How do I deploy a Mono Winforms Application to Suse Linux 11.0 Server Enterprise?

Question

Is there a way to make a simple installer that includes the necessary runtimes and dependency packages, and creates an icon in the OpenSuse menu, so the application will "just work?"

The actual application is just an executable (.EXE) and a handful of support files (mostly XML and CSV).

I already have the application successfully building and executing in MonoDevelop 2.0.

I originally tried to install the Mono Runtime via zypper from the following repository http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/download-stable/openSUSE_11.0, but quickly got bogged down in missing package dependencies.

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This is what happens when I try to use zypper to install the Mono runtime:

linux-lkfu:~ # zypper addrepo http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/download-stable/SLE_11 mono-stable
Adding repository 'mono-stable' [done]
Repository 'mono-stable' successfully added
Enabled: Yes
Autorefresh: No
URI: http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/download-stable/SLE_11

linux-lkfu:~ # zypper refresh --repo mono-stable
Retrieving repository 'mono-stable' metadata [done]
Building repository 'mono-stable' cache [done]
Specified repositories have been refreshed.
linux-lkfu:~ # zypper dist-upgrade --repo mono-stable
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Computing distribution upgrade...
Nothing to do.
linux-lkfu:~ #

Notice the last line before the prompt that says "Nothing to do." I don't think it's doing anything.

Answer 1

Hi Robert, that depends on how you plan to package them up. Either you manually create (deb for Debian and Ubuntu, rpm for Fedora and openSUSE, or anything else).

Personally, I think at first it is acceptable to simply add a .sh to your ZIP package and ask the end users to execute it for dependency checking, installing, and so on.

Then you can learn about the packaging methods.

Answer 2

If you have Visual Studio, you can try Mono Tools for Visual Studio, which provides tooling to make this easy. It is fully functional for 30 days.

http://go-mono.com/monotools/

Answer 3

One option is to buy mono support for SLES 11 from Novell. That will grant you a tested, supported and working mono repository.

If not you have to use the SLES repositories. For mono it's http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/download-stable/SLE_11

This should do it:

zypper addrepo http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/download-stable/SLE_11 mono-stable
zypper refresh --repo mono-stable
zypper dist-upgrade --repo mono-stable