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# $Id: INSTALL_ghdl.txt 537 2013-10-06 09:06:23Z mueller $

The w11 project uses the open source VHDL simulator

  ghdl

It used to be part of most distributions. Unfortunately the Debian maintainer 
for ghdl refused at some point to integrate ghdl into Debian Etch. Therefore
ghdl was part of Debian Lenny, and again of Debian Squeeze, and is missing
again in Debian Wheezy (the current 'stable').

The glitch at Debian unfortunately lead to the removal of ghdl from Ubuntu, 
which is based on Debian. Ubuntu Lucid (10.04) and up to Oneiric (11.10) 
included ghdl, the currently maintained versions Precise (12.04 LTS) and 
alter don't.

To install ghdl on an up-to-date Debian or Ubuntu systems you have the
following options {as of early October 2013}:

- Ubuntu Precise, Quantal, and Raring

  Thanks to Peter Gavin Ubuntu packages for GHDL are available from his PPA
  'Personal Package Archives', see

    https://launchpad.net/~pgavin/+archive/ghdl

  So to install ghdl under Ubuntu use

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pgavin/ghdl
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install ghdl

- Debian Wheezy

  Thanks to Joris van Rantwijk Debian packages for GHDL are available
  from the web site

    http://jorisvr.nl/ghdl_debian.html

  There are also Ubuntu packages, but Joris focus is clearly on Debian.

Only Debian and Ubuntu are actively used by the w11a developer. The 
situation for other linux distributions is therefore just taken from
the respective web sites:

- Suse
  For Suse 12.2 and 12.3 un-official ghdl packages are available, but they
  seem to be based on the long obsolete ghdl version 0.27.

- Redhat/Fedora
  For Fedora 18,19, and 20 packages are available based on ghdl 0.29

- Gentoo
  Packages, marked 'unstable', are available based on ghdl 0.29 and 0.27