Adobe Acrobat takes forever to load (with “forever” being defined as 4-5 seconds), so I wanted all my PDFs to open in Preview, by default. The thread above explains how to do it.
I caught the tail-end of a free presentation on iLife at the Apple Store in SoHo this afternoon. iMovie has been sitting around unused on my computer for too long. Inspired by how easy the instructor made it seem, I finally got around to launching iMovie and creating this montage of our Telluride trip (5.0 MB).
In the process of installing Panther from scratch, I decided to use DarwinPorts. It’s a packaging system for the abundant UNIX free software available on Mac OS X. I had previously used Fink which, while being an admirable project, seemed a little opaque to me. I never quite knew where data was being installed and which locations were being searched to see if prerequisites were present. Darwinports seems to be a little better at finding programs/libraries that are already installed. I freely admit my ignorance in this matter, though. It may simply be that I understand Darwinports better than I did Fink, but that, in itself is an important criteria.
Here are the ports that I currently have installed:
[02:17:13 vinod]:~ $ port installed The following ports are installed: gettext-0.10.40 keychain-2.0.3 mutt-1.4.2.1 offlineimap-4.0.0 readline-4.3 urlview-0.9 wget-1.9.1
All of the above ports are available from darwinports except offlineimap. I built that one myself. Here is the Portfile for offlineimap:
[02:18:42 vinod]:~/dports-dev/mail/offlineimap $ cat Portfile # $Id: $ PortSystem 1.0 name offlineimap version 4.0.0 categories mail maintainers vinod@kurup.org platforms darwin homepage http://gopher.quux.org:70/devel/offlineimap description IMAP/Maildir synchronization and reader support long_description OfflineIMAP is a tool to simplify your e-mail reading. With OfflimeIMAP, you can: * Read the same mailbox from multiple computers, and have your changes (deletions, etc.) be automatically reflected on all computers * Use various mail clients to read a single mail box * Read mail while offline (on a laptop) and have all changes synchronized when you get connected again * Read IMAP mail with mail readers that do not support IMAP * Use SSL (secure connections) to read IMAP mail even if your reader doesn't support SSL * Synchronize your mail using a completely safe and fault-tolerant algorithm. (At least I think it is!) * Customize which mailboxes to synchronize with regular expressions or lists. * Synchronize your mail two to four times faster than with other tools or other mail readers' internal IMAP support. In short, OfflineIMAP is a tool to let you read mail how YOU want to. distname ${name}_${version} master_sites http://gopher.quux.org:70/devel/offlineimap/ checksums md5 13e355c8a957dddfe9b7486821d83370 depends_lib bin:python2.3:python23 # tarball extracts as offlineimap, not offlineimap-4.0.0 worksrcdir ${name} use_configure no build.cmd python setup.py build.target build destroot.cmd python setup.py destroot.destdir --prefix=${destroot}${prefix} post-destroot { # remind user to define/add installed path to python path ui_msg " be sure the install path is included in your python path:" # FIXME: hardcoding 2.3 isn't right here ui_msg "tcsh: setenv PYTHONPATH $PYTHONPATH:${prefix}/lib/python2.3/site-packages" ui_msg "bash: export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:${prefix}/lib/python2.3/site-packages" xinstall -d -m 755 ${destroot}${prefix}/share/doc/${name} xinstall -m 644 -W ${worksrcpath} manual.html manual.pdf manual.ps manual.txt ChangeLog COPYING COPYRIGHT UPGRADING ${destroot}${prefix}/share/doc/${name} xinstall -d -m 755 ${destroot}${prefix}/share/doc/${name}/examples xinstall -m 644 -W ${worksrcpath} offlineimap.conf offlineimap.conf.minimal ${destroot}${prefix}/share/doc/${name}/examples xinstall -m 644 -W ${worksrcpath} offlineimap.1 ${destroot}${prefix}/share/man/man1 }
I haven’t submitted this to the darwinports project yet because they recommend installing the software on a fresh Mac OS X install to be sure that you’ve correctly specified any dependencies. I haven’t had time to do that yet. I hope to, though, because I find the port system to be very intuitive. Building an OpenACS port on Mac OS X seems doable, but I need to look into how upgrades are handled. Walter McGinnis has sent me his instructions for building an OpenACS installation using darwinports, but I think we can make it easier, by building simple Portfiles for each of the required pieces. Here are Walter’s detailed instructions:
# install darwinports # see instructions on darwinports.com # using openacs-head for server name for convoluted reasons... # i also user ~/Development/web rather than /var/lib/aolserver for my # server source # darwinports working directories under ~/Development/darwinports/ # you need to add /opt/local/bin or something to your path in .bash_profile # for the port command to work # see darwinports install doc for details Delphy:~ walter$ sudo port -v -d install postgresql Password: ... Delphy:~ walter$ pwd /Users/walter Delphy:~ walter$ cd /opt/local/ Delphy:/opt/local walter$ mkdir pgsql Delphy:/opt/local walter$ mkdir pgsql/data Delphy:/opt/local walter$ sudo chown -R walter:staff pgsql Delphy:/opt/local walter$ initdb -D pgsql/data ... Delphy:/opt/local walter$ pg_ctl -D pgsql/data -l logfile start postmaster successfully started Delphy:/opt/local walter$ createlang plpgsql template1 Delphy:/opt/local walter$ createdb openacs-head CREATE DATABASE Delphy:/opt/local walter$ createuser openacs-head Shall the new user be allowed to create databases? (y/n) y Shall the new user be allowed to create more new users? (y/n) y CREATE USER Delphy:/opt/local walter$ sudo port -v -d install aolserver ... Delphy:/opt/local walter$ cd ~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0/ Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0 walter$ sudo port -v -d install wget Password: ... Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0 walter$ sudo wget http://twtelecom.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/aolserver/nscache-1.5.tar.gz Password: ... Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0 walter$ sudo wget http://twtelecom.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/aolserver/nspostgres-4.0.tar.gz ... Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0 walter$ sudo wget http://twtelecom.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/aolserver/nssha1-0.1.tar.gz ... Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0 walter$ sudo cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/aolserver login Password: (Logging in to anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net) CVS password: Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0 walter$ sudo cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/aolserver co nsrewrite ... Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0 walter$ sudo tar xvfz nscache-1.5.tar.gz ; sudo tar xvfz nssha1-0.1.tar.gz ; sudo tar xvfz nspostgres-4.0.tar.gz ... Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0 walter$ cd nscache-1.5 Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0/nscache-1.5 walter$ NSHOME=..; export NSHOME Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0/nscache-1.5 walter$ sudo make install ... Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0/nscache-1.5 walter$ cd ../nsrewrite/ Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0/nsrewrite walter$ sudo make install ... Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0/nsrewrite walter$ cd .. Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0 walter$ cd nssha1-0.1 Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0/nssha1-0.1 walter$ sudo make install Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0/nssha1-0.1 walter$ cd ../nspostgres-4.0 # edit the Makefile from: # < MODLIBS = -L$(PGLIB) -lpq # to # MODLIBS = -L$(PGLIB) -lpq -lnsdb Delphy:~/Development/darwinports/dports/www/aolserver/work/aolserver-4.0/nspostgres-4.0 walter$ sudo make install POSTGRES=/opt/local ACS=1 ... Delphy:/opt/local walter$ cd /opt/local Delphy:/opt/local walter$ sudo mkdir src Delphy:/opt/local walter$ sudo chmod 775 src Delphy:/opt/local walter$ wget http://www.tdom.org/tDOM-0.7.8.tar.gz ... Delphy:/opt/local walter$ cd src/ Delphy:/opt/local/src walter$ tar xvfz ../tDOM-0.7.8.tar.gz Delphy:/opt/local/src walter$ rm ../tDOM-0.7.8.tar.gz Delphy:/opt/local/src walter$ cd tDOM-0.7.8/ Delphy:/opt/local/src/tDOM-0.7.8 walter$ cd unix/ Delphy:/opt/local/src/tDOM-0.7.8/unix walter$ ../configure --enable-threads --disable-tdomalloc --prefix=/opt/local/aolserver Delphy:/opt/local/src/tDOM-0.7.8/unix walter$ sudo make install ... Delphy:/opt/local/src/tDOM-0.7.8/unix walter$ cd Delphy:~ walter$ cd Development/ Delphy:~/Development walter$ mkdir web Delphy:~/Development walter$ cd web Delphy:~/Development/web walter$ cvs -z3 -d walterg@openacs.org:/cvsroot co acs-core password: ... # i move the openacs code to openacs-head # mv openacs-4 openacs-head # edit openacs-head/etc/config.tcl to be localhost, etc ! set hostname localhost ! set address 127.0.0.1 ! set server "openacs-head" set servername "New OpenACS Installation - Development" ! set serverroot "/Users/walter/Development/web/${server}" Delphy:~/Development/web/openacs-head walter$ /opt/local/aolserver/bin/nsd -ft ~/Development/web/openacs-head/etc/config.tcl
I think Fink and Darwinports can coexist since Fink is installed in /sw and Darwinports in /opt/local, but I’m sticking with Darwinports alone, for now.
Thanks to the fine folks at badgertronics, I was able to upgrade my Powerbook to Panther free-of-charge. I initially did an “Archive and Install” upgrade, as recommended by the upgrade guide at TidBITS (easily worth the measly $5, IMHO). But soon after the install, I noticed that my system seemed a lot slower. I couldn’t pinpoint a specific problem, but things just seemed sluggish. I definitely noticed that DNS seemed to be broken. I was moved to act when I noticed that my IMAP client (offlineimap) took 15 minutes to sync 48 IMAP Maildirs between my Mac and my server. According to the offlineimap docs, syncing 50 Maildir folders should take around 3 seconds. Hmmm…. that seems a little wrong.
I searched the Internet but was unable to find a specific fix for this problem. A few posters intimated that doing a fresh “Erase and Install” of Mac OS X 10.3 was better than using the “Archive and Install” option. So, this weekend, I backed up my HD using Carbon Copy Cloner, erased my HD, and did a fresh install of Mac OS X Panther.
As expected, everything is quick and zippy again. A sync of my IMAP folders takes 15 seconds now, as opposed to 15 *minutes*. While I’m happy with the result, I wish I could figure out why the “Archive and Install” option resulted in such a poor outcome.
It wasn’t easy, but I finally got OpenFTS-0.3.2-tcl to compile on Mac OS X (10.2.8). I started by reading the excellent Mac OS X porting guides from Fink and Apple. Unfortunately, the OpenFTS Makefile and configure scripts aren’t standard, so I had to muck around with things alot. Here’s the diff:
diff -U 2 -rbB Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2/aolserver/Makefile Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2-vk/aolserver/Makefile --- Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2/aolserver/Makefile Tue Nov 19 14:24:44 2002 +++ Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2-vk/aolserver/Makefile Wed Jan 14 23:23:13 2004 @@ -13,6 +13,6 @@ OBJ = $(SOBJ) $(POBJ) $(OOBJ) nsfts.o NSFTSLIB = nsfts.so -LDSO = gcc -shared INC = -I../include -I$(NS_HOME)/include -I$(NS_HOME)/nsd +MODLIBS += -L/sw/lib -L/usr/local/aolserver/lib -ltcl8.4 -lnsd .SUFFIXES: .c .h .so .l @@ -26,5 +26,5 @@ $(NSFTSLIB): $(OBJ) - $(LDSO) $(OBJ) $(LIBS) -o $(NSFTSLIB) + $(LDSO) $(OBJ) $(LIBS) -o $(NSFTSLIB) $(MODLIBS) clean: diff -U 2 -rbB Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2/configure Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2-vk/configure --- Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2/configure Tue Nov 19 14:24:44 2002 +++ Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2-vk/configure Wed Jan 14 22:36:44 2004 @@ -2771,4 +2771,16 @@ fi +# +# Mac OS X 10.2 +# +# vinodk: not sure if all of this is needed/accurate +if test `uname` = "Darwin"; then + PLATFORM="osx" + CC="cc" + LD="cc" + CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -no-cpp-precomp" + LDSO="$LD -flat_namespace -bundle" +fi + if test $PLATFORM = "unknown"; then { { echo "$as_me:2774: error: unknown platform" >&5
Then, follow the instructions in AOLSERVER.INSTALL. I’m not too handy with this Makefile/configure stuff, so I’d appreciate any guidance on how to do this properly :-).
Loyal readers of my blog will remember that my Powerbook Wallstreet G3 died on September 21st, 2002. Since I’m probably the only one that remembers, I’ll point you to that blog entry. The good news was that the hard drive was intact, the bad news was that I didn’t have an easy way of accessing it. I have a Firewire enclosure, and my old Powerbook was running Linux, so I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult to get my new Powerbook to read the data off the old HD. I mean Mac OS X and Linux are the same underneath, right? Well, not quite. Mac OS X uses a filesystem called HFS+ and my version of Linux uses a filesystem called ext2. Turns out that no one had written an ext2 driver for Mac OS X.
So, I turned to Google and with more effort than usual, found the Mac OS X Ext2 Filesystem Project, or ext2fsx. I subscribed to the RSS feed and just waited until I saw the 1.0.1 product released on 11/20/2003 (Never trust the 1.0!). I loaded it up and voila! My old Wallstreet was back. Thank you Brian Bergstrand!
In celebration, I’ve uploaded pictures from 2001 and early 2002 that I thought I had lost forever. Enjoy.