This blog post is a repeat of an email that I sent to the Mono mailing list back in July 2013:
http://lists.ximian.com/pipermail/mono-list/2013-July/050114.html

The problem is that there are no recent packages for the major Linux distributions offered at http://www.go-mono.com/mono-downloads/download.html and http://monodevelop.com/Download

I personally use Mono and MonoDevelop for developing and deploying OpenPetra, an open source accounting and contact management system for charities and missions organisations.

I am using the OBS (Open Build Service) from build.opensuse.org to build recent packages of Mono and MonoDevelop for the Linux distributions CentOS, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, and openSUSE.

The installation for MonoDevelop is documented here:

http://software.opensuse.org/download/package?project=home:tpokorra:mono&package=monodevelop-opt
This will install Mono as well.

I also have builds of the Beta and the Alpha versions of MonoDevelop.

If you only want to install Mono, see here:

http://software.opensuse.org/download/package?project=home:tpokorra:mono&package=mono-opt

There are also packages for mono-xsp, mod_mono and mono-tools (including monodoc).

Package mono-libgdiplus makes sure that the libgdiplus is linked properly, which is important for GUI applications.

Since you have the right repo from installing Mono already, you can just run this:

#for RPM based distros:
yum install mono-libgdiplus-opt mod_mono-opt mono-xsp-opt mono-tools-opt

or (please note slightly different name for mod_mono-opt, somehow Debian does not like the underscore in the package name…)

#for Debian based distros:
apt-get install mono-libgdiplus-opt modmono-opt mono-xsp-opt mono-tools-opt

MonoDevelop and Mono (and the other mono specific packages) will be installed to /opt to avoid conflict with the Mono version that comes with your Linux distribution.

To run this Mono on the command line, you can add this line to your .bash_profile file:

 . /opt/mono/env.sh

If you are interested in the way how the packages are built, have a look here: https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/home:tpokorra:mono

Easy installation of current Mono and MonoDevelop for all major Linux Distributions
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11 thoughts on “Easy installation of current Mono and MonoDevelop for all major Linux Distributions

  • December 11, 2013 at 7:16 pm
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    Thanks, latest mono works great.
    But I have troubles with gtk-sharp2:
    – I need to install glib-sharp2 (need to add requires to the package)
    – After that, mono is unable to find libglib_2.0-0
    Is there a .config missing to help mono to find the library ?
    I’m testing on openSuse 13.10 and Ubuntu 12.4 with a simple gtk application displaying a button in c#: same problem.
    Thanks in advance for your help.

    • December 11, 2013 at 9:42 pm
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      I think you need to run this line before starting your program:
      . /opt/mono/env.sh
      mono mytest.exe

      I just tried it with a sample gtk program, and it worked.

      Please note the space between the dot and /opt/mono/env.sh.

      If the env.sh is not called, I get an error about missing gtk-sharp as well.

    • December 12, 2013 at 12:05 pm
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      Sorry, but nothing changes.
      The glib-sharp.dll.config is under /opt/mono/lib/mono/gac/glib-sharp/2.12.0.0__35e101… and I get the same error because mono can’t find the .config file.
      I tried on a fresh install too. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong (Monodevelop is not installed for info: I will try to install it to see if something changes).

    • December 12, 2013 at 12:07 pm
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      ah, I have MonoDevelop installed.
      You can try to install the package mono-libgdiplus-opt and see if that brings gtk support.

    • December 12, 2013 at 2:31 pm
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      Sorry, my mistake !
      My .exe folder was containing a glib-sharp.dll. After removing it, the app was running. I will see if this could be considered as a bug.
      Thank you for your help and sorry again.

  • December 12, 2013 at 10:12 pm
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    One last question, do you plan to add gtk-sharp3 latest build to your packages?

  • December 19, 2013 at 9:51 am
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    Thank you very much! I’ve tried to compile mono and monodevelop N times from sources and all fails , your dist is the best !

  • February 7, 2014 at 4:24 pm
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    There are now also packages for VisualBasic.net on Mono: the package is called mono-basic-opt.

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