller ISO size!

#7

Zfs is needed on the isos for manjaro-architect. But if gcc can be avoided on iso, that woud be beneficial.

#8

Perhaps you’re not a software developer and this is the reason why the dev tools like gcc is not important to you. But for me who is inclined to software development, those tools you considered as usesless are essential for people like me.

#9

Why avoid the inclusion of gcc and other dev tools in the iso? It would be nice to have these tools at hand for many software developers. As I have mentioned in my previous post, it would be more convenient to make these tools ready.

#10

To reduce the iso size. It’s a big package that is not needed by everyone. The compilation is not usually done on the live environment anyway, so there is little benefit for including it on the iso.

Installing the dev tools is very easy, and ~95% of Manjaro users are not developers. It’s an essential tool for me too, but I’m not representative of the general user base. It’s useless bloat for a significant portion of our target audience. Gcc is mostly needed for compiling AUR packages, and that is something that is user responsibility, as we don’t support AUR.

Not using additional bandwidth to download unneeded software is actually a big deal for some users with limited internet access. So have to think of them too. If gcc was difficult to install or if compiling software on the live system would be desirable, I would agree on including it by default. But this is not the case. You are going to install your ide and the dependencies of the software you are developing anyway, so just adding base-devel to that same install command is not that big of a deal.

We can’t support all use cases out of the box anyway. We could make a special developer edition that included all the stuff for development, but what to include by default? C is not the only language around, should we include Ruby, Haskell, Rust, Typescript or Go too? Which IDE should we ship? Going down this rabbit hole quickly results in a bloated system. Build dependencies and developement tools are something that is generally accepted to belong to the user discretion. We make them available and easy to install, but not everything can or should come pre-installed out of the box.

3 Likes
#11

Perhaps you’re not a software developer

:laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::joy::joy::joy::joy:
Oh I’m sorry! I actually am tho :slight_smile:

I think I should reiterate that GCC is not installed by default at all, it’s only shipped in mhwdfs, which doesn’t actually help anyone, it just takes up space really

#12

Maybe you should consider getting rid of it in mhwdfs too then, since as of right now, mhwdfs does include gcc and other dev packages.

1 Like
#13

Doesn’t it depend on what type of development is being done beyond C/++: Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, Web, etc. I use to use Netbeans, now Eclipse. I don’t expect to see development packages on a generic live ISO by default, but it would be nice if these environments were in Groups to make it quick and easy to download and install as needed.

That ~95% intrigued me. Just for fun, I asked the Internet :slight_smile: what Linux Distribution do devs use, and according to Techradar, in 2020, it’s Manjaro. On Fossbytes Manjaro # 8, Dzone #9 (before Debian, but after Ubuntu and SuSE).

Isn’t the purpose of a Live ISO just to try before installing or disaster recovery.