DISQUS

Zaphu Forum: Install and Configure Fink from Binary or Source [Mac Guide]

  • poushag · 2 years ago
    Steve, This is the best writeup about Fink I have seen. I think a great follow up would be for you to edit this article to bring it up to date for using fink under Leopard. And especially helpful would be an additional detailed section explaining how-to upgrade both the Fink binary distribution and Fink source distribution.

    PS - FinkCommander is pretty handy too and would be worth your time to try (and write about) as well.
  • eddie · 1 year ago
    l know is late but l install the gimp but l dont know what to do next where the application please help BTW nice web site
  • Steve · 2 years ago
    Thanks, poushag. I definitely plan on updating the article to include Leopard info (I just switched to Leopard last week). Also including FinkCommander is a good idea as well. I started using it, but then got attached to the command line awhile ago. As for upgrading the binary and source distributions, if I understand you correctly, I've included a how-to in the current article's section "Updating Fink." If you are asking in regards to Leopard, I'll put that in a future post. If you have any tips or tricks yourself, feel free to include them in a comment.
  • poushag · 1 year ago
    Steve, I guess I should have defined what I meant by 'upgrade'. I meant detailed upgrade instructions to navigate the path for going from the latest supported Fink under Tiger to the latest supported Fink under Leopard (without blowing it away and starting over).

    This appears much more complex than either doing a fresh install of Fink (under any supported OSX version) or doing updates (as you described above with those commands containing 'selfupdate' and 'update-all'). I haven't upgraded to Leopard yet so I have no clue about how to make the Fink transition. (And I have read the Fink webpages but they are just too sparse for somebody who uses Fink about once a year.)

    You didn't mention whether or not you upgraded Fink yet after upgrading to Leopard. Whether it has been done or has yet to happen, it would be helpful to document here whatever process is used and the results obtained.
  • Steve · 1 year ago
    Sorry for the delayed response, poushag. I see what you mean. I've looked a bit into updating Fink without starting completely over, but I've run into lots of difficulties. For now, I think I'm just going to start over, but still play with my old setup and try to get it working without a clean install.

    I had been using rsync as my updating method, but when I try and update after Leopard I get "Failed: Sorry, fink doesn't support rsync updating in the 10.5 distribution at present." CVS doesn't work either.

    If you or anyone else has figured out how to make for a smoother transition, please let us all know! Thanks again for your comment, poushag.
  • Steve · 1 year ago
    @poushag - Hey, poushag. Just wanted to let you know I finally updated Fink for Leopard on my machine and added a section in the Fink post talking about it. Have you upgraded to Leopard yet? If so, did you find a different way to make Fink work on Leopard without a clean install?
  • poushag · 1 year ago
    Steve,
    Glad to hear it was easy for you to keep your Fink install and upgrade to Leopard. Although I think that if you had XCode-3.0 already installed before doing the fink reinstall under Leopard that you should note that above. If you didn't install XCode-3.0 you may have some problems. (I cannot imagine how building Fink from source on Leopard could work if you don't have XCode-3.0 installed. In other words, when the Fink source versions increment up again, will you be able to update to the latest in your selected tree - i.e. stable?)

    I have not taken the plunge into Leopard yet. I am concerned that my DNSUpdate software and Flying Buttress firewall software which help me keep my webserver (and other things) online and secured have not been upgraded to have complete Leopard compatibility. I run regular old OS X on my system so I don't have all the nice GUI goodies Apple provides for managing their OS X Server product. So I make do with freeware and shareware and as a result I don't expect to be an early adopter of major OS upgrades. But the price is right.
  • Steve · 1 year ago
    poushag,
    Thanks for the reminder. Forgot to mention that (critical!) step. I actually installed XCode-3.0 awhile back when I initially attempted a Fink upgrade. The omission has been included.

    When it comes to operating system upgrades, I'm kind of a junky. Of course, I'm also a freeware junky. You're right about that, though: the price is definitely right when it comes to freeware.
  • ravindra · 9 months ago
    Thank you so much but i installed fink in my system. I want to install scilab-5.0.3 which is not present in fink packages but find it on fink website which gives me only fink-4.1.2.
    so can i download it from other website. and If i can how to make as a fink package..................

    Thank you