Run Time problems

Q2.1: prog: rld: Fatal Error: (library version mismatch)...:

If you get an error message like this when running a package the runtime linker is having problems finding the right versions of libraries:

    gnuplot: rld: Fatal Error: object libpng.so from liblist in gnuplot
    has version "sgi1.0", which does not match the found object:
    /usr/lib32/libpng.so (with version "sgi2.0")

There are two possible solutions.

• Best: Upgrade to a more recent version of libpng.so
• Fastest/simplest (csh/tcsh example): Tell rld to ignore versions in this particular case:

  alias gnuplot 'env _RLD_ARGS=-ignore_all_versions gnuplot \!*'

Substitute gnuplot with your failing program name if it is different.

Q2.2: prog: rld: Fatal Error: (cannot successfully map soname)...

Since May 2001 (when we dropped support for pre-IRIX 6.5 systems) freeware packages have been built with the MipsPRO 7.3 compilers. If you are running on IRIX 6.5.9 or earlier you must install the following patches or their successors:

• patch 3742 (5 MB) -- c++_eoe (includes libCio.so)
• patch 3743 (160 MB) -- fortran_eoe
• patch 3911 (19 MB) -- compiler_eoe (except libmp)
• patch 4330 (2 MB) -- compiler_eoe (libmp)

Failure to do so can result in various strange errors, such as rld complaining that it cannot find libCio.so.1 at runtime. Patches can be downloaded from http://support.sgi.com/ Or you can upgrade to a newer IRIX 6.5.x release; upgrades in the 'm' stream are free.

If you get an error message like this when running a package the runtime linker is having problems finding libraries:

    prog: rld: Fatal Error: cannot successfully map soname
    'libXpm.so.1' under any of the filenames
    /usr/lib32/libXpm.so.1:/lib32/libXpm.so.1:/usr/libn32/libXpm.so.1:\
    /libn32/libXpm.so.1:/usr/lib32/libXpm.so.1.1:/lib32/libXpm.so.1.1:\
    /usr/libn32/libXpm.so.1.1:/libn32/libXpm.so.1.1:

This should not happen if you have all the prerequisite libraries installed, but if you suppressed some conflicts during installation or manually removed some libraries (without using inst) later you may run into problems like this. Or it could be that we forgot to declare some prerequisite library. Do "showfiles" and search the output for the missing library; then look to see if it exists on your system. If not, reinstall the package that contained it.

Q2.3: gcc can't find 'as'.

Please click on the name of the package in the download table (leftmost cell) to get to the brief release notes and follow them. In this specific case, it includes instructions on how to get the SGI assembler and linker which are not a part of gcc. (If you have installed fw_gcc the release notes will also be in /usr/freeware/relnotes/gcc.html).

Q2.4: Where is the xemacs binary?

You need to manually select and install either the "MULE-free" (fw_xemacs.latin1.eoe) or "MULE-fied" (fw_xemacs.mule.eoe) subsystem, depending on how much foreign language support you want. When installing xemacs click on the "Customize" button in the software manager, and click on the little folder icon next to XEmacs product. Select the subsystem you want and hit "Start".

This is fixed in the current release.

Q2.5: perl: rld: Fatal Error: attempted access to unresolvable symbol in...

This message will appear whenever you try to use DB_File or GDBM_File in perl5.6.1 (package version 1277898120). This is due to a build error. For DB_File this can be worked around by including the appropriate ABI version of /usr/freeware/lib{,32,64} in LD_LIBRARY{,N32,64}_PATH environment variable. There is no useful or general workaround for the GDBM_File bug except to revert to the previous version of fw_perl (perl5.005_03). This will be fixed in a future release.

For those interested in the details, Perl's "smart" configurator (which attempts to "DWIM": Do What I Mean) overrode the packager's "I know what I'm doing" configuration instructions, and got it wrong.

Q2.6: Cannot open '/dev/scsi/sc1d4l0' (or other devices)

By default IRIX devices are protected against access by casual users, so programs that attempt to use them (e.g. CD drives by fw_cdrdao and fw_cdrtools, tape drives by fw_amanda, or serial ports by fw_sane-backends) may fail. If you don't want to run as root you can change device protections by modifying /etc/ioperms as described in the ioconfig man page, but may compromise security if other devices are connected instead.

Q2.7: Cannot forward mail to programs

If your .forward file bounces mail saying you don't "have a valid shell for mailing to programs" you're probably running a freeware shell on IRIX 6.5.18 or newer, but have not added that shell to /etc/shells. In IRIX 6.5.18 SGI introduced a default /etc/shells file. sendmail has honored this file for a long time, but before 6.5.18 it generally didn't find it, and so allowed any shell to be used when forwarding mail. If you want to invoke binaries from .forward files you have a few choices:

• Add the full path of your shell (not the binary you're invoking!) to the existing /etc/shells file. If /etc/shells doesn't exist you must have run into some other problem -- let us know.
• Add "/SENDMAIL/ANY/SHELL/" to the existing /etc/shells file. This may be more lax than you really want.
• Remove /etc/shells. This will make sendmail behave as above, but is discouraged.

See the shells man page for more information.

If sendmail is failing for some other reason you should check the documentation on sendmail.org, particularly the information on sendmail security checks.

Miscellaneous

Q3.1: Could you please add package X?

Thanks for the request. All the open source packaging is done by volunteers so we cannot promise anything. Your request is noted and it is possible that someone would volunteer to contribute it. You may want to build it yourself and send us a pointer to your package so others may benefit as well. If you don't have the SGI development tools you may use the GNU compiler which is available in our recent distributions. If you do, please check-out the Notes on building open source packages on IRIX document.

Occasionally we get requests for packages that, for one reason or another, we cannot add to our freeware distribution. In these situations we simply add pointers to such software which was built and distributed by other kind people. Try following the "More Freeware" link from the top SGI/Freeware page.

We sometimes get requests for stuff that comes standard on IRIX like gzip or rcs. Please check your IRIX CD's, maybe what you want is already there... Specifically, RCS should be found in eoe.sw.rcs.

Q3.2: How about packages for older IRIX versions?

Due to limited resources, new open source packages are built on IRIX 6.5 (which has been out since 1998...) so they should install and run on IRIX 6.5 and up but not on older versions. You may find newer versions of these packages on the net, in places like http://ftp.mayn.de/.

Freeware distributions through May 2001 were built on IRIX 6.2. Packages built prior to August 2001 should install and run on IRIX 6.2 and up. The May 2001 distribution is still online. An even older open source release (called Freeware 1.0) was built on IRIX 5.3 and is also available online.

Note that these older versions are not being actively maintained, enriched, or updated. If you run older IRIX versions on relatively new hardware (Indy, Indigo2, Challenge, Origin), we highly recommend upgrading IRIX to a latest version. IRIX 6.5 is a very stable, fast, well supported, multi-platform, and feature rich version of IRIX.

Q3.3: How can I order a set of freeware CDs?

Unfortunately, these CDs are goodwill freebies. They are not in our price book and we do not sell them so you cannot order them. But there are a few ways around this:

• Order an IRIX system. The CDs come with it.
• Download the CD contents with rsync or wget and burn your own using cdrtools. The expanded images (to make downloading easier) are in:
  1. ftp://freeware.sgi.com/cd-1/
  2. ftp://freeware.sgi.com/cd-2/
  3. ftp://freeware.sgi.com/cd-3/
  4. ftp://freeware.sgi.com/cd-4/
• Join the SGI Developer Program at the free Venture Online membership level and pay a US$100 yearly subscription fee to receive two Developer's Toolbox CD releases. Although not released as frequently as Freeware CDs, the Developer's Toolbox CDs include the latest freeware release when created.

Q3.4: What is package X? How do I run/configure it?

We try (but cannot commit) to provide a short description of the packages on our web site. Click on the name of the package to get to the brief description. Some basic questions can be avoided by clicking on the name of the package on the leftmost cell in the download table (note that this is different than the Download button or the rightmost cell).

Our volunteers normally build and package the software and give it some testing but we do not provide documentation beyond what comes standard in the package. You may want to contact the original authors and ask for better docs. See also Q1.2.

Q3.5: Where is the source?

The source for nearly all packages is included in a non-default src subsys. To get the original source plus any changes we made locally start to install the package as usual, but press the "Customize" button in the Software Manager. Click on the little folder icon next to the main package to expand it, and then select the source subsystem for installation and press "Go". The source tarball and a diff file will be placed under /usr/freeware/src.

The contents of the src subsys are also available at http://freeware.sgi.com/source/. Or you can obtain source from the original authors, just as we did. The package release notes often give a URL for the package home page.

Q3.6: Is freeware Y2K compliant?

In general: SGI can not guarantee the Y2K compliance of these packages since they are not written nor maintained by SGI. Also, we have no resources to do Y2K testing as we do for IRIX. If this issue is critical to you we recommend you devote the resources to scan the included source and report bugs to the original maintainers (not SGI). See also Q5.1.

Q3.7: I want to contribute to SGI/freeware...

Thanks very much for the offer. This is highly appreciated. We have a few reasons why we don't just take precompiled packages from external contributors:

• Security (obviously)

• Adherence to pretty elaborate build conventions + process (which are unlikely to exist in external builds):
  • IRIX 6.5 and up runtime backward compatibility
  • Using our latest compilers + patches
  • n32 builds with full optimizations
  • Install in standard places that don't clash with existing SW
  • Taking care of dependencies and/or clashes with shared libs
  • Various additional automatic checks of the packages

What you can do is port software to IRIX and send any patches to the official maintainers (and to us). If you distribute your own packages please do not install them under /usr/freeware, or give them names beginning with "fw_". If you do it's likely to cause trouble if/when we eventually add it to our distribution.

To help other SGI users without endorsement we do, however, refer to external packages using links from our web site. If you could place your contributed package out on the net and send us a pointer, we'll gladly add a link to your contributed freeware from our web site's More Freeware section.

Q3.8: How can I compile with a freeware library?

Basically you need to tell the compiler where to find the header files, you need to tell the linker where to find the libraries at link time, and you need to leave some hints where the run-time loader can find shared libraries at run-time. See the individual library package release notes for any additional details.

Include the following flag on your compile lines to tell the compiler where to find the library's header files:

-I/usr/freeware/include

Including the following flag on your link lines will cause the linker to correctly find the library's archive or shared object files at link time.

-L/usr/freeware/lib32 (if using n32 ABI)
-L/usr/freeware/lib64 (if using 64 ABI)

The -L flag must appear on the link line before any -l flags.

Note that order is important! If you search /usr/freeware/include before /usr/include, you should also search /usr/freeware/lib32 before /usr/lib32. Putting the freeware paths before the standard system paths and using all possible freeware libraries will reduce trouble.

Also it is a good idea to include the following flag on your link lines:

-rpath /usr/freeware/lib32 (if using n32 ABI)
-rpath /usr/freeware/lib64 (if using 64 ABI)

This flag will help rld locate the shared object library files when the application is run. This is useful since the shared objects are stored in /usr/freeware subdirectories, which are not on the run-time linker's default search path. Since the freeware distribution does not support installation in non-default directories many of its shared libraries already have an RPATH attribute set, so often you can safely omit -rpath when linking your applications. But not all libraries do this and it's bad form, so set -rpath when linking your binaries.

Finally, if you are building an installable package for inst (contributing to freeware, for example) be sure to prereq this package. Get the lower bound for the prereq range from the installed package, and use 1289999900 for the upper bound. (If this doesn't make sense then it's probably not something you need to know; don't worry about it!)

GNOME

Q4.1: What freeware images do I need to install to run GNOME?

There are a lot! The current archive contents are a "top-of-tree" snapshot of GNOME taken roughly at the end of September, around the time that GNOME 1.4.1 was being released.

An easy way to download what you need is with the inst-get script. It's not fancy, but it will try to fetch all the freeware prereqs for a given package. It uses wget to download files, so you must install that first.

Alternatively, we've included an inst selections file that installs all the prerequisites you need after you manually download them. Just install fw_common.sw.selections, and follow the instructions in the files: /usr/freeware/selections/.

If you want everything related to GNOME you'll need the packages listed alphabetically below. This data was extracted from the graphical and text descriptions of the freeware prereqs.

fw_Eterm fw_GConf fw_Guppi fw_HDF fw_ImageMagick fw_ORBit fw_PAM fw_audiofile fw_balsa fw_bonobo fw_bonobo-conf fw_bug-buddy fw_bzip2 fw_control-center fw_cups fw_cvs fw_cyrus-sasl2 fw_db fw_db3 fw_db4 fw_dia fw_ee fw_enlightenment fw_esound fw_evolution fw_expat fw_findutils fw_fnlib fw_fortune-mod fw_freetype fw_freetype2 fw_gal

fw_gb fw_gcc fw_gdb fw_gdbm fw_gdk-pixbuf fw_gedit fw_gettext fw_gftp fw_ggv fw_ghex fw_ghostscript fw_gimp-print fw_glade fw_glib fw_gmp fw_gnome-applets fw_gnome-audio fw_gnome-core fw_gnome-games fw_gnome-libs fw_gnome-media fw_gnome-mime-data fw_gnome-pilot fw_gnome-pim fw_gnome-print fw_gnome-python fw_gnome-user-docs fw_gnome-utils fw_gnome-vfs fw_gnumeric fw_gnupg fw_gtk+

fw_gtk-engines fw_gtkhtml fw_gtop fw_guile fw_imlib fw_indent fw_ispell fw_lcms fw_libesmtp fw_libghttp fw_libglade fw_libgtop fw_libiconv fw_libjpeg fw_libole2 fw_libpng fw_libproplist fw_librep fw_libtool fw_libungif fw_libunicode fw_libwmf fw_libxml fw_libxml2 fw_libxpm fw_libz fw_lynx fw_mc fw_mysql fw_nas fw_netpbm fw_oaf

fw_openldap fw_openslp fw_openssh fw_openssl fw_opie fw_pcre fw_perl fw_pilot-link fw_popt fw_pspell fw_pspell-ispell fw_python fw_python2 fw_readline fw_rep-gtk fw_sawfish fw_scrollkeeper fw_socks5 fw_sodipodi fw_soup fw_sox fw_tar fw_tcl80 fw_tcp_wrappers fw_texinfo fw_tiff fw_tk80 fw_unzip fw_urt fw_xchat fw_xscreensaver fw_zip

If you choose to install some of the non-default variants you may need other images too, like fw_socks5. Also note that the fw_ImageMagick.sw.plugins subsystem has many additional requirements not included above.

Images that aren't strictly part of GNOME, but which have GNOME support or are otherwise related, include:

• fw_Eterm
• fw_abiword
• fw_gaim
• fw_galculator
• fw_pan
• fw_rxvt
• fw_xmms

Q4.2: How can I start GNOME automatically at login?

This is covered in the GNOME Users Guide, which should be installed in /usr/freeware/share/gnome/help/gnome-users-guide/C/index.html on your system. Basically put

    exec gnome-session 1>.xsession.log 2>&1

in your .xsession file. The default IRIX script is in /var/X11/xdm/Xsession if you want to duplicate parts of your IRIX setup.

Q4.3: Why do I get BadMatch errors, crashes, blue-on-blue text, etc.?

Many Linux systems use a single X visual and colormap for all windows by default; IRIX doesn't. As a result there are a variety of bugs lurking in the source code where programmers have, for example, allocated colors in the wrong colormap or assumed that all windows have the same depth. Try making your default X server visual 24-bit TrueColor by adding "-depth 24 -class TrueColor" to /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers. (Run xdpyinfo first to make sure your server supports this visual, and be sure to restart the X server after making a change. Logging out may not be enough!)

Q4.4: How can I make enlightenment run faster?

There are many options in the configuration page. The Pixmap theme in particular is very sluggish on older machines; avoid it.

Q4.5: Why are sounds garbled or noisy?

These problems are thought to be solved, but if you run into them you may have better luck by forcing esd to start in 8-bit mode.

Q4.6: Why don't gtop and other system monitoring tools work?

The libgtop library is very system-specific, and has not been ported to IRIX. As a result nearly all of its functionality is stubbed out.

Known Package Replacement Histories

Q5.1: What packages are known Y2K fixed?

As has been previously stated, we do not officially test for Y2K compliancy; we only fix the problems as they are reported. Again, this goes back to our core mantra "If we don't know it's broken, we can't fix it" so please email a report of any problems you encounter to us!

The following packages are Y2K fixed packages, and their release date:

• fw_elm, February 2000
• fw_sc, February 2000

Q5.2: What packages have been replaced or obsoleted?

Here's our known list of replacements or obsoletions, and the release where they took effect :

• fw_bladeenc, dropped for legal concerns, May 2002
• fw_cdrecord, absorbed by fw_cdrtools, February 2002
• fw_colorls, replaced by fw_fileutils, February 2000
• fw_cyrus-sasl, dropped in favor of fw_cyrus-sasl2, August 2003
• fw_db4-NoCrypto, replaced by fw_db4, August 2003
• fw_egcs, absorbed by fw_gcc 3.0, August 2001
• fw_galeon, dropped because of bit-rot, August 2003
• fw_gnome-admin, absorbed by fw_gnome-utils, August 2000
• fw_gnomehack, dropped as obsolete, August 2002
• fw_libstdc++, absorbed by fw_gcc 3.0, August 2001
• fw_mkhybrid, absorbed by fw_cdrtools, February 2002
• fw_mkisofs, absorbed by fw_cdrtools, February 2002
• fw_mozilla-src, absorbed by fw_mozilla, November 2002
• fw_vnc, replaced by fw_tightvnc, August 2002

Q5.3: What packages have been renamed?

Here's a partial list of recent name changes, along with the release where they took effect :

• fw_abi became fw_abiword, November 2001
• fw_elisp-intro became fw_emacs-lisp-intro, August 2002
• fw_libgphoto2 spun off from fw_gphoto2, May 2003
• fw_mswordview became fw_wv, November 2001
• fw_phoenix became fw_mozillafirebird, August 2003
• fw_sane split into fw_sane-backends and fw_sane-frontends, November 2002
• fw_users-guide became fw_gnome-user-docs, November 2001
• fw_xntp became fw_ntp, August 2001