How to install Sencha Cmd on Debian Jessie

In this article I will show you how to install Sencha CMD on a Debian Jessie clean install. This means that I assume that you have not installed Java, Ruby and Sencha CMD itself. This article is intended for Windows users that are not that common with Linux.

Preliminaries

I am not a big fan of the command line, so forgive me that once in a while I use the Filemanager of the great Jessie Cinnamon GUI to make things a little easier. Make sure that at all times you have a root terminal open, or use "su" to have administrator rights with your terminal session. So let's go.

Step 0: Update your Linux

From the terminal command prompt, followed by Enter:

root@prompt:apt-get update

and:

root@prompt:apt-get upgrade

Step 1: Install Ruby

From the terminal command prompt type:

root@prompt:apt-get install ruby-full

Step 2: Install Java (Oracle)

Install the Java Runtime (JRE) from here: link

Install 32/64 bits in accordance with your Debian installation. Download this file that ends on '.tar.gz' to your default download location: /home/youruser/Downloads

Go to your terminal and type followed by Enter:

root@prompt:cd /usr/bin

root@prompt:mkdir java

root@prompt:chmod 777 java

Now go to your file manager and copy the downloaded ???.tar.gz Java distribution to the just created java folder.

You can also do it with the command line 'cp' command.

Now type from the terminal prompt followed by Enter:

root@prompt:cd /java

root@prompt:tar zxvf server-jre-8u60-linux-x64.tar.gz

Make sure that the tar.gz full filename is typed exactly as the name of the downloaded distrubution. Don't make any mistakes here! So the example above might not correspond with your file name. Now we have to make Java work, we do this by typing this from the terminal prompt:

root@prompt:export INSTALL4J_JAVA_HOME=/usr/bin/java/jdk1.8.0_60

Again, the name after JAVA_HOME= might not correspond with your installed Java. To make sure you have the right one, type:

root@prompt:ls /usr/bin/java

You will find the name next to your 'tar.gz' file. You can also delete the 'tar.gz' file to save space.

Step 3: Install Sencha Cmd

Before we do the final step I would give some critics to Sencha Inc. for not having a proper installation manual for Sencha Cmd for Linux on their website.

Half work done counts as no work done

Ok, let's do the last bit.

First download Sencha Cmd from here: link

Save the 'zip' file in your default Downloads location. If you don't have an 'unzip' installed in Debian Jessie, you can install 'Ark' with the Synaptic Package Manager. After that said, you unpack the Sencha Cmd 'zip' file. You can do this in the same Downloads folder. It will unpack a file with the .sh extension. Now go to your terminal prompt and type:

root@prompt:sh /home//Downloads/Sencha*

Now it will install Sencha Cmd. You will get an warning complaining:

Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

You can ignore this. Finally add Sench Cmd to your PATH. Type this from your terminal prompt:

root@prompt:export PATH=/root/bin/Sencha/Cmd/6.0.1.76:$PATH

Make sure that the Sencha version in the PATH corresponds with the one you just installed. Type:

root@prompt:ls /root/bin/Sencha/Cmd

Now it will show you the version you have installed. If everything went well you can go to your Sencha Ext JS or Touch application folder and type something like "Sencha app watch" or any other Sencha Cmd instruction.