Re: Problem building gnustep-gui

[Nicola Pero]

> 1. Recreate the virtual machine - probably with RH 7.2 - still
>    has the gcc 2.96.x compiler but I might as well be current

I think RH 7.2 comes with a gcc 3.0 compiler, which is not enabled by
default.  On RH doc you might find out how to switch to the gcc 3.0
compiler - I suppose that if they bundle two different compilers, they
must have provided a way to switch easily between the two.


> 2. Upgrade the compiler & lib's following your recommendations
> 
> 3. Install GNUstep paying closer attention to the ./configure step
> 
> 4. Install a few applications.
> 
> Aspects I still feel a little shaky about:
> 

> 1. Making sure the gcc upgrade is consistent. I saw they
>     have a test suite and wonder if that could help.

It should be quite easy to check that gcc is the correct one - just run

gcc --version

if it displays the correct version, you are using the correct one.

This doesn't necessarily mean that the ObjC compiler works :-) because you
need to make sure that both the libobjc.so and libgcc_s.so of the new
compiler are in the linker's path.

But - but the newer gnustep-base versions will check for you that the
compiler works, and complain (and abort configuration) if it doesn't work.

So, make sure you are using the correct compiler (by typing 'gcc
--version' and checking the result), then try configuring gnustep-base -
if it works, the compiler works.  If it doesn't, search for libobjc.so and
libgcc_s.so of the new compiler, and add those paths to /etc/ld.so.conf,
then launch ldconfig as root, then try again.
 

> 2. I noticed in various places that there are some boot-time
>     services that I need to set up but they seem to be mainly
>     related to running GS apps over a network. My understanding
>     is that I won't need them for a single machine.

Don't worry about this, it will all be done automatically, you only need
to make sure you always source GNUstep.sh:

. /usr/GNUstep/System/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh

 
> 3. Choosing the GNUstep packages that are more likely to
>     install without problems on RH 7.2. This is what I have
>     downloaded:
> 
>     gnustep-xgps-0.7.0.tar.gz
>     gnustep-make-1.2.0.tar.gz
>     gnustep-gui-0.7.0.tar.gz
>     gnustep-base-1.0.2.tar.gz
>     gnustep-objc-1.1.0.tar.gz
>     3DKit-0.3.0.tar.gz
>     ffcall-1.8c.tar.gz
>     extensions-0.8.6.tar.gz
> 
>     From what I have read only the first four tarballs are really
>     necessary for a trial install.

Yes