I noticed, recently, that KiCAD footprint libraries now carry the .pretty extension, and that these files cannot be read by the latest stable release of KiCAD.  In order to make use of these libraries it is necessary to install a recent build of KiCAD, which has undergone a significant overhaul of its footprint library support.

As a new Ubuntu user, it was not clear to me how one would go about installing a daily build of KiCAD.  The instructions on the KiCAD website state:

Old stable should be in the official Ubuntu repo. Daily builds are available in js-reynaud’s PPA.

But how can you go about adding this PPA? And, once the PPA has been added, how do you then use it to install a new-build of KiCAD?

Here are the steps you need to take.

Adding the PPA

First you need to add the PPA.  You are going to run a command that will add a new PPA for KiCAD to your linux sources list, so that apt-get will use it to install future versions of KiCAD.  To add the PPA, open a terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:js-reynaud/ppa-kicad

Follow the on-screen instructions, and your result should look something like:

 

Install daily build

Once the PPA has been added, you first need to update apt so that it knows about the new versions of KiCAD in your PPA.  To do that, type:

sudo apt-get update

You will see a lot of output in the console.  Don’t worry; the apt service is just busy hitting all of your sources and updating itself so that it knows about all the latest software.  When it gets to the PPA you just added, it’ll update its knowledge of available KiCAD versions.

Once apt has updated, installing the daily build is then as simple as typing the following into your terminal:

sudo apt-get install kicad

Follow the instructions, agreeing where necessary, and then you should be up and running with a new version of KiCAD