Comment 29 for bug 103791

@Mackenzie: in answer to 1 and 2, I think a simple look at the diff.gz explains why ;)

For everybody following the thread, I'll try to summarize why nobody has packaged pcsx2 in Debian and Ubuntu (maybe it will encourage others to pick up some of the work instead of just "me too" comments):

1. Licensing work:

It's an emulator, and not a simple one. Usually "emulator" equals "mess of copyright/license problems", with code borrowed here and there without everyone's notice. Thus, if you plan to package it, you'll probably spend a few days of full time work just tracking everything (the fact any project says all copyright is ok means nothing if even one file comes from somewhere else), maybe only to realise there won't be any way to get the package distributed. Not speaking about pcsx2, but there's other open source emulators not packaged for just this reason, while the relevant projects still distributes the binaries. That's also probably the reasons lots of emulator developers prefer closed-source, since open sourcing would reveal the licensing issues :(

In the case of pcsx2, you'll also have to make sure the necessary plugins are redistributable, since they come from other sources and can have different licenses. Only one necessary plugin affected, and you end up with a useless program.

2. Programming:

Last I checked, pcsx2 wasn't designed with Linux packaging in mind, more like a "drop where you've got user rights and start/configure". Packaging it would entail modifying the code so it uses XDG environment variables.

The Linux side off side has also been neglected, with development mostly targeting Windows. There's at least one Pcsx2 developer that has started to improve the Linux emulator (for at least a year IIRC), but it's still not up to par with Windows. Thus any prospective packagers might have been turned off by the fact that the emulator couldn't run any games they threw at it, even though the Pcsx2 compatibility list says they should run perfectly. How do you test your package is good if you don't know which games should work on Linux?

Any one with the skills to fix 2. will probably spend its time more wisely just committing to Pcsx2's Google Code, rather than first loosing many hours with 1.

Since Pcsx2 is developing at a frantic pace, there'll probably be a time when it can be reasonably packaged in a Linux distribution. We'll have to see with 0.9.7, but it depends how much the Linux side will have improved by that time (and if 1. can be done).

With 1. being the main showstopper, there's something people can do even if they're not a developer. Grab the latest Pcsx2 code from Google Code, open an editor and check every file license one by one, documenting your findings on a wiki page so others can see the work done and help and write a decent copyright file (http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep5/). Check also what are the required plugins for Linux, and if they can be redistributed.