OWacomp Files

# Vincent S. Cojot, openlook@cojot.name
# Revision 1.0.5.0-XY, Sun Apr 12 2026
# Revision 1.0.5.0-48, Mon Jan  9 09:51:35 EST 2017

About this set of packages:
---------------------------

The OpenWindows (c) Augmented Compatibility Environment for Linux.

Abbreviated to "OWacomp" in the rest of this document for the sake of clarity.

  OWacomp brings the classic Sun OpenWindows DeskSet look and feel to modern
  Linux systems using XView and the OPEN LOOK toolkit. If you remember the
  old Solaris OpenWindows desktop and miss those tools, these packages are
  for you.

Support Notice:
---------------
  This is a community-maintained project. The original OpenWindows code
  was (c) Sun Microsystems Inc. The XView libraries are open source.
  OWacomp wraps rebuilt and ported versions of DeskSet tools, additional
  XView applications, and supporting libraries.

  If you need to report something, send e-mail to openlook@cojot.name.

Supported Systems:
------------------
  - RHEL 8 / x86_64 (i686 32-bit userland)    [actively maintained]
  - RHEL 9 / x86_64 (i686 32-bit userland)    [actively maintained]
  - RHEL 5, 6, 7 / i386, x86_64               [legacy, no longer updated]
  - CentOS, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux equivalents should also work.

  The Solaris 9/10 packages (SPARC and x86) remain available separately.
  See ReadMe_OW3_Sol_9_10.txt for details.

Prerequisites:
--------------
  - XView library RPMs (xview, xview-devel) must be installed first.
    These are available from the libs/xview/ directory on this site.
  - A running X11 server (X.Org) with 32-bit client support.
  - On RHEL 9 with PipeWire: install pipewire-alsa.i686 for xvmixer.

What is included:
-----------------

  Libraries:
    OWacomp               - Core package (libdeskset, cetables, icons, fonts)
    OWacomp-libce         - Classing Engine library (libce.so)
    OWacomp-libdeskset    - The OWacomp DeskSet library
    OWacomp-libgxv        - The OWacomp libgxv library provides the core code-generation functions for gxv and gxv+
    OWacomp-libgolit      - The OWacomp libgolit library provides the runtime used by Guide-generated OLIT applications.
    OWacomp-libXol        - OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit (libXol.so)
    OWacomp-libtt         - ToolTalk library (libtt.so)
    OWacomp-libdstt       - DeskSet ToolTalk wrapper (libdstt.so)
    OWacomp-libguide      - DevGuide runtime library (libguide.so)
    OWacomp-libguidexv    - DevGuide XView bindings (libguidexv.so)
    OWacomp-UITV3         - User Interface Toolkit V3 (C++ XView wrappers)
    OWacomp-sspkg         - SlingShot 2.1 XView extensions

  Applications:
    OWacomp-bibcard       - The OWacomp bibcard is a graphical BibTeX bibliography database manager
    OWacomp-binder        - Classing Engine / MIME type editor
    OWacomp-calctool      - DeskSet calculator
    OWacomp-contool       - The OWacomp contool is a console message viewer for the OpenWindows desktop.
    OWacomp-devguide      - OpenWindows Developper's Guide Application
    OWacomp-disktool      - Disk space usage and monitoring
    OWacomp-ftptool       - FTP client
    OWacomp-iconedit      - The OWacomp Icon Editor (iconedit) is a DeskSet icon editor
    OWacomp-meminfo       - The OWacomp meminfo is a graphical memory, swap, and system load monitor
    OWacomp-olitsampler   - OLIT widget sampler (demo)
    OWacomp-olittable     - OLIT widget reference table (demo)
    OWacomp-olprops       - The OWacomp olprops is the full-featured OLIT-based Workspace Properties editor
    OWacomp-perfmeter     - System performance meter
    OWacomp-pantool       - XView post-it notes tool
    OWacomp-privtool      - a GPG-aware replacement for the standard mailtool
    OWacomp-rootmenu      - OPEN LOOK root menu
    OWacomp-workman       - CD player
    OWacomp-wsinfo        - Workstation info display
    OWacomp-xdf           - Graphical disk usage monitor (xdf)
    OWacomp-xvfilemgr     - XView file manager
    OWacomp-xvmixer       - ALSA audio mixer (ported from OSS, March 2026)
    OWacomp-xvtdl         - To-do list manager
    OWacomp-xvset         - XView settings editor

  Development:
    OWacomp-*-devel       - Headers and development files
    OWacomp-examples      - DevGuide and UITV3 example code

Recent Changes (2026):
----------------------
  - Full RHEL 9 support (GCC 11, new RPM signing, updated dependencies)
  - Added libXol (OLIT) library, ported from Solaris WS_OLS10_SPARC
  - Added olitsampler and olittable OLIT demo applications
  - Ported xvmixer from OSS (/dev/mixer) to ALSA (libasound)
  - Fixed xdf disk usage calculations to match df output
  - Backported multiple security and stability fixes from Solaris libxview:
    buffer overflow fixes, keyboard modifier handling, DnD cleanup
  - Backported Solaris libolgx fixes: I18N support, resource leak prevention,
    buffer overflow protection, font offset calculations
  - Fixed libXol font loading crashes (XFreeStringList, XCreateFontSet)
  - Fixed olittable help file lookup and buffer overflow
  - Cleaned up LDFLAGS in client Makefiles for reliable RPM builds
  - Added libtt, libdstt, and binder packages (ToolTalk support)

Installation:
-------------
  Pre-built RPMs are provided for RHEL 8 and RHEL 9.

  1. Import the GPG signing key:
     # rpm --import RPM-GPG-KEY-Krynn.txt

  2. Install XView first:
     # rpm -Uvh xview-3.2p1.4-*.rpm xview-devel-*.rpm

  3. Install OWacomp packages:
     # rpm -Uvh OWacomp-*.rpm

  To upgrade existing packages:
     # rpm -Uvh --replacepkgs OWacomp-*.rpm

Building from source:
---------------------
  The source is maintained in Git repositories. To build:

  1. Install build dependencies:
     # dnf install gcc make imake xview xview-devel \
         libX11-devel libXext-devel libXt-devel libXpm-devel \
         bison flex ncurses-devel libtirpc-devel file-devel \
         alsa-lib-devel glibc-devel.i686 libstdc++-devel.i686

  2. Build the source zip and RPMs:
     $ cd OWacomp/scripts/
     $ ./build_zip.sh
     $ ./build_rpms.sh

  Note: OWacomp applications are built as 32-bit (i686) binaries on
  x86_64 hosts using the linux32 personality. This requires the
  corresponding .i686 development packages to be installed.

Disclaimer:
-----------
  This is a personal project shared in the hopes that it will be useful
  to people who would like to keep using the OPEN LOOK desktop on Linux.

  Using these packages should be pretty safe but the author hereby
  disclaims any responsibility for what could happen to you, your
  computers, or your company if you (mis)use them.

  ------------=========== HAVE FUN ==========--------------