Fritz--
I think a basic reset is needed here. Perhaps it would help you to explain that
Fink exists solely to allow you to install a bunch of open source software
quickly and easily.
That may not sound like much, but many of the applications that Fink can
install on your Mac were originally written for a different operating system
(usually some form of Linux), and installing them on a Mac can require a
substantial investment in time and energy to get all of the supporting pieces
(called 'dependencies' in the programming world) installed and working.
So, what does this mean? When you use Fink, you are asking it to install
whatever program you want to run on your Mac. For example, you might want to
install GnuCash (an open source accounting package). You could try to download
all the various dependencies, install them (in the right order, naturally), and
then download and compile GnuCash (all the while hoping that it all goes OK).
Or you could open a terminal window and type "fink install gnucash3" and let
fink do all the work for you. Several hours later, if all goes well, you will
be able to run Gnucash on your computer.
So, I guess at this point, the proper question to ask you is this: what are you
trying to install?
Cheers,
David
--- On Mon, 4/11/11, Fritz Hudnut <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Fritz Hudnut <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Fink-beginners] Tried some commands and nothing exactly happens
To: [email protected]
Cc: "Alexander Hansen" <[email protected]>
Date: Monday, April 11, 2011, 7:08 PM
Dr Hansen:
OK, thanks for your reply. In terms of my rambling paragraph, I don't know
enough to know what my "one issue" is to ask just one question. I'm just
trying to get Fink to "start" . . . but I don't know what that means to you to
ask it in a way that might be easy. This is the "beginners list" and I'm a
beginner with Fink and even Terminal. It doesn't mean too much if I can type
"man" in a Terminal window or an X window and I get a page of data. In answer
to one of your questions, yes, the information about Apple X11 not being
compatible with the X11 installed by Fink is from the Fink site
<http://www.finkproject.org/doc/x11/index.php> . . . . And I see now the X is
the same case in both. And, thanks for the info on tcsh v bash . . . that must
be the default setting??
But, to avoid rambling, you haven't 'splained it to me about how to simply
"start" what might be termed a "fink" session or how to simply start using
"fink" . . . because when I type "fink" into the X window . . . a short list is
the only thing that shows up. So, in an effort to avoid rambling, reading the
Fink FAQ seems to go over a lot of info of things to watch out for, but, where
does it discuss how to begin at the most basic level?? if there is such a
thing. When I type "startx" I get the X-quartz window??? but when I type
those other commands or if I type "fink" . . . I get some terms like "list"
"apropos" "index" and some options like "-h" and so forth. But, how to begin
at the beginning so that Fink is usable as an OS if that's what it is?
I used FC to "update" Fink from the original PPC for 10.4.11 download from the
Fink site and the update download took at least 1.5 hours on a DSL line, and I
see that it went from 99 apps to 126 apps. gnome-base 2.4.1-1 is current.
gnome-mime 2.4.1-5 and gnome-vfs2 2.6.1.1-1017 are outdated. And there are
many other listings for gnome that seem to repeat, so which are the relevant
apps that are needed? The guy on the Apple Unix list said the FC "knows what
needs to be installed if you pick one app in gnome and it will install all the
needed packages." But clearly that didn't happen?
=========================
What do I get from "fink list gnome-session" in both a Terminal window and an
X11 window is: fink list gnome-session
"Information about 5163 packages read in 3 seconds.
gnome-session 2.28.0-2 Login session management"
But FC doesn't show that "gnome-session" is installed.
===================
I'm not sure why it would have done that, unless you installed a package
that doesn't get along with mozilla. Try reinstalling it.
Alright on re-installing Mozilla: there are "mozilla 1.7.5-1102," two listings
for "mozilla- "
"mozilla-dom" mozilla-js mozilla- again, mozilla-psm and
mozilla-shlibs. Do I install all of them or will FC know which I need?
============================
Thank you for your time, I need a little more information than provided as to
how to get rolling using Fink, sorry for the ramble--another link beyond the
Fink FAQ?
Fritz H
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Forrester found the best-in-class provider in terms of services and vision.
Read this report now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/ibm-webcastpromo
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