Software

TexLive 2008 on FreeBSD

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First download the ISO image, and compare the checksums (both md and sha based on avail); alternatively, buy the sucker on DVD :-).

Since I can’t afford a yearly DVD, and don’t have a spare disk; I need to unpack the ISO and mount it directly. If you bought the disk, mount it as normal. For me, this procedure required:

dixie# lzma d texlive2008-20080822.iso.lzma texlive2008-20080822.iso.lzma


LZMA  4.60 beta  Copyright (c) 1999-2008 Igor Pavlov  2008-08-19

dixie# mdconfig -a -v -t vnode -u 10 -f texlive2008-20080822.iso


dixie# mount -t cd9660 /dev/md10 /mnt


dixie# ls /mnt


.mkisofsrc  index.html  source

LICENSE.CTAN  install-tl  support

LICENSE.TL  install-tl.bat  texmf

README   install-tl.bat.manifest texmf-dist

README.usergroups readme-html.dir  texmf-doc

autorun.inf  readme-txt.dir  tl-portable

bin   release-texlive.txt tl-portable.bat

doc.html  rr_moved  tlpkg

Now that the ISO is ready op, we can start the installation. TexLive uses a nice Perl based installer, if you’ve got the necessary TK GUI modules for Perl installed, you can use a a -gui switch; me, I’m fine with the perl script.

Obviously, you will need lang/perl5 installed, along with the necessary dependencies for programs shipped in TeXLive. I don’t know what release of FreeBSD i386, the binaries in TexLive 2007 were compiled against, but 2008 used FreeBSD 7:

Terry@dixie$ file /usr/local/texlive/2007/bin/i386-freebsd/pdftex          0:11
/usr/local/texlive/2007/bin/i386-freebsd/pdftex: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, 
version 1 (FreeBSD), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped
Terry@dixie$ file /usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-freebsd/pdftex          0:13
/usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-freebsd/pdftex: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, 
version 1 (FreeBSD), for FreeBSD 7.0 (700055), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), 
FreeBSD-style, stripped
Terry@dixie$                                                               0:13

Several of the programs used in TexLive are sh/cmd wrappers, but once installed, you can get a general idea of dependencies with the following command:

Terry@dixie$ ldd /usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-freebsd/* 2>- | pgr      0:17

N.B. 2>- means to close the standard error stream, what you need to type, may vary depending on shell; 2>- works on Bourne style shells (ash/dash, bash, ksh, zsh). In the case of shell script wrappers, you’ll need to open them, and manually parse to find anything hidden; most people don’t need to do this.

For the most part, the depends are on the systems C and C++ libraries (libc, libm, libstdc++), a few require other things, such as ncurses, zlib, the new libthr, and gcc related stuff – all this comes with FreeBSD 7. Some programs require X-related libraries (such as MetaFont), fontconfig, and freetype. If you have a working install of X.Org 7.3, you will probably be fine, while disk space holds out lol. The need for handling #!/bin/sh and ‘#!/usr/bin/env perl’ are of course a prerequisite. On my X based system, everything is ready. Checking all this out, shouldn’t be necessary, and any “missing” perl modules or libraries can be installed later: when required.

Anyway, let’s get to actually installing this sucker:

dixie# cd /mnt; ./install-tl


Platform: i386-freebsd => 'Intel x86 with FreeBSD'

Distribution: live (uncompressed)

Directory for temporary files: '/tmp'

Installer directory: '.'

Loading /mnt/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb

======================> TeX Live installation procedure <=====================



=======> Note: Letters/digits in  indicate menu items <=======

=======>       for commands or configurable options                   <=======



 Detected platform: Intel x86 with FreeBSD

 

 <B> binary systems: 1 out of 15



 <S> Installation scheme (scheme-full)

     83 collections out of 84, disk space required: 1720 MB



 Customizing installation scheme:

   <C> standard collections

   <L> language collections



 <D> directories:

   TEXDIR (the main TeX directory):

     /usr/local/texlive/2008

   TEXMFLOCAL (directory for site-wide local files):

     /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local

   TEXMFSYSVAR (directory for variable and automatically generated data):

     /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-var

   TEXMFSYSCONFIG (directory for local config):

     /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-config

   TEXMFHOME (directory for user-specific files):

     ~/texmf



 <O> options:

   [ ] use letter size instead of A4 by default

   [X] create all format files

   [X] install macro/font doc tree

   [X] install macro/font source tree

   [ ] create symlinks in standard directories



 <V> set up for running from DVD



Other actions:

 <I> start installation to hard disk

 <H> help

 <Q> quit



Enter command: i


Installing: [name of package]
.... repeated for each one, have fun waiting on z
running post install action for bin-texdoc

running post install action for bin-texlive

running post install action for texlive-cz

running post install action for texlive-de

running post install action for texlive-en

running post install action for texlive-fr

running post install action for texlive-pl

running post install action for texlive-ru

running post install action for texlive-zh-cn

running post install action for texlive.infra

running post install action for xetex

running mktexlsr /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-dist /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf

mktexlsr: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-dist/ls-R... 

mktexlsr: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/ls-R... 

mktexlsr: Done.

writing fmtutil.cnf data to /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-var/web2c/fmtutil.cnf

writing updmap.cfg to /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-var/web2c/updmap.cfg

writing language.dat data to /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-var/tex/generic/config/language.dat

writing language.def data to /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-var/tex/generic/config/language.def

running mktexlsr /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-var

mktexlsr: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-var/ls-R... 

mktexlsr: Done.

running updmap-sys... done

re-running mktexlsr /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-var

mktexlsr: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-var/ls-R... 

mktexlsr: Done.

pre-generating all format files (fmtutil-sys --all), be patient...done



 See 

   /usr/local/texlive/2008/index.html 

 for links to documentation.  The TeX Live web site (http://tug.org/texlive/) 

 contains any updates and corrections.



 TeX Live is a joint project of the TeX user groups around the world;

 please consider supporting it by joining the group best for you. The

 list of groups is available on the web at http://tug.org/usergroups.html.



 Add /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/doc/man to MANPATH.

 Add /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/doc/info to INFOPATH.

 Most importantly, add /usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-freebsd

 to your PATH for current and future sessions.



 Welcome to TeX Live!



./install-tl: done.

Logfile: /usr/local/texlive/2008/install-tl.log

After that completes, be it 10 minutes later or 10 hours, depending on your hardware…. If desired, one can customize the installation process. If the command prompt scares you, use install-tl -gui instead. You probably will want to setup your installation afterwords, the tlmgr program will be of use, and supports a -gui option I think. For me, all I do is set the default paper type, and update my environment so I can use TeXLive binaries, manuals, and info pages. 

dixie# setenv PATH "/usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-freebsd/:$PATH"
dixie# /usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-freebsd/tlmgr paper a4


N.B. the default shell for root on FreeBSD is (t)csh. My interactive shells always sources ~/.site_shrc at the end of it’s setup, so this is where I set my environment, others would probably want ~/.bashrc or other shell specific file: 

# TeX Live stuff
PATH="/usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-freebsd:$PATH:/usr/games:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:${HOME}/sh:${HOME}/bin"; export PATH
MANPATH="/usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/doc/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/local/man:$MANPATH"; export MANPATH
INFOPATH="/usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/doc/info:/usr/share/info:/usr/local/info:$INFOPATH"; export INFOPATH

and resource the file. As root, one can also add the manuals from TexLive to /etc/manpath.conf (read the comments in it), which will update the man commands search path, Updates to the environment can also be done to the various files in your skel system if desired, and mail existing users about the update. I’m not aware if there is a file to configure the info commands search path, probably is, but I don’t use info pages that often ^_^. I require each user account to adjust their own environment before using TexLive, which suits me fine. Once TexLive 2008 is ready op, and one is satisfied, /usr/local/texlive/2007 can be rm -rf’d, recovering around 1.1GB, depending on what you had installed. Also, my 2008 install is ~1.7GB. I generally opt-in to the defaults, but I expect many people would want to setup a more localized-only set of files. Now to clean up: 

dixie# umount /mnt
dixie# mdconfig -d -u 10

Happy trails

Interesting finds

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%Windir%system32 (typically C:WINDOWSsystem32)

clipbrd.exe — ClipBook Viewer

Big question, can I actually use it for anything? (Grrr, vim is better); windows clipboard management out of box seems to suck, or require finding a program almost no ones ever heard of :

ftype — manages file associates

very bloody useful – no more need to invoke explorer.exe to play with them.

systeminfo — quick print useful data

Gotta remember this next time I’m working on a system; msinfo32 provides more info, but for some dang reason always seems to need start.exe or rhe run dialog to launch it. systeminfo gives a good first look, and is easier to grep.

Windows XP does have some useful changes from DOS 5/6 based releases, but I’ve never actually found a lot that isn’t in my MS-DOS reference >_>.

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Hmm, arguably I have my bad days, and then I have my worse days…

Tomorrow can’t get much worse in terms of work, I hope : Nearly 0500R, so no time for a proper days log; I really need to stop staying up so late.

At the moment, I’ve nearly got nail configured to my needs. The addition of macros and IMAP support is a real improvement over the old Berkeley Mail program. With a little more adjusting, I just might be able to dig into my back-log of mail sometime lol. So far, I only have one major complaint – no line editing at the prompt beyond the most basic level (provided by the terminal). That’ not really a problem though, it allows that old ed like terseness, it’s easy to keep the commands short.

Software, like physical tools should empower users to get work done efficiently, A little bit of learning how to use the program, is worth it when the reward is productive.

One thing I’ve also come to enjoy, is a useful trick for generating HTML manual pages. The mail/heirloom-mailx port installs as /usr/local/bin/mailx on FreeBSD, corresponding manual page being /usr/local/man/man1/mailx.1.gz. Because nail has a big manual page, it’s worth while to use a web browser or a text editor with tabs, in place of the usual $PAGER used by man.

$ zcat /usr/local/man/man1/mailx.1.gz | groff -Thtml -man > ~/mail.1.html
$ firefox3 ~/mail.1.html &

which is much more fun then my shell alias:

alias   man-nail="man -M /usr/local/man mailx"

Miscellaneous ponderings

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/bin/ed isn’t so bad after all, but hey… knowing how to use ex, vi, and vim helps lol.

The old Berkeley mail interface is very interesting, but seems to lack mutts infinite configuration. Most of the time, I just use webmail. Google Chrome (Windows) or some thing from $BROWSER (*nix) is always open, so typically use that; but some times I do like to work from my terminal hehe. It even looks like the nail/heirlom-mailx program might add the stuff I desire.

TODO: inhale /usr/share/doc/usd/07.Mail (the reference manual), inhale nail documentation.

Reboxing the box

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To go with the changes in my working environment, a new style for blackbox 😉

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Since I left KDE in favor of more compact systems, I’ve found that I tend to change my layout of things less often. Most of the arrangements are calculated for muscle memory, and my visual patterns, and have become a set of very quick reflexes.

I don’t miss a taskbar at all, and have still yet to find an excuse to use the slit or dock in Blackbox lol.

running off the deepend

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Well, finished one portion of my docs (Grrr… wasting time in #kde-chat and #vim lol); even got one of the manual pages written out.

Ya know, with the mdoc.samples(7) and mdoc(7) manual pages + a few simple manual pages for reference (head, cat, pkg_add) the process of writing a manual page is actually much less painful then I remember it being. I’ve only got one small problem so far, thin I’ll post on daemonforums later and see if anyone has an idea; if not I’ll probably have to adjust the man pages wording a lit’ bit.

nroff/troff is also strangely addicting once you start playing with macro packages…

The problem with typing to quickly

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Check if the program ‘named’ is running and listening. I don’t know off the top of my head if /etc/rc.d/named supports the status command or not (rc), but finding out if it is running the hardway is still easy.

I’m not familiar with any of the dns/ apps in ports, so I can’t say what name they would run under; but I’m sure someone here would point it out.

—

$ ps xa | grep named
   ... is named running?
$ cat /var/run/named/pid
   ... does the pid file exist?
$ netstat -n -p tcp | grep 53   -- s/tcp/udp/
   ... is anything listening on the usual port?

-> Assuming that the standard issue name server was used, you may want to check named.conf first, in case the settings were changed. On FreeBSD I believe this is etc/namedb/named.conf.

I really should check my posts for typo’s more completely, before I make an ass of myself so easily…. at least J65nko spotted it. Most times I try and check what I write, but after work, it’s not exactly a high priority – compared with finishing the sentence before I get AFK’d for the umpteenth time lol.

Installing SWAT 4 TSS on GNU/Linux

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Disclaimer

The game is not supported by code weavers, and I don’t support users of this posting ether. However, comments and corrections are always welcome – spam will be killed. Also note well, I prefer the command line interface, so I do not use file mangers such as Explorer, Nautilus, or Filer often.

Prerequsists:

  • Basic understanding of GNU/Linux user accounts and permissions
  • Having a working GNU/Linux distribution installed (Ubuntu or Debian recommended)
  • The ability to understand file paths and simple file operations (e.g. copy) without a photograph or explanation of how to copy/move/delete files.
  • Legal copies of both SWAT 4 and SWAT 4: TSS, total of 3 CD-ROM

Step one: Purchase a copy of “CrossOver Games for Linux” from CodeWeavers, or download the free 7 day trial.

Step two: install Cross Over Games for Linux, hence forth called simply cxgames — for brevities sake!

The installation process is simple, the format I suggest is to install it as root for all users. This basically amounts to executing the install shell script as root, either with su or sudo

$ su - root
# ./install-crossover-games-demo-7.1.0.sh

$ sudo -H ././install-crossover-games-demo-7.1.0.sh

Either way, root will need access to you’re display. Via the su method, on a secure system to will have to grant root this access. The proscribed method is you’ll need to run 

xhost +local:root

, and set your $DISPLAY value accordingly once you’ve su’d to root. N.B. a lot of documents say 

xhost +localhost

, which will grant everyone on your machine access to the display; instead of adding root.

Once you’ve launched the install script, it will walk you through it — mostly by a graphical installation wizard.

Step Three: Install SWAT 4

Insert your SWAT 4 disk #1 into the drive, and make sure it is mounted. Some Linux distributions are set to automount it like Windows (Ubuntu), others require you to manually mount it. N.B. that secure systems will only allow root to mount file systems by default.

Launch the cxgames windows program installer; this may be in your applications menu (gnome/kde users) or have to be run manually from a prompt. If you have to run it manually, the program you want to execute is /where/you/installed/cxgames/bin/cxinstall, for example: /opt/cxgames/bin/cxinstall.

Since SWAT 4 is not one of the supported games, you’ll want to go with the “install other games” option, and pass by the disclaimer. You’ll thne need to tell it where to find the disk, usually this is just clicking a checkbox but it is quite flexible. You should install SWAT 4 into it’s own “bottle”, because Linux doesn’t care much for spaces (and command lines are fun), a good bottle name is “SWAT4”.

A bottle is just a simulated windows installation, so if desired – every game can be installed into it’s own separate place. This really makes back ups a snap, limits one program screwing with another, and improves situations if you need to make ‘tweaks’ to the bottle. The installer will then create the bottle in your personal space, e.g. /home/terry/.cxgames/SWAT4. N.B. that .files-and-dirs in Linux are considered ‘hidden’ files, in a GUI file manager, you’ll need to b/p to deal with that.

When the installer starts, run it, there is no need to change the default install paths, unless you are installing into a very customized bottle. Since SWAT 4 uses two CD-ROMs, you will have to umount your first disk, and mount your second before pressing “retry” on the change disks dialog. Same thing happens again at the end of the install, to put the play disk back into circulation. When you’re done, you can close the install program and tell the cxgames installer that it has completed, it will warn you for paranoias sake — close it.

Step Four: Launch SWAT 4

SWAT 4 uses a SecuROM based copy protection system, when I set this up – it thought cxgames version of wine was a cd-rom emulator! And refused to run, a quick fix is to google for the ‘swat 4 no cd’. You will need to backup the old Swat4.exe, and then replace it with the no cd fix in order to launch the game.

Since I prefer the command line, I use cp and mv to copy and move files around; rather then copy/pasting icons in a file manager.

$ cd ~/.cxgames/SWAT4/drive-c/Program Files/SierraSWAT 4/Content/System
$ mv Swat4.exe Swat4.exe.orig-1.0
$ cp /path/to/fixed/1.0/Swat4.exe ./Swat4.exe.nocd-1.0
$ cp Swat4.exe.nocd-1.0 Swat4.exe

Now launch the game, either via your applications menu (gnome/kde users), or manually with the wine subsystem of cxgames, e.g.

$ /opt/cxgames/bin/wine --bottle ~/.cxgames/SWAT4 ~/.cxgames/SWAT4/drive-c/Program Files/SierraSWAT 4/Content/System/Swat4.exe

Then go ahead and test the training level or something like that. SWAT 4 must take care of first run chores before you install the path. When you’re done, just exit the game like normal. In the vent of catrostrophic disaster, you should be able to ctl+alt+function key to vtty, login to a command prompt, and us the ps and kill commands to terminate the process, cxgames also has it’s own way of nuking bad windows processes hehe.

Step Five: Patch SWAT 4

Because the patch checks for a legit copy of SWAT4, we have to replace Swat4.exe with Swat4.exe.orig-1.0, otherwise the patch will fail and scramble a few game files.

$ rm Swat4.exe
$ cp Swat4.exe.orig-1.0 Swat4.exe

Now insert you SWAT 4: TSS disk and run the installer, just like when you installed SWAT 4. Except use the same bottle, by selecting it from a list of existing bottles when prompted for a bottle to use. Once the TSS installer pops up, click the button to install the SWAT 4 1.1 patch.

Step Six: Test run SWAT 4 1.1

Now you need to use a no cd fix for SWAT 4 1.1 in order to continue, download it and do like in Step Four.

$ mv Swat4.exe Swat4.exe.orig-1.1
$ cp /path/to/fixed/1.1/Swat4.exe ./Swat4.exe.nocd-1.1
$ cp Swat4.exe.nocd-1.1 Swat4.exe

and launch the game as in Step Five.

Step Seven: Installing TSS

If you left the TSS installer open from Step Six, fine, if not, open it again — same exact way.

You will have to replace the no cd fixed Swat4.exe with the original one from the path, else the TSS installer will bomb out on you.

$ rm Swat4.exe
$ cp Swat4.exe.orig-1.1 Swat4.exe

Now get the TSS installer up and click the install swat 4 tss expansion pack button. Then proceed through the installation process; you shouldn’t have any major problem, as long as you remembered switch executables first.

Step Eight: Run SWAT 4: TSS

Now you should be able to launch SWAT 4: TSS, when I did it… there was no problem with the Swat4x.exe file in the expansion pack, but the game soon refused to run, having verification problems, despite being a legally paid for copy, with the legally paid for copy in the drive. So one will need to employ another no cd fix to be able to use this legally paid for copy of the game.

$ cd ~/.cxgames/SWAT4/drive-c/Program Files/SierraSWAT 4/ContentExpansion/System
$ mv Swat4X.exe Swat4X.exe.orig
$ cp /path/to/fixed/Swat4X.exe ./Swat4X.exe.nocd
$ cp Swat4X.exe.nocd Swat4X.exe

You can launch it the same way as SWAT 4, but in the case of the command line, the path changes. Just like on Windows, from ContentSystemSwat4.exe to ContentExpansionSystemSwat4.exe.

Known Issues

If the game and your display are not running at the same resolution, moving your mouse pointer to the ‘edge’ will make it scroll outside the window, effectively creating a pan and scan across your display. I have a 1600x1200px primary screen and a 1280×1024 secondary screen. Having SWAT in 1024x768px mode, was horrible… edit: this happens even when the game and X screen are at the same resolution.

I have yet to determine under what conditions dual heads will work, but luckyally most X Window Managers handle dual heads better then Microsoft Windows (in my indignant opinion), at least that has been my experience under FreeBSD 7 and Ubuntu GNU/Linux 8.04 with X.Org 7.2,a nd Windows XP Media Center Edition. So the main problem is a question of mouse handling.

Because of the way things work, people who use mods (e.g. SSF) may have problems launching them, without a corresponding no cd exe. Other wise the game seems to be useable, I’ve only to acertain whether or not graphical performance can be maintained.


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My word, wouldn’t it be heaven to only need windows to play Raven Shield once in a blue moon?

getting bored

by 
#!/bin/sh
#
# usage: vimbuild [tag]
#
# fetch indicated release tag of vim, compile, and test it.
# Requires the Concurrent Versions System (cvs) or  Subversion (svn) client,
# and a suitable make tool.
#
# environment:
#
# $TMPDIR will be used as a staging area if defined, else /tmp is used.
#
# exit status: non zero on failure, zero on success.
#

PATH="/bin:/usr/bin:$PATH"

WORKDIR=${TMPDIR:-/tmp}
VTAG=${1:-vim}
CONFIGURE_ARGS="--enable-perlinterp --enable-pythoninterp --enable-tclinterp --enable-rubyinterp --enable-cscope --enable-fontset --enable-gui=gtk2 --disable-gtktest"

mkdir -p $WORKDIR || exit 1 
cd $WORKDIR

# fetch latest vim
if [ -x "`which cvs`" ]; then
    echo using cvs
    cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@vim.cvs.sf.net:/cvsroot/vim checkout $VTAG
elif [ -x "`which svn`" ]; then
    echo using svn
    svn checkout https://vim.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/vim/branches/${VTAG}
else
    echo 'error, could not find a cvs or svn binary in $PATH!'
    exit 1
fi

cd $VTAG
 ./configure $CONFIGURE_ARGS

#
# set the make command
#
uname | grep -i linux > /dev/null
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    NCPU=$(expr `cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep processor | wc -l` * 4)
    MAKE="make -j${NCPU}"
else
    # assume GNU make is gmake, like on *BSD
    if [ ! -x "`which gmake`" ]; then
        echo "Warning, GNU make not found!"
        echo "This will probably make a GTK gui build fail..."
        MAKE=make
    else
        uname | grep -i bsd > /dev/null
        if [ $? ]; then
            # check number of cpu via BSD sysctl
            NCPU=$(expr `sysctl hw.ncpu | awk '{ print $2 }'` * 4)
            MAKE="gmake -j${NCPU}"
        else
            MAKE=gmake
        fi
    fi
fi

# now build and test it
$MAKE
if [ -x ./src/vim ]; then
    ./src/vim --version > /dev/null
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        echo "I think the Vi IMproved build was a success"
    else
        echo "I think the Vi IMproved build was a failure"
        echo "Do you wish to test it manually?"
        read REP
        echo $REP | grep -i y && exec ./src/vim
            # NO RETURN on yes
    fi
fi

cat << EOF
    run: `echo $MAKE | awk '{ print $1 }'` install
    as root to finish installing vim
EOF

exit 0

I wonder, if I’ll ever bother to use it lol

Hey, it actually worked lol.

Uploaded it to my server, tweaked the configure args and bingo — freshly updated via

$ vimbuild vim7
…
$ su – root
# cd /tmp/vim7 && make install

Just for the heck of it, I’ve made the script adapt $CONFIGURE_ARGS based on what it finds installed, hehe.