An installation package for Scratch on Debian/Ubuntu Linux is now available!

The installation package will install Scratch, and create an icon on the student user's Desktop.

Note This section shows how to install Scratch 1.2. If you have difficulties with Scratch 1.2, see the Scratch 1.1 section below.

• Download the Scratch 1.2 Installer
  • The file will be saved to your Desktop as Scratch1.2.tgz
• CD to the directory (your Desktop) where you downloaded the Scratch Installer.
• If you're installing for ByteWorks, Be sure to be logged in as student if you're creating an image or installing on a student machine.
• To be safe, run the following command:

md5sum Scratch1.2.tgz | grep -v 38ea82b4b2b2139b49b5afccd3a84f2d

You should not get any output from this command. (No news is good news) If there's any output from the command, you should not install this file.

• Unzip the tarball using the following command:

tar -xvf Scratch1.2.tgz 

• You should now see scratch_installer.pl and another tar file called Scratch.tar.gz
• Run the installation Perl script using the below syntax:

./scratch_install.pl

• You will be prompted to install Scratch to the $HOME directory. If you want to install Scratch to another location, see “Customizing” below.

• The installation script will now un-zip Scratch's files, and create a launcher on your Desktop. You should see “Scratch Cat” on your desktop.
• Double-click the cat and Scratch should start.

• Download the Scratch Installer
  • The file is called 'scratch_installer.tar.tgz'
• CD to the directory where you downloaded the Scratch Installer.
• Be sure to be logged in as student if you're creating an image or installing on a student machine.
• Unzip the tarball using the following command:

tar -xvf scratch_installer.tar.tgz

• A new directory called 'scratch_installer' should now be in your directory.
• CD to scratch_installer
• Run the installation Perl script using the below syntax

./scratch_install.pl

• You will be prompted to install Scratch to the $HOME directory. If you want to install Scratch to another location, see “Customizing” below.

• The installation script will now un-zip Scratch's files, and create a launcher on your Desktop. You should see “Scratch Cat” on your desktop.
• Double-click the cat and Scratch should start.

To install Scratch to a different directory than the $HOME directory use this command:

./scratch_install.pl --install-dir /some/path/that/you/want

However, read the Gory Details section below before installing to a different directory.

You can use scratch_installer.pl to uninstall Scratch if you made a boo-boo.

./scratch_install.pl --uninstall

If you installed Scratch to a different directory than the default, then run

./scratch_install.pl --uninstall --install-dir /the/custom/directory/you/installed/to

The package contains a custom Perl “installer” script as well as a tarball which was downloaded separately from a generous person at http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/scratch.html

• scratch_install.pl creates the shell script which invokes the squeak program that Scratch needs to run.
• It also chmods the shell script to be executable.
• scratch_installer.pl creates a desktop icon on the Desktop of the user that is currently running the program.
• scratch_install.pl can be run interactively, or as part of a batch file (for our image builds?). In non-interactive mode, the script does not prompt, and just outputs the details of the install.

I decided to abort the idea of creating a .deb package. Here are a few of the reasons:

• Scratch is currently Windows/Mac. This poses problems because many of the defaults in the Scratch program will default to the directory where it's installed. For example, The default “Save” directory for users' projects is the directory where Scratch is installed. I tried putting Scratch in my /usr/shared directory, and then tried to save a project. I got a permission denied error. So students would have to save their projects to some other directory, causing unnecessary confusion.
• Deb packages favor a certain directory structure. They're intended primarily for C program projects, and are much more complex than the simple functionality which we needed.
• I researched many deb package help sites, including the following:
  • http://debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide
  • http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-pkg_basics.en.html
  • http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT8047723203.html
• I was still not able to come up with a .deb file in a reasonable amount of time.
• A linux version of Scratch is estimated for the end of the year.

I will put up better instructions later (11/11/2008)

• scratch1.3.tgz
• Customized w/“NatesFavoriteScratchPrograms” folder in the Projects folder.
• md5sum: cc0b355593ce39dd32810e9bd56779c9

Scratch 1.? installer for Linux:

• http://notesmine.com/_media/scratch_installer.tar.tgz