How to set up a G4 Mac to use with X
Set up the Mac OS X environmet
Here I follow the defaults - i.e., there are no special settings
necessary to prepare the OSX system for the next steps. In particular,
the file system that should be used is HFS+ (not UFS, even though that
would at first glance seem more logical ...).
Install Developer Tools
This was written before Jaguar came along!
Get the most recent pre-Jaguar version of the Developer Tools from Apple. When I type cc --version,
I get 2.95.2 for my compiler. I think version 3 (shipped now after
Jaguar is released) is still not compatible with all the
fink open source software... so I am not upgrading to Jaguar until I
know fink will work with it.
The software installs the essential prequisites, most importantly the
cc compiler.
This can be done from the CD that comes with the
computer. Alternatively, download this package from the Apple site:
http://developer.apple.com/tools/.
You have to log in (or first sign up) as a member of the ADC (Apple
Developer Connection). all this is free of charge. Make sure you don't
get an older version of this software!
In this and the following installation, the software comes as a
package (.pkg) which is installed by double-clickeing. When the
installer asks for the administrator password, click on the padlock
icon in the lower left corner of the dialog to enter your password
(assuming you are the user whose name the computer recognizes as its boss...).
Install XFree86
This is the XWindows server which you need in order to run things like
Xemacs etc. Download it from
http://www.xdarwin.org/download/
and click to install.
The alternative way of downloading this via fink (see below) also
works but produces an Xwindos system that sends out too many (harmless
but annoying) warning messages. That's why I downloaded the
pre-compiled version as suggested here.
Install an easy-to-use window manager
I am using the Orobor OSX manager which can be downloaded from
http://oroborosx.sourceforge.net/
It allows Mac OSX and Xwindows to coexist on the screen, provided you
follow the instructions (click on the interleave command ...)
I then made the following modification to the system: when Orobor OSX
is running, go to the menu and choose "Edit Startup Items". At the end
of the file that opens, I inserted
Run initrc
before the lines
xterm
xeyes
Then I edited the file ~/.xinitrc to contain the line
xmodmap -e "remove Mod1 = Alt_R"
as the second-to-last line.
Get the Fink porting software
This allows you to download all the UNIX applications you'll ever
need. Get the file "Fink 0.3.2a Binary Installer"
from the page
http://fink.sourceforge.net/download/index.php
and install it, following the instruction on that page.
However, I actually included "source /sw/bin/init.csh" in my
.tcshrc
file, not in .cshrc
Install software
In the Terminal application, open a new window to initialize the
shell. Then start by typing the following commands:
fink install system-xfree86
fink install tetex
The sudo
command is essential (it requires you to enter
your password) so that the installations are done with root
privileges.
This installs a virtual dependence for Xwindows needed by fink, and
the second line installs a full-featured LaTeX system.
Next come the other useful installations which depend on individual
needs. In order to get the BLAS and LAPACK libraries optimized, I now
do the following:
sudo emacs /sw/etc/fink.conf
This file has a line called "Trees:", to which I append
"unstable/main". This is necessary in order to perform the
next installation step:
fink install octave-atlas
You will be asked several questions which can be acknowledged by
simply hitting return, except when asked for the type of
processor. There, coose G4. Everything else is then automatic
(there is another dialog later on asking you to enter the number at
the top of the screen - that means the biggest part of the
compilations are done...)
After this lengthy installation, you'll also have octave installed.
If you want to find out more about this and other packages, go to the
last section.
To conclude this step, I suggest you first remove the
"unstable/main" from /sw/etc/fink.conf
again.
emacs /sw/etc/fink.conf
.
Remark: If you want to install only stable software, leave
/sw/etc/fink.conf
alone and do
fink install octave
instead.
More fink installations
The information about packages that can be installed is found on the
fink pages,
http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/index.php.
It is crucial to read the Documentation and FAQ in order to avoid
installation problems. I myself installed many packages, among them
xemacs-sumo and GIMP, without problems.
Customization
I like to start programs from the command line. Since Internet
Explorer and Acrobat Reader are already installed for OSX, I don't
want to install redundant Xwindows version of pdf viewers or
browsers. Therefore, I add the following commands to my .tcshrc
startup file:
alias acro "open -a /Applications/Acrobat\ Reader\ 5.0 $1"
alias browse "open -a /Applications/Internet\ Explorer.app $1"
An alternative solution is to put such definitions into a directory
~/bin/ and make sure that it's in your PATH. E.g., you could create a
file called ~/bin/acro with the content
open -a /Applications/Acrobat\ Reader\ 5.0 $1
and make it executable (with chmod 700 ~/bin/acro
). That
is an easier way to define commands that you want to be available even
when you're not running tcsh (say, bash or zsh...).
I also like to start Unix commands by double-clicking in
Aqua (sometimes).
To do that, one has to pass the Unix command to the Terminal
application as an argument to be executed. This is done by opening the
Unix command executable in the OSX finder, and choosing "Show
Info". In "Open with Application", choose "Other..." and then navigate
to Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/. You can choose Terminal only
if you select "Show All" at the top of the dialog window.
Using it
To copy and paste between OSX Aqua and the Xwindows panes of Orobor
OSX, you have to get used to a certain asymmetry:
- Selecting text always works by dragging the mouse over a region.
- If you are in an OSX application, press Apple-C to copy a selection
and Apple-V to paste from your buffer.
- If you are in an Xwindow, you fill the copy buffer by simply
dragging to select - and nothing else. To paste the contents of the
buffer, just do Apple-Click with your mouse at the desired insertion
point.
To quit Xwindows, go to the OroborOSX menu bar and select Quit
OroborOSX.