Re: Redhat 5.0 problems/solutions

[Marcus G. Daniels]

>>>>> "PJ" == Paul Johnson <address@hidden> writes:

PJ> Redhat 5 is based on a new C library and also many of its features
PJ> are built on tk/tcl 8.0.  I tried to compile libtclobjc against
PJ> that new library and got some errors, so I installed tk/tcl 7.6
PJ> 4.2 in the /usr/local directory and tried to make things go.

With the swarm-1.0.4 release will be a new version of libtclobjc
that compiles with Tcl/Tk 8.0.  However, BLT 2.3 doesn't quite support
Tcl/Tk 8.0 so Swarm still won't work with Tcl/Tk 8.0.

PJ> However, the rudest surprise was that the swarm package would not
PJ> make. I kept seeing errors about mistakes in stdlib.h.  After a
PJ> long time, I figured out that the make was looking first in the
PJ> /swarm/include directory for header files, and those header files
PJ> are "stale." they dont work with the libraries I have. SO, one by
PJ> one, I renamed those libraries, such as stdlib.h, math.h, one of
PJ> the ieee785.h.  Finally swarm made without errors because it found
PJ> better header files. Note, I don't think you can just delete all
PJ> of them because some are found nowhere else on the pc.

Hmm, what is /swarm/include?  For a given compiler target, there should be
at most two versions of an include files, one in the usual place
(e.g. /usr/include), and perhaps `fixed' version in the GCC tree,
(e.g. /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i486-linux/2.7.2.3/include).

PJ> I could not get applications to make, however, because of a lot of
PJ> TK/TCL/BLT errors after an archive install. I can list the errors,
PJ> perhaps they are just a result of some minor mistake I made, not
PJ> due to redhat 5.0 at all. 

I don't follow RedHat things, but I'd guess that RedHat 5.0 is based
on the GNU C Library, like version 2.0.5 or something.  If so, then
you'll almost certainly need to rebuild everything related to Swarm
(e.g. news compile of Tcl, Tk, BLT, tclobjc), unless some of those
packages came distributed with the system (probably Tcl and Tk).

PJ> I think the compiler was finding the
PJ> files in /usr/local, at least according to the compiler messages,
PJ> but the weird thing is the error messages follow all the way back
PJ> to the /usr/src files from which the packages were made and
PJ> installed. (Yes, when I installed libtclobjc, I told it to use the
PJ> tcl/tk in the /usr/local/lib directory, and I think blt found them
PJ> on its own).

For installing BLT and tclobjc on hybrid systems (like many GNU/Linux
systems nowadays), my advice is not to trust the configure scripts.
These configure scripts have a proclivity to go looking for things
unless you insist on particulars by using options like --with-tcl,
--with-tk (in the case of BLT), or environment variables like
TCL_LIBRARY and TK_LIBRARY (in the case of tclobjc).

If you want to be sure you've got all the Swarm components setup
correctly, I guess the first thing I'd do is to disable as much of
your previous (before RedHat 5.0) local installs as possible (this is
all assuming you or other users don't rely on this machine for mail
delivery, and other crucial functions).  For example, rename
/usr/local to /usr/local-disabled and see what on your system breaks.
Then, piece by piece, reinstall the things you need either with rpm or
by doing source installs to a different location (with GNU packages
and Tcl/Tk-like things, this is convenient to do with the --prefix
option to `configure').


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