[tbox-l] FAQ posted to Toolbox FTP site

SourceForge Headquarters 1320 Columbia Street Suite 310 San Diego, CA 92101 +1 (858) 422-6466

I've just posted a frequently asked questions list to the FTP site.  The
most common question asked in the past isn't there, because the 3.0.5.20
version of rpm.rte includes /sbin/install-info, which people had trouble
with repeatedly.  If you have additions which you'd like to see. let me know.
The FAQ is available (or will be within the hour) in HTML or text format from
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/freeSoftware/aixtoolbox/.  I'll post the
text version here:

      Frequently Asked Questions - AIX Toolbox for Linux Applications

                           Updated April 18, 2001

Table of Contents

General

  1. Is there a mailing list?
  2. How do I report a bug?
  3. How do I request that a tool be added to the Toolbox?
  4. Why isn't my favorite tool in the Toolbox?
  5. Why aren't the tools in installp format?
  6. What compiler was used to build the Toolbox?
  7. Many of these tools have been available on AIX for years. Why the
     Toolbox?
  8. Can I get a CD?
  9. Is there a list of known problems?
 10. Why is this release of the Toolbox incompatible with the version
     released in December, 2000?
 11. How often will the contents of the Toolbox be updated?

RPM

  1. Why does rpm.rte take so long to install?
  2. Where can I find more information on using rpm?
  3. I have gtk+ installed but I can't link to it? Why not?
  4. I downloaded an RPM, but rpm won't install it. Why not?
  5. rpm won't install an RPM because it is missing a dependency. How do I
     find out how to resolve that dependency?
  6. I installed a shared library using installp, but RPM does not recognize
     that the support is installed. What do I do?
  7. How do I remove all of this stuff?

Apps

  1. What level of gcc is provided with the Toolbox?
  2. I have the Visual Age compilers. Can I use it with the Toolbox?
  3. What's info?
  4. Why won't KDE start?

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

General

  1. Q:  Is there a mailing list?
     A:  The public mailing list is aix...@os....
     You may subscribe to the list at
     http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/projects/aixtoolbox.

  2. Q:  How do I report a bug?
     A:  Go to the project page at
     http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/projects/aixtoolbox, click
     on the "bugs" tab, click on "Submit bug", and fill in the report. Be
     sure to respond to the confirmation notice which you will receive so
     that the bug report will be visible.

  3. Q:  How do I request that a tool be added to the Toolbox?
     A:  It is very similar to reporting a bug as above, but specify a
     category of "Request" and a Bug Group of "Package Requests."

  4. Q:  Why isn't my favorite tool in the Toolbox?
     A:  There are thousands of open source tools in the world. We might not
     know about it. Send in a tool request as mentioned above. There may
     also be a licensing issue with that tool. All tools which we distribute
     must be cleared through IBM legal teams for licensing and patent
     checks, and sometime clarifications of the license must be requested
     from the parties with copyrights on the software.

  5. Q:  Why aren't the tools in installp format?
     A:  A primary goal of the AIX Toolbox is to increase the affinity with
     Linux systems. RPM is a common packaging system on Linux platforms
     (though it is not on every Linux platform) and most popular open source
     projects are available as source RPMS (SRPMS), making it relatively
     straightforward to build new packages for the Toolbox.

  6. Q:  What compiler was used to build the Toolbox?
     A:  In general, projects written in C are compiled with Visual Age C
     Compiler 5.0, and projects written containing C++ are compiled with an
     earlier version of the g++ compiler distributed with the Toolbox. The
     final version arrived too late to rebuild everything. The SPEC files
     are generally written to use the same compile which we used if it is
     available and use gcc if it is not.

  7. Q:  Many of these tools have been available on AIX for years. Why the
     Toolbox?
     A:  The Toolbox is provided as a convenience to AIX customers. Every
     AIX 5L customer will get a CD containing the Toolbox software, and AIX
     5L customers on Power have the option of installing GNOME or KDE as the
     default desktop.

  8. Q:  Can I get a CD?
     A:  There is no mechanism at this time to request a CD or to download
     an ISO image to burn your own CD. We are working on that issue.

  9. Q:  Is there a list of known problems?
     A:  The reported bugs are accessible via the project page at
     http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/projects/aixtoolbox. Click
     on the "Bugs" tab to access the list. There are also some known
     problems listed in the README.

 10. Q:  Why is this release of the Toolbox incompatible with the version
     released in December, 2000?
     A:  See the README for a full explanation. Basically, there was an
     implementation flaw in shared library handling in the first release
     which was incompatible with preexisting open source binaries built for
     AIX and which could not support multiple versions of a library.

 11. Q:  How often will the contents of the Toolbox be updated?
     A:  The current plans are to update the CD delivered with AIX four
     times a year, though not precisely on quarterly schedules. The FTP site
     could be updated several times in a week, though the web site is not
     usually updated quite as often.

RPM

  1. Q:  Why does rpm.rte take so long to install?
     A:  rpm generally handles dependencies between packages by
     auto-detecting shared library requirements. It uses its own database to
     determine the shared library support provided on the system. The
     /usr/sbin/updatevpg program is run at rpm.rte installation time to add
     information about shared libraries installed via installp into the RPM
     database. /usr/sbin/updtvpkg examines every file delivered by installp
     to determine if it provides shared library support and that can take
     quite a while on older systems or on systems where many installp
     packages have been installed.

  2. Q:  Where can I find more information on using rpm?
     A:  For basic information, run rpm --help. For detailed information,
     particularly if you want to produce your own RPMs, the best source of
     information is still "Maximum RPM" by Edward Bailey. It can be found
     online at http://www.rpmdp.org/rpmbook.

  3. Q:  I have gtk+ installed but I can't link to it? Why not?
     A:  gtk+ and several other libraries had to be built with run-time
     linking enabled. In order to link with libraries which have been built
     using run-time linking, specify the -brtl flag to the linker. In some
     Makefiles and configure steps, this is done by setting
     LDFLAGS="-Wl,-brtl". If a library is available with a .so extension
     rather than a .a extension, then it was built using run-time linking
     support. run-time linking techniques are generally used when
     dependencies between shared objects cannot be easily resolved at link
     time.

  4. Q:  I downloaded an RPM, but rpm won't install it. Why not?
     A:  It was probably corrupted during the download. Make sure that you
     downloaded it in binary form.

  5. Q:  rpm won't install an RPM because it is missing a dependency. How do
     I find out how to resolve that dependency?
     A:  There is an RPM search facility at http://rpmfind.net which can
     help you determine which package provides a particular file or shared
     library.

  6. Q:  I installed a shared library using installp, but RPM does not
     recognize that the support is installed. What do I do?
     A:  Run /usr/sbin/updtvpkg.

  7. Q:  How do I remove all of this stuff?
     A:  Use the contrib/destroyRPMS script available on the CD and FTP
     site.

Apps

  1. Q:  What level of gcc is provided with the Toolbox?
     A:  That's a tricky question. The gcc and g++ compilers were built for
     IBM by a vendor with sources which are not all yet merged back into the
     public trees for gcc and g++ yet.

  2. Q:  I have the Visual Age compilers. Can I use it with the Toolbox?
     A:  For C, yes. For C++, no.

  3. Q:  What's info?
     A:  info is a documentation system common to Linux. Some applications
     install information into the info system rather than provide man pages.

  4. Q:  Why won't KDE start?
     A:  Check to make sure that you have X11.samples.apps.clients
     installed. If you're on 4.3.3, then you need to have fixes installed
     for X11.base.lib and X11.base.rte. For further information, see the
     README.
-- 
Marc Stephenson		                          IBM Server Group - Austin, TX
Internet:  ma...@au...                          NOTES: ma...@us...
Phone:   512-327-5670                                              T/L 678-3189