October 2003 Archives

For those of you having problems updating to 10.2-gcc3.3 or 10.3 from a previous Fink release, the problem should be fixed now. To get the update, you should do a "fink selfupdate-rsync" or "fink selfupdate-cvs" and then retry your "fink update-all".

It was all my fault, I failed to mark fink-prebinding as "essential". The way it works is, all packages automatically depend on essential packages (except essential ones, of course, that would be silly). Essential packages must always be built before any other packages.

The current fink tree has essential packages that depend on fink-prebinding, but, fink-prebinding wasn't essential. So it was impossible for it to be built before the things that need it could. Fink got confused and gave up.

I was recently asked how to share software between more than one fink installation. This is usually because the person has 2 (or more) machines, only one of which is fast. =) It's pretty easy to share binaries you've built on one system with another. Here's how (keep in mind these instructions will generally only work if each system is running the same major version of Mac OS X):

1. Install Fink on the "master" (build) system.

2. (If the clients already have fink installed, you can skip this step.) Copy /sw to the "client" systems. First you must enable "Remote Login" on the "master" box. Then, run the following on each of the "client" machines:

   sudo rsync -avzr -e ssh user@otherhost:/sw/ /sw/

   Just replace user@otherhost above with the username and hostname of the system to copy from.

   This will make a clone of the fink installation on your "master" box on each of the clients.

3. On the "master" box, build something, and then run "fink scanpackages". This will make fink generate apt indexes for all of your enabled trees.

4. On the "master" box, enable "Personal Web Sharing" in the Sharing section of System Preferences, and then set up httpd to expose your /sw/fink directory externally. I do so by making an /etc/httpd/users/fink.conf file that contains:

   Alias /fink /sw/fink
   <Directory /sw/fink>
     Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
   </Directory>

   ...and then run "sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl graceful" to (re)start.

5. On the "client" box(es), edit /sw/etc/apt/sources.list, and add the lines representing your fink trees. For example, if my IP address of my build box at home is 192.168.42.7, the client would add:

   deb http://192.168.42.7/fink stable main crypto
   deb http://192.168.42.7/fink unstable main crypto
   deb http://192.168.42.7/fink local main

6. On the "client" box(es), run "sudo apt-get update". If all goes well, you should see something like:

   Hit http://192.168.42.7 stable/main Packages
   Hit http://192.168.42.7 stable/main Release
   Hit http://192.168.42.7 stable/crypto Packages
   ...and so on

7. You should then be able to do "sudo apt-get install <package>" for anything that's been built on the "master" box. Any time you build more stuff there, you will need to re-run "fink scanpackages" on the master, and "sudo apt-get update" on the client(s).

I didn't post this last night, because the binaries were still uploading to my site. ;)

So reduz seems to have worked out all of the kinks in the endianness issues in previous cheesetrackers, and now it's fully functional on OSX with a native Qt/Mac build!

I've got a couple of screenshots if you want to check it out. I've made native builds for both Jaguar and Panther:

Jaguar Panther

The only bug left is the one where an existing preference file causes it to hang indefinitely. Reduz thinks he has a fix for the issue; I'll put new binaries together from the final release. In the meantime, delete ~/.cheesetracker_QT before you start it up.

Whoohoo!

Well, we're Apple Store. I'm not in this picture because I'm taking it. <grin> I'll be sitting with my Powerbook next to my buddy Larry for the next 12 minutes. If you're in Raleigh, NC, standing outside the Apple Store, and recognize this wall, stop by and say hi!

You know what's really funny? I'm an ADC member. I've already got Panther.

DAMN I'm a geek.

Oh yeah, and I'm building kdebase3-ssl with distcc, distributing the compile over Apple's wireless to my G4 at home. =)

[Update: Got some more pictures from inside.]

They also handed out dog tags:

[Update:] You probably don't need to follow these instructions anymore, just make sure you're bootstrapping from 0.16.0 or the fink 0.6.0 full tarball, and immediately do a "fink selfupdate-rsync" (or equivalent) afterwards to get the proper tree and bugfixes.

Regardless, these instructions should still work, there's just nothing special about them anymore, there are official releases that should get you going on Panther. The note about not using the bindist is still true though, please make sure you only use 'fink' to install packages for now, there is no binary distribution!

That's enough update warnings, on with the post:

As of today, we've started populating the 10.3 tree properly, so here is an update to the previous instructions on my blog last week.

1. set your compiler to 3.3 if it's not already, by running "sudo gcc_select 3.3" (parts of the bootstrap fail with gcc 3.1 on panther)

2. download the latest Fink beta from the fink project page

3. if you have a system already running Fink, run "perl inject.pl", otherwise, run "sh ./bootstrap.sh"; this will set you up to use the 10.3 tree as your base

4. get the latest package descriptions:

   • source /sw/bin/init.sh

   • fink selfupdate (if it asks, rsync is the suggested method)

   • fink index

Now you should be ready to go! Try to install things, and let us know if you run into any issues.

Remember, you should not use apt-get or dselect for installing things. The only bindist we have currently is for 10.2, and some of those binaries will not work on panther. Many of them will break as soon as you start mixing and matching things you've built on panther and things you've gotten from 10.2.

It is incredibly unlikely that a 10.3 bindist will be ready by the time of the panther release, but the source tree will definitely be there (and plans are to at least have a 10.2-gcc3.3 tree ready, which should generally be binary compatible with 10.3). It's coming, but be patient, we don't know when we'll be ready for a 10.3 bindist. In the meantime, use "fink install" to install packages.

<leviagpr> dear query,
<leviagpr> why are you so slow :(
<leviagpr> please answer,
<leviagpr> leviagpr
-!- zsazs is now known as query
<@query> it's because you've run me on MICRO$OFT $QL $ERVER
<@query> love,
<@query> query
<leviagpr> query loves me!!!

Let's just say I had a bad day yesterday, and it's bleeding over to today.

1. The new mail server I put in at work is having fits. The antivirus and spam filters just randomly die.
2. The CVS server at work was at 100% disk usage, and will continue to fill up until we find somewhere else to stage backups coming from our rack at Inflow so that we can get things on tape.
3. I had to take the cat to the vet again for another fluid treatment (where they do the equivalent of an IV drip, but instead of in the vein, it goes inbetween the skin and muscle on her back, so she gets a 200ml hunchback for a day or so). She doesn't like it much, although she puts up with it.
4. The vet gave me some specially-formulated wet food to help her ailing kidneys and thyroid. She ate half of a can and then wandered around the house throwing it up. Since it's wet food, it basically went deep into the carpet, I probably won't get the stains completely out without a steam clean. :P
5. I upgraded to the new apache-perl because my current setup was pretty brittle, and suddenly module-loading was completely messed up. My server was basically down for a while (if you noticed). I ended up using the old non-modular config and everything works again now. I hope. =)
6. There's just a few days until panther, and I've been fighting with this mail server stuff since saturday, so I've done basically nothing, which means I'm just stressing drm more.
7. I'm now told one of my packages breaks dpkg. =)

Let's just say I'm not in a wonderful mood right now.

distcc rocks!

I've been using it to build Fink stuff on Panther, and it's making short work of things, thanks to generous donations of spare CPU time by a couple of friends.

Not only that, but I finally packaged the new release of it. (The fink package was a couple of versions behind for a while) One of the niftiest new features is a GUI compile monitor. Check it out:

Hooray for distributed compiling!

...for they are subtle, and quick to anger.

<Sortova> http://sourceforge.net/..._id=1&atid=200001
<Sortova> Got it back
<Sortova> I must promise not to be bad again
<Sortova> I guess they don't want anyone monitoring them ... cause I have 81000 freaking lost service events on their servers (grin)

[Update: Don't read this! Instead, see the updated instructions I've posted.]

So time is running out, and I've started doing some real builds of packages on panther (rather than piecemeal hacking like most of us Fink panther users have been doing up until now.)

If you want to help build things, do the following:

1. set your compiler to 3.3 if it's not already, by running "sudo gcc_select 3.3" (parts of the bootstrap fail with gcc 3.1 on panther)

2. [Update:] download the Fink 0.16.1 beta from the fink project page (this used to be a link to a modified version of fink to do tricks with rsync, but those changes have been included in the 0.14.2/0.14.3 releases)

3. if you have a system already running Fink, run "perl inject.pl", otherwise, run "sh ./bootstrap.sh"; this will set you up to use the 10.3 tree as your base -- it's currently nearly empty, but we'll take care of that shortly

4. set up /sw/etc/fink.conf to see both the 10.3 and 10.2-gcc3.3 trees using the following Trees entry (all one line if your browser wraps it):

   • Trees: local/main unstable/main unstable/crypto 10.2-gcc3.3/unstable/main 10.2-gcc3.3/unstable/crypto stable/main stable/crypto 10.2-gcc3.3/stable/main 10.2-gcc3.3/stable/crypto local/bootstrap

5. get the latest package descriptions:

   • source /sw/bin/init.sh

   • fink selfupdate-rsync

   • fink index

Now you should be ready to go! If you have any problems, please let me know here, rather than bothering the fink list with it. It's very likely that many things won't work yet, but that's what I need you for. ;)

Happy finking!

[Update:]

A note, please make sure that you have the developer tools installed, and that you are using "fink install <foo>" to install packages. There is no bindist for 10.3 yet, and you will run into issues mixing some 10.2 binaries and 10.3 binaries, so for now, apt-get no workie. Part of the eventual upgrade process will involve getting everyone updates from the not-yet-existing bindist to make sure things are consistent, but if we had that already, I wouldn't need you to help test. <grin>

[Update Again:]

New instructions for using the 10.3 tree are here. You no longer need to have both 10.3 and 10.2-gcc3.3 in there, things are getting populated in the 10.3 tree for "real" now.

So mom sent me a halloween care package. A hand-made dracula cape, and fangs. And a big plush dracula to hang up. He's currently residing above my cube at work, in a rather crucified pose. We're gonna put a Oculan T-Shirt on him, I think. =)

Look busy.

<jkh_> fenestro: I'd say it's all pretty easy to summarize
<jkh_> fenestro: warrior: "One who is engaged aggressively or energetically in an activity, cause, or conflict: One engaged in acts of war or destruction"
<jkh_> fenestro: disk: "Where you keep your data"
<jkh_> hence "diskwarrior: A utility engaged in aggressively destroying your data"
<jkh_> what more is there to say?