Install the Insight Debugger on Linux Mint (works for Ubuntu too)

Insight is a very good debugger based on gdb. I prefer it over ddd or kdbg as I find it clearer and easier to use. Moreover, this debugger is also the one used in the book Assembly language Step by Step, for Linux. However, Insight has been removed from Debian packages already more than a year ago.

But, thanks to SevenMachines, a PPA repository is available to install it on Linux Mint (works also on Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based Linux distributions).

To add the repository to your apt sources, add the following lines to the /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/sevenmachines/dev/ubuntu natty main 
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/sevenmachines/dev/ubuntu natty main 

and update your apt sources:

sudo apt-get update

Then you can install insight:

sudo apt-get install insight

And now you are ready to use Insight as your debugger.

If you don’t trust this PPA repository, you can also try it to install it from the sources (http://sources.redhat.com/insight/), but doesn’t seem to very simple to install it. I wasn’t able to build it on my Linux Mint 12.

 

  • Jiangshi

    I very much appreciate knowing how to add insight to ubuntu – thanks!!

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  • Steffen

    Thank you very much for this post, Assembly Language Step by Step is what brought me here

  • insight user

    AWESOMEEEEEE !!!! Thankyou so much.

    • Baptiste Wicht

      You’re welcome :)

  • yayaya

    7months later and the iwidgets4 dependancy is now nolonger available. THIS SUCKS!

  • yayaya

    What version of Ubuntu does this work for?

    • wichtounet

      I think it should work for 11.10 and probably for 12.04 too.

  • thejq

    Works fine for both 12.04 and 12.10.

  • mack

    works for linux mint 14 nadia. thank you!