VisualWorks 7.3.1 on FreeBSD 6

Hello!

I installed VisualWorks 7.3.1 on FreeBSD 6 yesterday.  I obtained the port from the following location -

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=visualworks&stype=all

I downloaded the various distfiles from here - http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/bsdports/vwnc7.3.1/

I then did

cp /usr/local/share/visualworks/image/visualnc.im /usr/home/caulagi/

chmod u+w /usr/home/caulagi/visualnc.im

visual /usr/home/caulagi/visualnc.im

However, I get an error saying - error loading shared assemblies.  libX11.so.6 couldn't be found.

What am I missing?  (I searched the internet for similar errors and the messages I saw told that this could an error with the port.)

Thanks in advance.

Pradip

PS : Please cc your answer to [hidden email].  I will post a summary after the problem is solved.

[hidden email] wrote:
>
> Hello!
>
> I installed VisualWorks 7.3.1 on FreeBSD 6 yesterday.  I obtained the
> port from the following location -

I advise you to download 7.4.1 from cincomsmalltalk.com and install that
unless you have a very good reason to use a version that is about to be
sunset.

Don't be bothered by the fact that it is not a ports package:
VisualWorks installs into a single directory tree so it is trivial to
manage outside the ports system.
 >
> visual /usr/home/caulagi/visualnc.im
>
> However, I get an error saying - error loading shared assemblies.
>  libX11.so.6 couldn't be found.

This is the standard (xfree) X-windows library. I don't know how X is
installed on FBSD (you do have X installed do you? VW is not a command
line dev environment, it is graphical.) but you may want to check that
this library is available and locatable in your paths.

On Linux we can add to the library search path by setting an env
variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or something like that). Perhaps BSD has a
similar mechanism that can help...



>
> What am I missing?  (I searched the internet for similar errors and the
> messages I saw told that this could an error with the port.)

I saw this error when trying to start VW on a headless Linux box. This
image was specifically headless though, so it surprised me.

Turned out I didn't need a running X installation, I just copied the
missing .so to the directory the .im was sitting in (=current working
dir in my case). The VM could now bind to the library even though no X
was actually running.

I guess this problem arose from using a non-commercial VW, this wants to
show a splash screen regardless of whether the image is headless...

HTH,

Reinout
-------

>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Pradip
>
> PS : Please cc your answer to [hidden email].  I will post a summary
> after the problem is solved.

At 05:23 AM 2/2/2007, Reinout Heeck wrote:

I saw this error when trying to start VW on a headless Linux box. This image was specifically headless though, so it surprised me.

Turned out I didn't need a running X installation, I just copied the missing .so to the directory the .im was sitting in (=current working dir in my case). The VM could now bind to the library even though no X was actually running.

I guess this problem arose from using a non-commercial VW, this wants to show a splash screen regardless of whether the image is headless...

No, that's why there are two different versions of the VM, one which is linked to GUI libraries, and one which is not. That's also true in the non-commercial version.

Also note that showing the splash screen or not can be set as a parameter in the image when it is saved.
  DeploymentOptionsSystem current suppressSplashScreenAndHerald: true.

Thanks Reinout!  Your comments helped me solve the problem.

On 2/2/07, Reinout Heeck <[hidden email]> wrote: This observation was useful.  That is, not worrying about trying to
install from a ports package only.  I just used the VM-Linux86.tar.gz
under vwnc7.4.1 folder in bsdports.
> >
> > However, I get an error saying - error loading shared assemblies.
> >  libX11.so.6 couldn't be found.
>
> This is the standard (xfree) X-windows library. I don't know how X is
> installed on FBSD (you do have X installed do you? VW is not a command
> line dev environment, it is graphical.) but you may want to check that
> this library is available and locatable in your paths.

I could finally get this issue resolved.  The problem is, FreeBSD 6
uses Xorg as the default X system.  Vwnc, however, assumes XFree86 (I
think).  So I had to install the following ports -

/usr/ports/emulators/linux_base-8
/usr/ports/x11/linux-XFree86-libs

I also need the following entry in /etc/rc.conf

linux_enable="YES"

I can now install vwnc using install.im provided by BaseVisualWorks.tar.gz.

Cheers,

Pradip

Thanks for the feedback!

I added it to the uiuc wiki: http://wiki.cs.uiuc.edu/VisualWorks/ 
VisualWorks+on+FreeBSD+using+Linux+emulation



R
-

Now that you have the environment in order you may consider removing  
your VW installation and reinstalling it using the graphical  
installer provided with the product.

This will record which modules of VW you installed so you can use  
that installer to manage future additions/removals you might want to  
perform.


Cheers,

Reinout
-------

On 2/6/07, Reinout Heeck <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Now that you have the environment in order you may consider removing
> your VW installation and reinstalling it using the graphical
> installer provided with the product.
>
> This will record which modules of VW you installed so you can use
> that installer to manage future additions/removals you might want to
> perform.

I tried this, i.e. installing using the installer connecting to the
ftp site of cincom.  But the installation didn't succeed.  The
installation failed 3 times at the same point - when the installer
said, installing base visualworks, the percentage showed 99% and the
overall installation percentage showed about 26 %.  Is there a problem
with the packages on the ftp site or am I facing network problems or
is it something else?

Thanks,

Pradip

On Feb 7, 2007, at 3:19 PM, Pradip Caulagi wrote:


What symptoms do you se when you talk about it failing?

Did you see a dialog with some message, or did the installer just  
disappear?

If you run the installer in a writable directory it will try to save  
an 'error.log' (either in the current working dir on in the image's  
dir, I keep forgetting this detail...)


>   Is there a problem
> with the packages on the ftp site or am I facing network problems or
> is it something else?

I never tried a network install, I usually download a .iso so I have  
all the files available locally.

Is there someone else here that has can shed light on this problem  
with a network install?



Reinout
-------