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Fink 0.5.0a Released for Jaguar

benh57 writes "The binary release of Fink for Mac OS X 10.2 has finally been released! This release includes over 700 binary packages for Mac OS X 10.2 as well as over 1800 source packages of all kinds. Fink ports Unix software to Mac OS X and makes it available using debian tools like apt-get, as well as a build from source package manager." I'll be selfupdating tonight ...

65 comments

  1. hell ya! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good job to everyone who helped make this happen. Now get back to work!

  2. I'm in love. by jericho4.0 · · Score: 2
    apt-get + OS X!!! Two years ago I couldn't have dreamed it could be this good!!

    Now if only I could use mac apps on a thin-client. Digging through config files leads me to belive that it might be possible.

    --
    "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
    1. Re:I'm in love. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Now if only I could use mac apps on a thin-client. Digging through config files leads me to belive that it might be possible.

      It depends on just how thin you need your client to be. You could easily netboot a room full of older imacs, without hardrives, from an xserve or two in the closet.

      And, of course, X11 programs are just as X-forward-able when running on darwin/osx as anywhere else (so, yes, you can have a room full of cheapo x86 boxen running the same copy of gimp on a mac in the other room... ssh -X is the quickest way, though you can do it without ssh's encryption and compression, too, if you feel so inclined.) But thats probably not what you meant by mac apps now, is it :)

  3. Great software... by singularity · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I bought my G4 in March, and finally installed Fink about a month ago.

    I cannot believe I did not do it sooner. Tools like dselect and apt-get are truly great. I was setting up some local Spam filtering, using Fetchmail, PostFix, Procmail, and Spambouncer. I also installed Pine and Lynx so I could easily SSH into the machine and use it.

    Fink made the process so seamless and easy that I was amazed.

    I had researched installing the different programs by hand, and the instructions for each were several pages long. Fink reduced this down to a handful of terminal commands.

    I went ahead and installed X11 with Sawfish and Gnome. The screenshot was simply amazing.

    The fact that Apple's OS, combined with these tools, makes running these applications this easy is simply jaw-breaking.

    The good people behind Fink deserve a large pat on the break, as well as Apple, who made something like this possible in the first place.

    --
    - (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
    1. Re:Great software... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought the whole point of using OS X was to get away from the ugly ass 'Windows' clone look of Gnonme/KDE or just X11 in general?

      It is cool to have the ability to go over to the 'dark side' when need though.

    2. Re:Great software... by mr100percent · · Score: 1

      That's why it's not installed by default, so people will develop for the OS X toolkit

    3. Re:Great software... by ceravantes · · Score: 1

      Yes but HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET IT TO WORK??? I have been spending the past week download and compiling just about everything that was available but nothing works. Using XDarwin I get some error about 0 server. Using terminal it gives me an error on a file that apparently doesn't exist. Can somebody please help me??!!!

  4. Great project by ernst_mulder · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fink really is something great, it's a huge effort and almost all installed packages are patched by Fink in order to compile. Installing a package using Fink does take a while, but the simple fact that it works is already simply amazing. It's great to be able to compare GIMP to Photoshop for instance, or to play with various other X11 or unix tools. Another great thing is that when you're done playing a simple "rm -rf /sw" will get rid of Fink completely (and a minor edit to your .rc). But it's staying on my Mac. Another great thing is that when you find an error in a package, and report it, the patch is quite often there the next day. Combine this with OroborOSX, XonX and FinkCommander and you'll have a dream machine.

  5. Question by Znonymous+Coward · · Score: 1, Troll

    Why is it that Apple didn't include their own version of these tools? It's a shame that we have to go somewhere else to get what we really want.

    That being said fink is great.

    --

    Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.

    1. Re:Question by jbolden · · Score: 2

      They actually do. Hubbard and Fuller from Apple Computer are part of the Darwin Ports project . I'm not sure what Apple's issue with Fink is in principle (I can think of things that could be improved if they had more resources); as it seems to me to be just about perfect for installation of Unix/X11 apps.

      I'd might guess that they want to sink up fully to the FreeBSD ports collection, but that would be a guess. So yes Apple does have an official project and for some reason they went this direction rather than supporting / improving / changing fink to fit their needs.

    2. Re:Question by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 3, Informative

      Because it's a lot of work for apps that most Mac users don't want.

    3. Re:Question by hairmare · · Score: 1
      Why is it that Apple didn't include their own version of these tools?
      you couldn't expect them to add gtetrinet to their os anyway :)
    4. Re:Question by podperson · · Score: 1

      Well I'm guessing that as with a lot of OS X Open Source projects (e.g. Chimera) it will become harder to tell where "Apple Official Software" and "Open Source" begin and end as the software gets more mature.

      Apple isn't going to put its imprimata on software that doesn't, for example, have a fairly simple and foolproof install process.

      I'm guessing Apple value-added versions of Fink and Chimera will appear as "part of the OS" at some future date.

  6. Gui for this by 1155 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, two things

    First off, they finished this yesterday, actually got it yesterday in the irc chan on irc://irc.openprojects.net in #fink. It's really a cool installer, even detects if you have an old install and what not.

    Second, there is a gui for this, http://finkcommander.sourceforge.net/

    It has buttons to e-mail a developer if a package is working for you, and also shows columns for if this package is out of date, or up to date, etc. It's searchable, and really cool. It doesn't require X11, it's a native apple app!

    Other than that, I would like to congratulate all the people involved, for the hard work they have put into this. It's a very awesome thing.

    1. Re:Gui for this by Alex+Thorpe · · Score: 2

      Thanks for the Fink Commander link; I found Fink's own installer utility to be rather user-unfriendly. At least with the former, when I said I wanted Gimp, it knew what other libraries were needed and where there was more than one to choose from, it gave me the choice. On the other hand, after a lot of downloading, I got a "C compiler cannot create executables" error message; what kind of compiler can't do that? "Failed: compiling audiofile-0.2.3-4 failed" Well, I guess I'll figure it out eventually...

      --
      "Common Sense Ain't" -Unknown
    2. Re:Gui for this by 1155 · · Score: 2

      do you have the developer tools installed?

    3. Re:Gui for this by Alex+Thorpe · · Score: 2

      Yes, but not the versions that come with Jaguar. I have the March 2001 tools, rather than the July 2002 ones. I'll install them later to see if it helps.

      Of course, the reason I didn't update them is that I'd never really used them, until now.

      --
      "Common Sense Ain't" -Unknown
    4. Re:Gui for this by Ranger+Rick · · Score: 1

      That would definitely be a problem, the 10.1 dev tools are not compatible with Jaguar at all. Install the July tools, and then the subsequent patches, and you should be fine.

      --

      WWJD? JWRTFM!!!

    5. Re:Gui for this by Alex+Thorpe · · Score: 2

      Yes, they're compiling now. Not that I know how to use most of these programs; the only one I've tried that runs when I tell it to is cmatrix, a little program that makes random letters descend from the top of the terminal window. It would look better in green & black than black & white, of course. I installed 'X-Windows with GNOME support', but I guess I can't run it by itself.

      --
      "Common Sense Ain't" -Unknown
    6. Re:Gui for this by 1155 · · Score: 2

      You can change the variables for your terminal to produce the green you desire.

  7. Paths? by WatertonMan · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Dumb question, but for those programs that need configuration files and environment variables updated, does the binary version do this properly? Just curious. I'd assume yes but was curious of how they do this if they don't run the installer.

    i.e. "make" to compile, "make install" to install. Or did I just answer my own question?

    1. Re:Paths? by benh57 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, even with the binary installer one of the install steps is to add "source /sw/bin/init.csh" to your .cshrc (or .tcshrc, etc). That script adds any env vars that packages set as well as the fink paths to your path.

    2. Re:Paths? by 1155 · · Score: 1

      Hmm.. this could be changed up though, think about it for a second.. sed and awk are on macs by default right? and if not, it could be included in the packager (ok, so I am reinstalling OSX on my iBook as we speak, I was.. disatisfied with how I partitioned everything)

      You could ls -al the passwd file, and see what the current users shell is, and say it's bash, grep for the config files, if they are present, then add the line to it, and export the file. Wouldn't be all that (yeah, like I could do this, yeesh! but I know some people could do it..)

      You could specify if you want the current user, a user with administrative rights, or the root user to do this. After that, you're pretty much done, it changes those files, then updates itself if you say yes, go ahead and check for updates. Then it asks if you would like a gui for this, and gives you a link to finkcommander.sourceforge.net if you do.

      Might be worth something.

  8. Re:bah by WatertonMan · · Score: 5, Informative
    Actually quite a few people have asked me for suggestions on "how to" problems that end up needing Fink. For instance how do you open a .ps file in Preview? Easy if you have Ghostscript. You can even rig an Applescript so that doubleclicking on them opens them up in Preview. http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20021 125060127218

    So I have to disagree with the utility bit. Yeah chances are people will never run an X11 app. Even when you ask people for good X11 apps to demo, they end up coming up with Open Office, AbiWord or Gimp. Yet there are far superior programs available for native OSX. When I tried to come up with progams I'd use, they typically already had versions with Aqua front ends. (i.e. GNUplot) I thought I'd use X11 a lot. However I tend to do the "gee whiz" try things out and then promptly forget about them.

    For other Fink utilities though I've been pleasantly surprised. I really have used the shell for a lot of things. Some utilities are now standard on OSX. (i.e. Python) However they really do install a lot of useful utilities - especially if you are doing a lot of web work.

  9. Re:bah by WatertonMan · · Score: 2

    Whoops. Sorry about that. Should have previewed. The link was http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20021 125060127218

  10. TeX by addaon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Before I go through a full install, can anyone confirm if TeX works?

    --

    --

    I've had this sig for three days.
    1. Re:TeX by jbolden · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'm using 0.4.9.cvs and not the 5.0 version but TeX works fine.

  11. selfupdating? by yack0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    > I'll be selfupdating tonight ...

    If you do that too much you'll go blind ya know.

    --
    -- There is no sig line, only Zuul.
  12. In SOVIET RUSSIA... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    They apt-get you.

  13. You might also want to check out... by daveschroeder · · Score: 3, Interesting

    TeXShop, a native Mac OS X TeX previewer:

    http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/texshop.htm l

    Also, check out the Mac OS X TeX/LaTeX site:

    http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/

  14. Fink doth rock ... by JMZorko · · Score: 1

    I am so happy! I'm doin' the Snoopy dance!

    Regards,

    John, doin' the Snoopy dance

    Falling You -- exploring the beauty of voice and sound

    --
    Falling You - beautiful
  15. Anyone have trouble mounting the binary installer? by sc00p18 · · Score: 1

    It's giving me a no mountable disks error.... although I can mount other disk images just fine.

  16. No thank you! by pschmied · · Score: 5, Funny
    The fact that Apple's OS, combined with these tools, makes running these applications this easy is simply jaw-breaking.


    Jaw-breaking? I'm glad you posted. I think I'll just back slowly away from my keyboard now.

    -Peter
  17. Re:bah by Matty_ · · Score: 1

    The only X11 application that I routinely use with XFree86 on Mac OS X is xchat since there isn't anyting as good which is native and free.

  18. Re:Anyone have trouble mounting the binary install by benh57 · · Score: 2

    Its jaguar only.. might not work on 10.1.

  19. Re:Anyone have trouble mounting the binary install by milkman_matt · · Score: 1

    Its jaguar only.. might not work on 10.1.

    Yup, from their webpage:

    "This release is for Mac OS X 10.2 only. 10.1 users should use Fink 0.4.1."

    -matt

  20. fink & X11 by commodoresloat · · Score: 2

    I have been using fink and love it, but I've been wary of installing X11, and most of the packages want it there, even when it is not necessary (e.g. ghostscript-nox). I like aqua and I really don't want to mess with window managers again (it's one thing I don't miss about linux.... choice and flexibility are great in theory but in practice I don't have time or energy to fiddle with textfiles I barely understand just to get my terminals to fit on my screen), so I've just laid off installing it at all. Am I just being silly? Does everyone install it, whether you use it or not?

    1. Re:fink & X11 by singularity · · Score: 2

      One problem I ran into with X11 with Fink was multiple monitors. I do not think that Gnome and X11 knew what to do with my three monitors. I never really resolved those issues, but by and large everything worked in the end with little to no "tweaking" on my part.

      Sawfish+Gnome also seemed to suck a lot of processes, even when running in the background.

      Other than that, though, it ran fairly well.

      --
      - (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
    2. Re:fink & X11 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > One problem I ran into with X11 with Fink was multiple monitors. I do not think that Gnome and X11 knew what to do with my three monitors. I never really resolved those issues, but by and large everything worked in the end with little to no "tweaking" on my part.

      See if there's a xinerama port; that's the multi-monitor X package.

  21. Re:bah by Zero+Interupt · · Score: 1

    I use KDE, nmapfe ethereal dopewars :P freeciv a lot of KDE games (to kill time - Apple's GNU chess program humiliates me far to easily) and countless other X programs....

  22. Re:bah by Hes+Nikke · · Score: 1

    x-chat isn't as good as x-chat?

    don't you just love recursion?

    <shamless plug>and even though it only knows how to connect to 1 channel on 1 network i'm told that OpenMac is good (and since it's open source, you can compile it for what ever channels you want)
    </shamless plug>

    --
    Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
  23. Existing packages by emd · · Score: 1

    Any way to convince fink that I have mysql installed already? I install mysql as a seperate package outside of fink.

    1. Re:Existing packages by hairmare · · Score: 1
      you have to somehow set its hold flag. from the dpkg manpage:
      hold A package marked to be on hold is not handled by dpkg, unless forced to do that with option --force-hold.
      I remember it having something to do with an option to apt-get called insert or something but I can't seem to find it again...
    2. Re:Existing packages by Ranger+Rick · · Score: 1

      this only works if you don't use 'fink' for installing source packages... fink (the program) doesn't (yet) understand held packages -- only dselect/dpkg/apt.

      --

      WWJD? JWRTFM!!!

  24. cousin larry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now we are so happy, we do the Dance of Joy!

  25. Immersing traditional Mac users in OSS by MalleusEBHC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am your stereotypical Mac user who could still negotiate System 6 with his eyes closed yet before OS X knew little to nothing about *nix. Aside from my computer bible (Mac OS X: Unleashed), Fink has been the single most valuable tool for introducing me to the open source community. I tried compiling a few programs by myself before I used Fink, and I must say that it was a daunting task. However, with Fink I have been exposed to a ton of OSS that I never would have tried in the first place because it wouldn't be worth going through the pain of installing something I just wanted to check out.

    As great as the software is, I am equally impressed by the community of fink users. I installed Linux on my TiBook just to check it out, yet when I went on IRC for help I was ignored at best and treated with hostility at worst. I went into #fink today asking some questions which I realized were rather newbish later, yet I was still treated kindly and my questions were answered to my full satisfaction and then some.

    Congratulations on a job well done to everyone who has helped with Fink. Keep up the good work!

  26. Re:Anyone have trouble mounting the binary install by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, me too - I end up getting an html file posing as a dmg. You know the standard three-step sourceforge download rigamarole? It's just saving the second step of that to the desktop.

    Here's a URL that works:
    http://unc.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ fink/Fin k-0.5.0a-Installer.dmg

  27. Re:bah by dalamcd · · Score: 1
    The last time I tried the Aqua x-chat, I couldn't send with DCC. Could receive fine, but /dcc send never even opened up a window. (Or it did, but selecting a file didn't do anything. I don't recall exactly.)

    It'll get there, but for now, x-chat in WindowMaker is the only way to go. =)

    dalamcd

    --
    moer liek CELtroid prime!!@1!
  28. Re:bah by cbowland · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Fink is great for working at home (snow days, sick kid, etc...). Using SSH provided by Apple, I can export my X display from my sun boxes at work and then use Fink's X server for the local display. I have also used Dia from Fink as well.

    --

    Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
    Teach him to eat and he will fish forever.

  29. D'oh! by Haberdasher · · Score: 1

    I just typed 'sudo fink update' in a (Fink-installed) xterm. What do I do when it reinstalls Xfree86 and kills that ttyp process?

  30. Gimp by lordpixel · · Score: 2

    You know a native OS X program with more capabilities than The GIMP (in particular, a full layers model) that doesn't cost any money?

    Please share!

    I know you're making a point about X11 apps, but the primary reason I have fink installed is for the GIMP. Its enough in and of itself.

    --

    Lord Pixel - The cat who walks through walls
    A little bigger on the inside than out

    1. Re:Gimp by WatertonMan · · Score: 2
      Gimp does have a lot of features. However I find the interface kind of lame. Whether it'll do enough for you depends upon what you are using it for. I don't know the current applications Apple supplies with their various models, but my dual 867 came with numerous graphics programs that were able to cope with all my editing needs. When I needed more I found a good deal on Photoshop and haven't regreted it. I looked at Gimp, but wasn't that happy with it.

      Others will disagree. But that's why I did mention both it and Open Office. Personally I'd never use either seriously. I installed Open Office just to get a feel for it and in the off chance it had good file filters. (It didn't)

    2. Re:Gimp by lordpixel · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oh, the GIMP's interface drives me insane, and I have 8 years of experience with Unix and X11 applications.

      Its feature set is something I can't find a match for without considering Photoshop, which I can't justify paying full price for.

      Now maybe Corel Draw or some other such package might meet my needs.

      My point was just that there are free software packages out there that are hard to beat without spending serious cash, and you mentioned one.

      Don't get me wrong, I'm a registered user of Graphic Converer, which is fantastic at what it does, but like most shareware it doesn't try to too much. This is a positive thing, but I need other tools to go with it.

      Actually there are many great free software server apps (Apache, mysql etc etc) but as you were talking about desktop apps not server apps, I responded to that specifically.

      --

      Lord Pixel - The cat who walks through walls
      A little bigger on the inside than out

    3. Re:Gimp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Adobe Photoshop Elements is pretty good - much of Photoshop at a reasonable price (Between a mail-in rebate, and an "upgrade" price from an old copy of Photoshop LE I picked up at a used bookstore for $10, it cost me $40).

  31. Powerful software with an easy install by acomj · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I installed fink a while back. I love it. It basically allows users to install/keep uptodate opensourece software.

    The install was a little confusing but well worth it. It really shows off the power of unix and Free software. I love having all the tools I use at work at home.

    Prior to fink I updated my perl install by hand. With fink one app-get command and its there.

    I also installed X too (for xemacs). The X is cludgy, but works well enough.

    It makes the mac so much more powerful..

  32. Fink Updating Woes by NoData · · Score: 2

    In the cruelest irony, Fink, my E-Z package updater, is proving itself a real pain to update.

    Here's the deal. I recently upgraded OS X 10.1 to 10.2. I have done all the Developer tool and XDarwin updates without incident. I have an old fink binary distribution (0.3.2a). All I want to do is update to 0.5.0a. How??

    The website has a link to its "Upgrade Matrix". It says to run sudo apt-get update.
    This fails at various points with FATAL -> Could not set non-block flag Operation not supported by device. Yes, very helpful, thanks. Maybe sourceforge's servers are slashdotted?? I ran this multiple times. Fails at different points with the same error...one time it ran through with no errors. Ran fink --version. Still 0.3.2a.

    But I don't know if I even trust the Upgrade Matrix as it hasn't been--er--upgraded for a LONG time. It makes no reference to 10.2 or Fink 0.5.0a. On the other hand, the Fink site at one point had this page describing how to upgrade to the beta 10.2-compatible version of Fink. It basically looks like involved downloading the Fink software archive and recompliling it. I think. Do I still have to do it this way?

    And of course the simplest option--that is, downloading the official Fink 0.5.0a binary installer--comes with a stern warning about NOT upgrading with the installer! "Please see the Upgrade Matrix" (?!).

    And what's with all the version numbers? The latest Fink binary is 0.5.0a. But the package installer is like 0.9.12 or so. And the software archive is like 0.11.1. What gives? Is this common in the Linux/Debian world?

    Argh. Any insight would be appreciated.

    1. Re:Fink Updating Woes by hayne · · Score: 1

      I would recommend doing what I did with my old (pre 0.5.0a) Fink stuff: rm -rf /sw Now you have a clean slate and you can proceed to install the binary installer, then get all the packages you want. Ok, it's a re-install, not an upgrade. But this way it is guaranteed to work.

    2. Re:Fink Updating Woes by Ranger+Rick · · Score: 3, Informative

      Try a 'fink selfupdate-cvs' to get your base fink packages up to the latest. The likely problem is that your apt sources.list is pointing at the wrong place (we had to move the binary URL so it could coexist with 10.1 binaries on the apt repository).

      A selfupdate-cvs should upgrade your apt and set up the proper locations, and from there you can do an "apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade" to get your installation updated.

      --

      WWJD? JWRTFM!!!

  33. behh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I chose to install X-Chat and Vim - two utils I miss most on my Powerbook. And you know what? It had 101MB of dependencies! Forget it! Why should I be happy to get the bloat of Linux on Mac OS X??

    1. Re:behh... by FireBook · · Score: 1

      the simple reason you had 101mb of dependancies is because its _X_ chat :o) it needs an x server to run on :o) you surely can spare a bit of space to run the x windowing system? things shouldnt be as bloated afterwards

      --
      My other OS is also FreeBSD
  34. Gnome question by Lazarus2k2001 · · Score: 0

    Does anybody know how I have to setup the Xwindowssystem that it starts gnome when I start it???

    --
    "Holy instant noodle"
  35. Re:Great software... deadly caliphate grows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ah, it's so nice to know that someone in this world cares for me, cares enough to check and see if I post or not.

    You've been slipping man, took you a week this time. Hurry up.

  36. Re:Great software... deadly caliphate grows death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, this week I was busy fucking your mother. She is ugly, and rather stupid, but I told her that was okay because all Islamic woman are stupid. Well, I saw your mothers chopped up clitoris, your foul family members carved it from her when she was 13. Anyways, I said to her, fuck Islam, man, its bullshit. Organized religions are cults, and this is the fuckin' worst. So I got her to suck me off, lick my nuts and my ass too. And I gave it to her in the pussy and the ass. She liked it, but she would have came harder if she still had a clit. After that we considered giving a few dollars to the JNF in honor of freedom, snacked on some bacon and talk of Mohammed being a nigger and a fraud, and how Islam is a fake shit religion. She knew I was right. I gave her a slice of cock your fucking boy loving fucking father could never give.

    Hey, Islamic death killer... When you dad fucked you in your ass, did he tell you it was Allah's anger?