gEDA state: PCB, gschem and others

gEDA/PCB

Current state

No release for more than 3 years. No active maintenance: 1..2 commits per year, last commit over a year ago, with a growing number of bugreports on launchpad.

Risks

The primary GUI is gtk2 which is being removed from popular Linux distributions. This led to the PCB package removed from Debian testing as of 2024 (because of gtk2's gtkglext got removed from Debian), affecting other deb based distros as well. Upgrading the code to a newer gtk version is a major task which is unlikely to happen.

In early 2025 the project was temporarily re-added in Debian testing with opengl disabled; it will be next removed when other gtk2 packages are removed.

Way forward

pcb-rnd started as a fork of PCB back in 2013. It can load and save PCB files (board and footprint). In the past decade it got a lot of improvements and bugfixes.

KiCAD pcbnew also got import code for the gEDA/PCB file format, although the conversion is probably not as lossless as with pcb-rnd.

gEDA/gschem

(also known as geda-gaf)

Current state

No release for years. The developer is responsive on the mailing list but there is no active maintenance: very few commits, no progress with addressing the major risks.

Risks

The project depends on both an old version of guile (scheme) and an old version of python (python 2). Both are removed or being removed from popular Linux distros. The code depends on scheme and python both work and new versions of guile and python doesn't do that easily. The last active developer is aware of this problem but no progress was made the past few years.

Distro packages of gschem (geda/gaf) are usually unavailable on modern systems. Compiling from source is increasingly hard as dependencies are not easily available on modern systems anymore.

Way forward

sch-rnd is a clean implementation from scratch that aims to work well together with pcb-rnd. sch-rnd can load gEDA (gschem, Lepton EDA) sheets and symbols.

KiCAD eeschema does not seem to load gEDA files.

There is an actively maintained fork of gschem, called Lepton EDA. Despite the name it's not a full EDA suite, only a schematics editor and a few schematics related tools (fork of gschem and geda/gaf). It doesn't depend on python but still depends on (a newer version of guile).

gerbv

Current state

After years of hibernation the project has restarted by a new developer on github. It is getting active maintenance and has releases.

Risks

The original architecture of the gerbv code is trying to interpret the gerber file during rendering. This may make some gerber constructs harder to implement while also makes it more difficult to ensure different output (GUI toolkits, exports) render the same.

Way forward

It is safe to use gerbv.

A more modern alternative is camv-rnd, which is part of the Ringdove EDA suite. It separates file format parsing from rendering and supports more file formats.

gedasymbols.org

Current state

It is technically alive: the service is up and running. It's mature and is not actively developed or maintained.

Risks

It is safe to use.

Way forward

An alternative is Edakrill, which provides similar services and had an import of gedasymbols a few years ago. Edakrill is a bit more generic as it supports multiple file formats. It also offers more advanced search.

Icarus Verilog

Current state

Actively maintained on github (outside of gEDA).

Risks

None.

Way forward

It is safe to use.

gtkwave

Current state

Actively maintained on github (outside of gEDA). It has a port to gtk3.

Risks

None.

Way forward

It is safe to use.

gEDA as a whole

Current state

gEDA is an umbrella project, not a real EDA suite. Apart from a brief period of time in the early 2000s there was really no coordination between sub projects.

At the moment half of the subproject that still consider themselves part of geda are dead:

gEDA/pcb	dead
gschem	dead
gedasymbols	alive

The subprojects that are hosted and maintained outside of gEDA (but gEDA lists them):

Lepton EDA	alive
gerbv	alive
Icarus Verilog	alive

Risks

All main components are dead or have left gEDA. The lack of coordination between projects blocks any feature or bugfix spanning across tools to be implemented.

Way forward

Probably the easiest way forward is switching to Ringdove EDA.

Ringdove's sch-rnd is capable of loading gschem/lepton schematics and symbols, its pcb-rnd is capable of loading and saving gEDA/PCB boards and footprints.

Ringdove EDA is essentially gEDA 2.0. Just like gEDA, Ringdove EDA is a toolkit of individually developed subprojects (and is not a monolith). But unlike gEDA, Ringdove EDA is an EDA suite, which means development among subprojects are coordinated. The GUI (menus, mouse/keyboard bindings), the config system and native file formats are more uniform in Ringdove than in gEDA.