Problem building Harbour 3.2 on Linux Mint

[flicker177]

Hi all,

I've been using Harbour for a few years now after dBase2, dbase3, clipper '87, and clipper 5.2. Its worked wonderfully.

As an exercise I've been trying to run it on Linux Mint. I've not been able to find a binary for Debian derivatives so I'm trying to compile 3.2.0 from the source. It almost works. The "make" process halts with a permission denied error involving hbmk2. The actual error message is:

make: ./bin/linux/gcc/hbmk2: Permission denied

I've been unable to decipher what's wrong. The Unix make system is not that friendly when something goes wrong and the error messages aren't helpful.

Has anyone else tried this in Debian, Ubuntu, or Mint? Is there an up-to-date Harbour version recommended that will compile on these systems?

Thanks in advance for any help.

--Bill

[Itamar Lins]

Hi!
Where did you download the harbor fonts from ?
The message is quite clear, you don't have privileges to run hbmk2.
If you explain how you got to that error, more people will be able to help.
Don't skimp on the explanation.

best regards,
Itamar M. Lins Jr.

[flicker177]

Do you mean where did I download the Harbour source from? OK I admit I was sloppy about keeping track of that. It may have been Sourceforge but I wouldn't swear to that. I've had a hard time determining the best, most official place to obtain it. If it helps,  my source is 3.2.0-dev (r2512120309). Linux is Linux Mint Cinnamon 22.2 kernel 6.14.0-37

Anyway, what I'm trying to do doesn't seem like it should be difficult. I'm just trying to build Harbour on a fresh Linux Mint installation. I un-tar the download into my home folder, which puts a folder named core-master there. I enter that folder and type "make." I believe that's what the instructions say to do. I get the error, even if I run make as root.

I do understand linux/unix permissions. After I saw the error running make as a normal user I tried running make as root, first just by doing a "sudo make" and got the same error. Then I did a "sudo -i" to permanently open a root user and ran make. In all cases I get the exact same error. Also I can't find a folder like "bin/linux/gcc/" anywhere in my linux installation. My source is 3.2.0-dev (r2512120309). Linux is Mint Cinnamon 22.2 kernel 6.14.0-37. Since hbmk2 is created during the build I don't see how it has bad permissions and I also don't understand how root would not have permissions to run it.

Maybe before I waste the group's time further you could recommend a known good download for Harbour that I can build from the source on Linux Mint (or other Debian derivatives) and I can do a fresh Mint install and try again keeping better track this time.

Thanks much,

--Bill

[Itamar Lins]

Hi!
It's simple.
Here, and follow the instructions.
itamar@itamar-pc:~/dev$ git clone --depth=10 https://github.com/harbour/core.git hb32
Cloning into 'hb32'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 4177, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (4177/4177), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (3835/3835), done.
remote: Total 4177 (delta 1097), reused 933 (delta 203), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (4177/4177), 15.46 MiB | 2.18 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (1097/1097), done.
itamar@itamar-pc:~/dev$ cd hb32/
itamar@itamar-pc:~/dev/hb32$ sudo make install
[sudo: authenticate] Password:  
! Building Harbour 3.2.0dev from source - https://harbour.github.io
! MAKE: make 4.4.1 /bin/sh install   
! HB_HOST_PLAT: linux (x86_64)  HB_SHELL: sh
! LD_LIBRARY_PATH: /home/itamar/dev/hb32/lib/linux/gcc:
! HB_PLATFORM: linux (x86_64) (auto-detected)
! HB_COMPILER: gcc (auto-detected: /usr/bin/)
! HB_HOST_PKGM: deb
! Component: 'zlib' found in /usr/include  
! Component: 'pcre' found in /usr/include  
! Component: 'gpm' found in /usr/include  
! Component: 'slang' not found
! Component: 'curses' found in /usr/include  
! Component: 'x11' found in /usr/include  
! Component: 'wattcp/watt-32' not supported on linux platform
! HB_INSTALL_PREFIX automatically set to: /usr/local
! GIT_REVISION: 7c7d7d6
! Installing c_std.txt on /usr/local/share/doc/harbour
! Installing class_tp.txt on /usr/local/share/doc/harbour
! Installing clipper.txt on /usr/local/share/doc/harbour
...
itamar@itamar-pc:~/dev/hb32$ hbmk2 -build
Harbour 3.2.0dev (r2512131838)
Copyright (c) 1999-2025, https://harbour.github.io/

Harbour Build Info
---------------------------
Version: Harbour 3.2.0dev (r2512131838)
Compiler: GNU C 15.2 (64-bit)
Platform: Linux 6.18.1-061801-generic x86_64
PCode version: 0.3
ChangeLog last entry: 2025-12-13 19:38 UTC+0100 Przemyslaw Czerpak (druzus/at/poczta.onet.pl)
ChangeLog ID: eca13c908ceab77b16700584678b95544b0164e6
Built on: Dec 13 2025 16:18:39
Build options: (Clipper 5.3b) (Clipper 5.x undoc)  
---------------------------

Best regards,
Itamar M. Lins Jr.

[Itamar Lins]

Hi!
More info for add contrib libs.
https://github.com/harbour/core?tab=readme-ov-file#linux-deb-based-distros-debian-ubuntu

And install default pakages for make harbour 
sudo apt install build-essential

Best regards,
Itamar M. Lins Jr.

[Antonio F.S.]

Hello Bill.

I also use Linux Mint. Perhaps this tutorial to install Harbour can help
you.

Best regards,
Antonio F.S.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10666Xr7_seuEI2uxZDbrl1uk78bUDI3w/view?usp=sharing

----------------------------------------------------------

El 5/1/26 a las 22:37, flicker177 escribió:

[flicker177]

Hello  Itamar and Antonio,

Thanks so much for the help, I finally have this sorted.

The problem was with permissions in the downloaded source. I hadn't realized it but there's a compiled hbmk2 file in the source that's used for some things at the end of the install. I had stupidly downloaded the source on a Windows machine, did the tar extraction there, and moved the resulting folder to the linux machine for install on a thumbdrive which, of course, had a FAT32 filesystem that knows nothing about permissions. I'd checked the permissions everywhere except in the source. Correcting those permissions lets me build Harbour reliably, I've repeated the install several times just to make sure I knew what I was doing and all is well.

 It all makes a lot of sense now and after days of frustration I have a happy ending and I've learned some new things not to do ;-)

I've always run Harbour on Windows but I'm tired of Micro$oft and trying to migrate my computing to linux. Overall, that's going well and this really helps. Thanks again so much.

Regards,

--Bill