GNUstep on Gentoo: how many of us are there?

fafhrd · Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 9:31 pm Post subject:

First HOWTO: How to setup up the ("my") base GNUstep setup on Gentoo.

ASSUME I MADE MISTAKES :oops:

Note: please don't hammer my server more than you have to. :twisted:

But that's okay, this is important...

Also, if you have issues that I didn't have, it's likely that others will have them to. PLEASE post here, or email me, or something.

0) Setup
0.1) If you haven't used portage overlay before, you'll need to set that up.
0.1.1) edit "/etc/make.conf" in your favorite editor, and search for and set PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"
0.1.2) create the directory /usr/local/portage:

wglwill · n00b Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 33

I had a question regarding windowmaker. It seems like windowmaker either compiled from source or installed with the ebuild in portage won't use the same settings as any of the gnustep applications installed with your ebuilds. For instance I'm not sure how to get windowmaker to use the anti aliased fonts like the apps installed with your ebuilds will use with back-art. Plus if I alter theme settings with windowmaker like menu colors it doesn't affect them either. Any ideas how I can get them to look the same?

Also I tried out the eclass patch you posted and I haven't noticed any difference in merging projectcenter, still not copying that .so

fafhrd · Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 4:32 pm Post subject:

True, windowmaker itself is not a gnustep program, nor is it written in Objective-C or use the GNUstep libraries. It does however, for GNUstep under UNIX running X11, offer and environment that does a pretty good job of giving that OPENStep feel and function. InterfaceWM is written in Objective-C, but it's ... well, it compiles :-)

... I jest, people are working very hard on it, but it's not really usable yet.

I've tried to stress in some posts here that GNUstep really isn't a DE environment, unto itself. It's an application framework. However, now having said that, there exist many programs and projects whose goal it is to supply the programs to serve a fully functional GNUstep DE. To put it as an example, granted I'm developing on this platform, but pretty much every program I use is GNUstep ... funny, all the "fun" and "extra" ones definitely are. My mail program is, and that's key, but the three things I use commonly that aren't yet are: (graphical) ViM, a web browser, and an "instant messanger" program. ViM for GNUstep I kind of want to start cranking on myself ... I love ViM. The web browser is a huge project that someone is working on, as they're porting Webcore over from apple. There are also other attempts as well, but that one has momentum. And there's an MSN client for GNUstep. Granted, I don't use MSN, but it makes me happy that one exists. Given enough time, and no one else doing it, I was looking into creating one myself, using the available AIM interfaceing protocol libraries. That projects scares me, looking at how much gAIM and other clients have to deal with.

As for looking the same ... there have been a couple movements for themeing and such under GNUstep. The main devs aren't focused at all (to the point of annoyance I think) with things like theming until everything else is working 100% with the OPENstep API, and other such goals. In some way, I have to agree with them, as the goal of the project was to create the framekits and architecture neccessary to develop OPENstep programs and to recreate it's look and feel. I know this isn't comforting if you want a different look to it all, but spend time with the default Windowmaker theme, or OPENstep theme, and just play with it for a while. Very nondistracting.

Okay, having said that there's Camaeleon. (Google for the page, I'm lazy right now ;-)

). It creates a theming structure for GNUstep programs. I haven't used it yet, but I've been following it's progress. It seems to work as expected.
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fafhrd · Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 4:34 pm Post subject:

oh, and honestly, if i start hearing back from devs about letting me take care of this for gentoo, or if it simply gets into portage, either way, that will let me focus on getting more apps, more documentation, more everything for this whole GNUstep on Gentoo thing.
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fafhrd · Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 4:43 pm Post subject:

Here are some links to read to begin grokking GNUstep:
homepage: http://www.gnustep.org/
documentation for users, developers, contributors: http://www.gnustep.org/experience/documentation.html
User FAQ: http://www.gnustep.org/information/userfaq_toc.html
wiki: http://wiki.gnustep.org/
mission statement: http://www.gnustep.org/information/mission.html
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wglwill · n00b Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 33

Perhaps it is actually a good thing that they are defering work on the look of the interface. Since free X11 technologies are emerging that would allow osx quartz like capabilities, by waiting gnustep could utilize those technologies as they become standard. You know in a few years gnustep could really be at the center of an osx like operating system for any architecture. I.E. GNU/hurd plus modernized xservers plus a fully developed gnustep capable of taking advantage of it. Now that would be a pretty elegant unix operating system

.

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

After emerging gnustep-env, I've experienced an error during the gnustep-gui emerge:

fafhrd · Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 6:10 pm Post subject:

oh, that's a good one....I need to add an addwrite for /root/GNUstep .... i added the few necessary ones for things inside that directory, but not the actual directory itself.

You can added the addwrite need the other ones in gnustep.eclass, or just create it.

Sadly, it has to create this directory, 'cause in it it creates a lockfile. The insall portion of the GNUmakefile calls specific programs that write into a users home. I haven't been able to tchange this behavior.
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0n0w1c · Apprentice Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 273

fafhrd,
Thanks for the excellent example of ebuild/overlay work, as it has and will continue to teach me how to do ebuilds well. I did not know how little I knew until I looked at your work. I am inspired, keep up the great work!

fafhrd · Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 3:10 am Post subject:

0n0w1c - wow, thanks ... it seriously feels great to here that :-)

pjp - i just removed my /root/GNUstep directory, and tried to rebuild gnustep-gui, and did not get an error ... I'm not using userpriv and usersandbox, but I thought I included logic in there to take care of what I thought needed to happen; likely this relates in some way to this bug here: https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55074 that I filed, but for the meanwhile, I'll refine that logic again ... thanks for the feedback ...
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0n0w1c · Apprentice Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 273

Sorry, I spoke too soon...
After performing an emerge of project-center, renaissance and gorm just after following your HOWTO. I ran emerge sync followed by emerge -uDvp world and I got the following:

Calculating world dependencies -
emerge: there are no masked or unmasked ebuilds to satisfy "virtual/gnustep-back".

!!! Problem with ebuild dev-gnustep/projectcenter-0.4.0
!!! Possibly a DEPEND/*DEPEND problem.

!!! Depgraph creation failed.

0n0w1c · Apprentice Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 273

uh... sorry... I skipped a step. :oops:

I found my error and corrected it and now the dependancies are being calculated properly now.

fafhrd · Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 5:39 am Post subject:

hey! very cool ... let me know if ProjectCenter runs for you ... another user was having an error I could not replicate, and I'd like to know, to him them out.

Thanks!
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fafhrd · Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 2:45 pm Post subject:

just an fyi that I forgot to mention

if and when you rsync, you're going to have to readd the line to /etc/make.profile/virtuals.
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pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

fafhrd · Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 4:22 pm Post subject:

ahh, sorry, I gotta think more thouroughyl when I send a quick response out

the 4 main official core software releases (make, base, gui, back) ebuilds I created to not inherit from the gnustep eclass ... I may change this later for gui and back, but generally, I thought it better to only apply the eclass to apps/libraries that are built depending on those 4 packages

If you use userpriv, however, the src_compile portion of the ebuild has "portage" as the user, the the correct portage home ... in src_install, it uses "root" as the user and yet, does not change the $HOME (this is the bug I filed in noted in previous post) ... so in src_compile, $HOME works, so use that, in src_install, hardcode with "/root"

if you edit gnustep-gui ebuild with those changes, it should work; you may have to edit gnustep-back-xlib/art ebuild as well ... the only trick to it is, in the ebuild, make sure to add the addwrite's before the ebuild sources the GNUstep.sh (where is calls make_services, I believe, which is the culprit)....that lck error is quite annoying ... especially as it sends out about 500 errors messages as fast as possible :-\

this issue is the trickiest, imho, of src based disto's w/ a sandbox installing GNUstep ... after things work, this is a priority for me to "do the right way"

In about 2 hours, I'm heading to a local coffeehouse to get some work done, and I'll thoroughly test the base packages in this userpriv/usersandbox setup.

thanks, again, for testing these
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pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

No problem. Testing is the easy part. Building and fixing is the hard part.

Thanks.
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0n0w1c · Apprentice Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 273

fafhrd · Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 7:04 pm Post subject:

something I have not tried, but by hyptothesis could work is:
- /etc/make.profile is a link to /usr/portage/profiles/<your profile>
- create /usr/local/portage/profiles/<your profile>/virtuals and include the required line

... I was thinking "hrm...that just doesn't seem right..." when I first thought about it; ideally, there'd be some sort of /etc/portage/user_profile/* files to edit for this purpose ... 'cause overlay is "REPLACE" (to me) whereas the stuff in /etc/portage is "HERE'S MY CONFIG" kind of stuff

... so yeah, I just do the lazy thing and add the line back whenever it gets deleted
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0n0w1c · Apprentice Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 273

I tried creating the /usr/local/portage/profiles/<my profile>/virtuals file but no dice. I also tried /etc/portage/virtuals also without success.

0n0w1c · Apprentice Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 273

I found this thread... click here

I created a /etc/portage/profile/virtuals file with the virtual entry and re-ran emerge world and presto... it worked. I have no idea concerning the "secret" aspect of this but it does work.

fafhrd · Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 7:41 pm Post subject:

yeah, i didn't think it'd work ... but if you submit a bug report for an ehancement to be able to specify a new virtual in some /etc/portage file, they'd be likely to consider it, I"m sure :-)

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fafhrd · Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 7:53 pm Post subject:

ha, nice....i don't know if I overlooked that or if it is undocumented at the moment ... very good to know, thanks
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fafhrd · Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 8:00 pm Post subject:

pjp, okay, I think I got it with userpriv and usersandbox:

I've added necessary modifications (I hope!) to run all the ebuilds I"ve done so far with those FEATURES set.

From nothing installed, I"ve installed these packages this way:

0n0w1c · Apprentice Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 273

I unmerged windowmaker and attempted to emerge it again...

emerge -v windowmaker