My first attempt at building gnome-2.24 using jhbuild only built 77 or the 193 modules.
The first error: fontconfig-2.5.0 unable to run make successfully.
After digging into the make output a bit, I discovered that when enterprise linux installed freetype-devel-2.2.1 that the freetype header files were not put in a place that fontconfig was expecting.
The header files were in /usr/include/freetype2/freetype
not in
/usr/include freetype
as fontconfig was expecting.
So the simple solution, make a symbolic link tfrom /usr/include/freetype2/freetype to /usr/include/freetype:
$ ln -s /usr/include/freetype2/freetype /usr/include/freetype
VOILA! fontconfig compiled!
SO now I have restarted the whole jhbuild process over to see how this change will affect the outcome.
Monday, May 26, 2008
My Mission
My mission is to bring gnome up-to-date on enterprise linux.
I started by pulling source rpms from fedora 9 and building them on el5. However, I wanted to build the minimum number of packages to get the orca screen reader working.
As a side-note, I am totally blind, and have been working in the arena of software accessibility for almost 8 years now, and feel that the gnome desktop may be a viable alternative to windows.
So I built orca, and its supporting crew of atk, gail, and at-spi all successfully. However, the at-spi registry would not startup. After a bit of digging, I discovered that the registry gets started by gnome-session. So I pulled the gnome-session src rpmm and tried to build it. The number of dependencies started growing exponentially. Clearly this is not a trivial task and perhaps not the best way to go about the process.
My next question is how can Icompile gnome from source code?
The answers were garnome and jhbuild both are build utilities or rather processes.
Garnome builds from source tarballs while jhbuild builds from the subversion repositories.
So I tried garnome first. Much of it built the first time thrugh, but not enough to have a working system.
I also tried jhbuild and while only 77 of the 193 modules compiled, there was more information to use to track the problem, so I started debugging the compilation process with jhbuild.
I started by pulling source rpms from fedora 9 and building them on el5. However, I wanted to build the minimum number of packages to get the orca screen reader working.
As a side-note, I am totally blind, and have been working in the arena of software accessibility for almost 8 years now, and feel that the gnome desktop may be a viable alternative to windows.
So I built orca, and its supporting crew of atk, gail, and at-spi all successfully. However, the at-spi registry would not startup. After a bit of digging, I discovered that the registry gets started by gnome-session. So I pulled the gnome-session src rpmm and tried to build it. The number of dependencies started growing exponentially. Clearly this is not a trivial task and perhaps not the best way to go about the process.
My next question is how can Icompile gnome from source code?
The answers were garnome and jhbuild both are build utilities or rather processes.
Garnome builds from source tarballs while jhbuild builds from the subversion repositories.
So I tried garnome first. Much of it built the first time thrugh, but not enough to have a working system.
I also tried jhbuild and while only 77 of the 193 modules compiled, there was more information to use to track the problem, so I started debugging the compilation process with jhbuild.
Background
I am writing this blog to chronicle my experiences with installing and using the gnome desktop on various linux systems.
I have worked with several linux distros over the last few months and have seen some of the best implementations of gnome and also some of the worst.
I have been working (or more accurately playing) with fedora core since fc3, and have watched the gnome desktop evolve over the years. Recently I tried fedora 9 and what I found was the newest gnome desktop is quite robust and also accessible using the current orca screen reader. With a couple minor tweaks to enable system adminstration with orca, all was good. I could be quite content using this version of linux and the gnome desktop, but my son has told me about Ubuntu, and I had to try it as well.
The ubuntu story is also quite comfortable and accessible. The installation is fairly accessible (with the advent of ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Haron, the installation is outstandingly accessible). The applications are quite robust and easily updated to newer versions.
Now for the real challenge, though, I need a system on which I can install various pieces of software whichare not certified on either fedora or ubuntu. Enter enterprise linux: a more "stable" older distro based in large part on fedora core 6. It is not as easy to install as ubuntu nor is it as up-to-date as either ubuntu or fedora, but it should handle the software I need to install.
Enterprise linux (el5) uses a version of the gnome desktop that is several years old, and which does not include many of hte newer applications and accessibility fixes.
I have worked with several linux distros over the last few months and have seen some of the best implementations of gnome and also some of the worst.
I have been working (or more accurately playing) with fedora core since fc3, and have watched the gnome desktop evolve over the years. Recently I tried fedora 9 and what I found was the newest gnome desktop is quite robust and also accessible using the current orca screen reader. With a couple minor tweaks to enable system adminstration with orca, all was good. I could be quite content using this version of linux and the gnome desktop, but my son has told me about Ubuntu, and I had to try it as well.
The ubuntu story is also quite comfortable and accessible. The installation is fairly accessible (with the advent of ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Haron, the installation is outstandingly accessible). The applications are quite robust and easily updated to newer versions.
Now for the real challenge, though, I need a system on which I can install various pieces of software whichare not certified on either fedora or ubuntu. Enter enterprise linux: a more "stable" older distro based in large part on fedora core 6. It is not as easy to install as ubuntu nor is it as up-to-date as either ubuntu or fedora, but it should handle the software I need to install.
Enterprise linux (el5) uses a version of the gnome desktop that is several years old, and which does not include many of hte newer applications and accessibility fixes.
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