Problems with installing PuTTY from source

[dsliu]

I have downloaded the unix source archive putty-0.79.tar.gz of PuTTY from it's official website. After unzip the file, I ran those commands in the README file

PuTTY is built using CMake <https://cmake.org/>. To compile in thesimplest way (on any of Linux, Windows or Mac), run these commands in
the source directory:


cmake .
cmake --build .


Then, to install in the simplest way on Linux or Mac:


cmake --build . --target install

And I think I have successfully installed PuTTY according to the terminal outputs

[ 0%] Checking current git commit
[ 0%] Built target check_git_commit
[ 0%] Updating cmake_commit.c
[ 0%] Built target cmake_commit_c
[ 28%] Built target utils
[ 28%] Built target logging
[ 30%] Built target eventloop
[ 31%] Built target console
[ 32%] Built target settings
[ 32%] Built target object_lib_HAVE_CLMUL
[ 32%] Built target object_lib_HAVE_AES_NI
[ 33%] Built target object_lib_HAVE_SHA_NI
[ 45%] Built target crypto
[ 50%] Built target network
[ 53%] Built target keygen
[ 54%] Built target agent
[ 55%] Built target guiterminal
[ 56%] Built target noterminal
[ 56%] Built target all-backends
[ 56%] Built target sftpcommon
[ 57%] Built target sftpclient
[ 59%] Built target otherbackends
[ 60%] Built target testcrypt
[ 61%] Built target test_host_strfoo
[ 62%] Built target test_decode_utf8
[ 62%] Built target test_tree234
[ 63%] Built target test_wildcard
[ 63%] Built target test_cert_expr
[ 64%] Built target bidi_gettype
[ 64%] Built target bidi_test
[ 70%] Built target sshcommon
[ 73%] Built target sshclient
[ 74%] Built target plink-be-list
[ 74%] Built target plink
[ 75%] Built target pscp-be-list
[ 75%] Built target pscp
[ 75%] Built target psftp-be-list
[ 76%] Built target psftp
[ 78%] Built target psocks
[ 78%] Built target manpages
[ 81%] Built target sshserver
[ 82%] Built target puttyxpms
[ 83%] Built target ptermxpms
[ 83%] Updating sbcsdat.c
[ 84%] Built target generated_sbcsdat_c
[ 87%] Built target charset
[ 88%] Updating licence.h
[ 88%] Built target generated_licence_h
[ 88%] Built target fuzzterm-be-list
[ 89%] Built target fuzzterm
[ 89%] Built target osxlaunch
[ 90%] Built target psusan-be-list
[ 91%] Built target psusan
[ 93%] Built target puttygen-common
[ 93%] Built target puttygen
[ 94%] Built target cgtest
[ 94%] Built target testsc
[ 95%] Built target testzlib
[ 95%] Built target uppity-be-list
[ 97%] Built target uppity
[ 98%] Built target pageant-be-list
[100%] Built target pageant
Install the project...
-- Install configuration: ""
-- Installing: /usr/local/bin/plink
-- Installing: /usr/local/share/man/man1/plink.1
-- Installing: /usr/local/bin/pscp
-- Installing: /usr/local/share/man/man1/pscp.1
-- Installing: /usr/local/bin/psftp
-- Installing: /usr/local/share/man/man1/psftp.1
-- Installing: /usr/local/bin/psusan
-- Installing: /usr/local/share/man/man1/psusan.1
-- Installing: /usr/local/bin/puttygen
-- Installing: /usr/local/share/man/man1/puttygen.1
-- Installing: /usr/local/bin/pageant
-- Installing: /usr/local/share/man/man1/pageant.1

However, when I type

$ putty

in the terminal, it shows this

Command 'putty' not found, but can be installed with:

sudo apt install putty

Am I missing some steps like adding a softlink?

[MAFoElffen]

Do this...

find /usr/local/bin -name putty
printenv PATH

I think what your are going to find is that installed it into a subdirectory of /usr/local/bin/ and that it might not be in the path... Is it?

[SeijiSensei]

If you just want an SSH client, you can use the one that is included by default.

$ ssh server_name_or_ip

Use

username@server_name

if you are connecting to an account with different credentials from your own.

[MAFoElffen]

^^^ That is what I was wondering. I mean, I answered what you asked... But that brought up so many questions in my head, on the "why's?" behind it.

Putty is a GUI that adds terminal connections to Windows machines, that are already native to Linux through a terminal or console session.

Learning to use command line = You could just take that as an educational journey. So many things are limited or masked in Windows, that are not in Linux. Then again, there are many things that you can do from an admin cmd or PowerShell session, that most Windows users are not aware of... That is just having to look at things in a different perspective.

If you can't remember, or have problems understanding the options of commands, then I can see using a GUI to make things a bit easier. Also saving connections information as profiles can be handy to keep... But those kinds of things are already in applications such as Remmina, which also have connection types for RDP and VNC. So doing things with Putty, well, I think would be "limitted" and duplications of what you already have. Where other things have so much more to offer you.

Also, "Putty" is in the Ubuntu Repostitories. There is no need to have to compile it on your own, unless you really need some kind of new feature, that isn't in the repo version. I can't think of any with Putty. Putty is very old code. LOL

[dsliu]

It didn't work:

(base) dsliu@dsliu:~$ find /usr/local/bin -name putty
(base) dsliu@dsliu:~$ printenv PATH
/home/dsliu/miniconda3/bin:/home/dsliu/miniconda3/condabin:/usr/local/texlive/2021/bin/x86_64-linux:/usr/local/lib/nodejs/node-v14.16.1-linux-x64/bin:/home/dsliu/.local/bin:/home/dsliu/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin:/home/dsliu/.local/bin

[The Cog]

Compiling something for source should be the last resort for fixing a problem.
What's the problem you trying to solve. Why are you trying to install a Linux port of a Windows copy of a Unix program in the first place? Why not just use the native tools that come with Ubuntu?
If you just want to make an ssh connection, open a terminal and type "ssh <hostname>". If you insist on having a GUI round your command-line ssh connection, both putty and remmina are in the repositories. "sudo apt install remmina" or "sudo apt install putty".

If the answer is "Well that's what I want to do and I don't want to talk about it", then that's fine. I'm used to that.

[MAFoElffen]

All asked in posts #3 & #4, where he skirted around that and didn't answer any.

First off, he installed minimal-desktop, which was missing build dependencies. He still has not posted the make log, which would note what it was mssing and where it failed.

Even if he "needs it" for something,it is already built and packaged in the repo's.

[TheFu]

PuTTY was created mainly for the MS-Windows platform. On Unix/Linux systems, any terminal program (there must be 50 of them) is a terminal and connections via ssh are trivial through them as post #3 above shows. Pick any terminal program you like and use ssh from it. This is usually a foreign idea to Windows-people.

If you want a point-n-click program, you can set that up too. Just a 1-line script will do. Here's one that I use, daily, constantly,

xterm -geometry 80x22+0+630 $XTERM_OPTS -e ssh -X deneb &

I'm using xterms, which is a bit old-school, but they are very light. I like my terminals for specific systems to be placed in the same location every time I start them. Upper left is for the local system (I start 4 terminals there). Upper right is for another VM host (2 terminals), lower right (1 terminal) is for a specific project I'm working and lower-left is for my "desktop" system to let me launch desktop programs like browsers, fat email programs, etc.

Most programs I run actually don't run locally, but I want the window and controls to be on the current workstation I happen to be sitting at.

[krants]

I had the same problem and solved it..

Run before "ReadMe" steps

./mkunxarc.sh

[ActionParsnip]

Why use PuTTY at all?