bumbler
November 22nd, 2003, 16:22
Corrections gratefully accepted...
-------------------------------------
Desktop FreeBSD Part 3: Adding Software
Ed Hurst 21 November 2003
================================================== ======================
FreeBSD is very much a source-based system. The operating assumption of
the architects of FreeBSD is that you will compile most things from the
source code. The system is designed to work that way, and does it
exceptionally well. The famous "Ports Collection" is rather unique in
making a large number of packages available ready to build and seldom
requires anything but a few commands in a terminal window. Having tried
to build specialized applications on several different versions of Open
Source operating systems, I can assure you that compiling on FreeBSD is
about as easy as it gets.
Our problem is that dialup connections are a major bottle-neck for
really big programs. If you have time, and your connection is fairly
stable, you can download the source code for something like Mozilla
using the ports system, and it's quite likely to be fine. However, the
source code for Mozilla is massive, and could easily require you get it
in chunks over several days via FTP (providing you use an FTP client
that knows how to start where it left off last time).
You can also download pre-made packages, but you would be forced to use
whatever version was available when your version of FreeBSD was
released. Something like Mozilla is a moving target, and newer version
often have really useful improvements. The newest version is available
for FreeBSD, but it is always built with all sorts of newer support
software, newer than you have on your system. Nobody builds Mozilla
with any sort of backward compatibility for the standard releases of
FreeBSD. You'll have to update everything at the same time. For
computers with a good fast connection, that's fine. They can be kept up
to date with regular rebuilding. We dialup users will have a hard time
playing that game.
Commercial users of FreeBSD and serious hobbyists will keep up with the
current version of everything, but ordinary desktop users should
probably avoid that sort of thing. Aside from security updates, it's
best to avoid the upgrade merry-go-round. That doesn't mean we are
stuck with some sort of second-class provision, though. You recall I
advised everyone to install and enable Linux compatibility. That's
because with programs like Mozilla, there are far more Linux users out
there, and the Linux versions are more backward compatible. And we can
run them as they are. In the case of Mozilla, it's slightly
complicated, but with a couple of minor adjustments in the Makefile for
Linux Mozilla in the ports system, you can download the .xpi files for
the most recent version, run the script and it will install and run
just fine. On some machines, it will run faster than it would if you
ran Linux itself. For something simpler, like Mozilla-Firebird, you
need but unzip the files and put them in a convenient directory and it
will run with no adjustment at all. Very few Linux applications won't
work in FreeBSD.
If your supplier for the FreeBSD install CD also offers the full
collection of packages built for that release on more CDs, it can save
you a great deal of time. You can get a good idea what's available by
visiting http://www.freebsd.org/ports. You can search the database for
the version of FreeBSD you run, and there are links to download binary
packages ready to install. Please note that the assumption here is that
you are running a standard release of FreeBSD, so be sure to select in
the drop down list your version with the "RELEASE" tag, not "CURRENT."
So you choose your package, click the link that says "Package" under
the description, and download something. When finished, you need to
open a Konsole window, and login temporarily as root:
su root
You'll be asked to type in the password. Afterwards, you'll be at a
different style of prompt. You should be still in your own home
directory, where I'm assuming you saved the package just downloaded.
Type "ls" just to be sure -- it should be somewhere in the list that
appears. Then, type the command
pkg_add something.tgz
Obviously, "something" is replaced by the package name. If there are no
problems, if you have all the other stuff needed for that package, it
will install and set it up, then return to the root prompt. If there is
something missing, you will get an error message with a specific list
of packages that you must have before installing this one. Go back and
get them, install them, try again to install the original package, and
you should be set. It's a good idea to move them to another place when
this is done, to avoid clutter in your home directory. I recommend you
store them in /usr/local/src, unless you can't afford the hard drive
space. In that case, simply delete the packages that were successfully
installed.
However, assuming the worst case, we are going to download and install
a small and simple package that is very useful. Having logged in as root
in a Konsole window, type
cd /usr/ports/editors/joe
You need to be in the directory with the application you are building.
If you are one folder above, you'll be building everything in that
category -- all the various editors, in this case. Next, from the KDE
menu, open the KPPP program and connect. When that's done, click in the
Konsole window and type
make install
You should see some messages flashed on the screen; try to read them and
understand what's happening. Usually, there will be a hunt for the
source files, then not finding them, an attempt to download them. There
will be a display of progress. Then the package will be configured, then
it will be compiled and so forth. Finally, you will see some message
indicating the application was registered and the prompt will come back.
Now type "make clean" and you are done. You can exit your root login by
typing just that: "exit". Don't forget to disconnect from the Internet
unless you have a reason to stay connected.
With some packages, you'll see the process downloading other stuff that
it has to have before going on to the main event. The editor named
"joe" runs in the console/CLI, which means it also works in a Konsole
window in KDE. Konsole is one of several "terminal emulators" that
allow you to operate as if you were without a GUI, but do it while
running the X server. It compares favorably to a DOS prompt in Windows.
However, there are other terminal emulators, and one is called "xterm".
It's also on your system, because it's a part of the XFree86 packages.
Got GUI? You got xterm. There are others, and we will learn to
customize in a later article.
For now, let's look at our new editor, joe, in the Konsole window. At
the prompt, simply type "joe". You should see a border at the top and a
message. If you type "^K" and then "H" you'll get a help section at the
top of the screen. Keep an eye on that top border, where messages
appear from time to time. Depending on what you do, you'll also see
some messages at the bottom line of the screen. But the help summary at
the top has everything you need to get started. Every good user of FOSS
will determine to learn as much as possible on their own, so I will let
you handle this for yourself from here. Just remember, you can save and
exit with "^K" then "X" or not save with "^C".
However, I will tell you that it is possible to make some adjustments
to joe with a file in your home directory. Open the file browser (the
icon for "Home") and click the root folder icon on the left side.
Navigate to /usr/local/lib. Click on the icon so that the main window
displays what's in that directory. There you should see a file named
"joerc". Look on the left window and identify your home directory
there: /usr/home/user (replace "user" with your chosen user account
name). Open folders if you need to by clicking on the plus signs (+) but
without clicking on any folder icons. Now, click and hold on the joerc
file icon and drag it across to where your home folder is shown until it
is high-lighted. Let the mouse button go and you should see a short list
of options. Select "Copy here". Now navigate to your home folder by
clicking the "Home" icon in the toolbar at the top. You should see a
"joerc" there.
Open Kedit and use the "Open file" function to open this "joerc" file.
You can read the instructions written there. You may not understand all
the options, but set those you do understand. Notice that options are
set by making them start on the far left margin. There are examples for
you to look at. Again, you are pretty much on your own, as you learn to
experiment and try it out. Save it and then change the name of the
file. Configuration files like this need to remain "hidden" by putting
a period (or dot) in front of them. You already have several others
there. In your file browser, right click on the file icon, select
"Rename" and hit the "HOME" key. Type a period at the front of the
name, then hit "ENTER". It should change to a shadowy icon to indicate
it's not normally visible.
If you are totally clueless, and you need to make it work today, you
can e-mail me for a copy of my .joerc. I have mine setup to write plain
text files a certain way. The right margin stops at 72 characters,
which is the Internet standard, and some of the keyboard commands are
different. I compose text in block format, with a blank line between
each paragraph. If the lines get too far out of place by changes, I
type ^J to reformat. Others composition settings apply to any file with
a ".txt" ending and they follow the standards I discuss in my e-text
guide <http://webs.tconline.net/softedges/newestyle.txt>. Voluntary
adherence to standards is a very important part of the Open Source way.
The reason I have chosen joe for this exercise is that it's the easiest
to use, and the most flexible console editor for newbies, having the
most options, but easy to understand. When you find yourself needing to
edit files from the console/CLI as root, joe is much easier once you've
gotten used to it. You may browse the entire ports collection at
http://www.freebsd.org/ports/ and learn for yourself what's available.
You can check with your favorite Internet search engine for more
details on what the various applications do. Join a mailing list,
forum, or user group to get advice on which programs do what.
=In the next tutorial, we will discuss setting up your internal mail
server -- postfix -- to connect to the Internet, and other e-mail
issues.=
-------------------------------------
Desktop FreeBSD Part 3: Adding Software
Ed Hurst 21 November 2003
================================================== ======================
FreeBSD is very much a source-based system. The operating assumption of
the architects of FreeBSD is that you will compile most things from the
source code. The system is designed to work that way, and does it
exceptionally well. The famous "Ports Collection" is rather unique in
making a large number of packages available ready to build and seldom
requires anything but a few commands in a terminal window. Having tried
to build specialized applications on several different versions of Open
Source operating systems, I can assure you that compiling on FreeBSD is
about as easy as it gets.
Our problem is that dialup connections are a major bottle-neck for
really big programs. If you have time, and your connection is fairly
stable, you can download the source code for something like Mozilla
using the ports system, and it's quite likely to be fine. However, the
source code for Mozilla is massive, and could easily require you get it
in chunks over several days via FTP (providing you use an FTP client
that knows how to start where it left off last time).
You can also download pre-made packages, but you would be forced to use
whatever version was available when your version of FreeBSD was
released. Something like Mozilla is a moving target, and newer version
often have really useful improvements. The newest version is available
for FreeBSD, but it is always built with all sorts of newer support
software, newer than you have on your system. Nobody builds Mozilla
with any sort of backward compatibility for the standard releases of
FreeBSD. You'll have to update everything at the same time. For
computers with a good fast connection, that's fine. They can be kept up
to date with regular rebuilding. We dialup users will have a hard time
playing that game.
Commercial users of FreeBSD and serious hobbyists will keep up with the
current version of everything, but ordinary desktop users should
probably avoid that sort of thing. Aside from security updates, it's
best to avoid the upgrade merry-go-round. That doesn't mean we are
stuck with some sort of second-class provision, though. You recall I
advised everyone to install and enable Linux compatibility. That's
because with programs like Mozilla, there are far more Linux users out
there, and the Linux versions are more backward compatible. And we can
run them as they are. In the case of Mozilla, it's slightly
complicated, but with a couple of minor adjustments in the Makefile for
Linux Mozilla in the ports system, you can download the .xpi files for
the most recent version, run the script and it will install and run
just fine. On some machines, it will run faster than it would if you
ran Linux itself. For something simpler, like Mozilla-Firebird, you
need but unzip the files and put them in a convenient directory and it
will run with no adjustment at all. Very few Linux applications won't
work in FreeBSD.
If your supplier for the FreeBSD install CD also offers the full
collection of packages built for that release on more CDs, it can save
you a great deal of time. You can get a good idea what's available by
visiting http://www.freebsd.org/ports. You can search the database for
the version of FreeBSD you run, and there are links to download binary
packages ready to install. Please note that the assumption here is that
you are running a standard release of FreeBSD, so be sure to select in
the drop down list your version with the "RELEASE" tag, not "CURRENT."
So you choose your package, click the link that says "Package" under
the description, and download something. When finished, you need to
open a Konsole window, and login temporarily as root:
su root
You'll be asked to type in the password. Afterwards, you'll be at a
different style of prompt. You should be still in your own home
directory, where I'm assuming you saved the package just downloaded.
Type "ls" just to be sure -- it should be somewhere in the list that
appears. Then, type the command
pkg_add something.tgz
Obviously, "something" is replaced by the package name. If there are no
problems, if you have all the other stuff needed for that package, it
will install and set it up, then return to the root prompt. If there is
something missing, you will get an error message with a specific list
of packages that you must have before installing this one. Go back and
get them, install them, try again to install the original package, and
you should be set. It's a good idea to move them to another place when
this is done, to avoid clutter in your home directory. I recommend you
store them in /usr/local/src, unless you can't afford the hard drive
space. In that case, simply delete the packages that were successfully
installed.
However, assuming the worst case, we are going to download and install
a small and simple package that is very useful. Having logged in as root
in a Konsole window, type
cd /usr/ports/editors/joe
You need to be in the directory with the application you are building.
If you are one folder above, you'll be building everything in that
category -- all the various editors, in this case. Next, from the KDE
menu, open the KPPP program and connect. When that's done, click in the
Konsole window and type
make install
You should see some messages flashed on the screen; try to read them and
understand what's happening. Usually, there will be a hunt for the
source files, then not finding them, an attempt to download them. There
will be a display of progress. Then the package will be configured, then
it will be compiled and so forth. Finally, you will see some message
indicating the application was registered and the prompt will come back.
Now type "make clean" and you are done. You can exit your root login by
typing just that: "exit". Don't forget to disconnect from the Internet
unless you have a reason to stay connected.
With some packages, you'll see the process downloading other stuff that
it has to have before going on to the main event. The editor named
"joe" runs in the console/CLI, which means it also works in a Konsole
window in KDE. Konsole is one of several "terminal emulators" that
allow you to operate as if you were without a GUI, but do it while
running the X server. It compares favorably to a DOS prompt in Windows.
However, there are other terminal emulators, and one is called "xterm".
It's also on your system, because it's a part of the XFree86 packages.
Got GUI? You got xterm. There are others, and we will learn to
customize in a later article.
For now, let's look at our new editor, joe, in the Konsole window. At
the prompt, simply type "joe". You should see a border at the top and a
message. If you type "^K" and then "H" you'll get a help section at the
top of the screen. Keep an eye on that top border, where messages
appear from time to time. Depending on what you do, you'll also see
some messages at the bottom line of the screen. But the help summary at
the top has everything you need to get started. Every good user of FOSS
will determine to learn as much as possible on their own, so I will let
you handle this for yourself from here. Just remember, you can save and
exit with "^K" then "X" or not save with "^C".
However, I will tell you that it is possible to make some adjustments
to joe with a file in your home directory. Open the file browser (the
icon for "Home") and click the root folder icon on the left side.
Navigate to /usr/local/lib. Click on the icon so that the main window
displays what's in that directory. There you should see a file named
"joerc". Look on the left window and identify your home directory
there: /usr/home/user (replace "user" with your chosen user account
name). Open folders if you need to by clicking on the plus signs (+) but
without clicking on any folder icons. Now, click and hold on the joerc
file icon and drag it across to where your home folder is shown until it
is high-lighted. Let the mouse button go and you should see a short list
of options. Select "Copy here". Now navigate to your home folder by
clicking the "Home" icon in the toolbar at the top. You should see a
"joerc" there.
Open Kedit and use the "Open file" function to open this "joerc" file.
You can read the instructions written there. You may not understand all
the options, but set those you do understand. Notice that options are
set by making them start on the far left margin. There are examples for
you to look at. Again, you are pretty much on your own, as you learn to
experiment and try it out. Save it and then change the name of the
file. Configuration files like this need to remain "hidden" by putting
a period (or dot) in front of them. You already have several others
there. In your file browser, right click on the file icon, select
"Rename" and hit the "HOME" key. Type a period at the front of the
name, then hit "ENTER". It should change to a shadowy icon to indicate
it's not normally visible.
If you are totally clueless, and you need to make it work today, you
can e-mail me for a copy of my .joerc. I have mine setup to write plain
text files a certain way. The right margin stops at 72 characters,
which is the Internet standard, and some of the keyboard commands are
different. I compose text in block format, with a blank line between
each paragraph. If the lines get too far out of place by changes, I
type ^J to reformat. Others composition settings apply to any file with
a ".txt" ending and they follow the standards I discuss in my e-text
guide <http://webs.tconline.net/softedges/newestyle.txt>. Voluntary
adherence to standards is a very important part of the Open Source way.
The reason I have chosen joe for this exercise is that it's the easiest
to use, and the most flexible console editor for newbies, having the
most options, but easy to understand. When you find yourself needing to
edit files from the console/CLI as root, joe is much easier once you've
gotten used to it. You may browse the entire ports collection at
http://www.freebsd.org/ports/ and learn for yourself what's available.
You can check with your favorite Internet search engine for more
details on what the various applications do. Join a mailing list,
forum, or user group to get advice on which programs do what.
=In the next tutorial, we will discuss setting up your internal mail
server -- postfix -- to connect to the Internet, and other e-mail
issues.=