HELP Installing Fluxbox on FreeBSD 7.0

[oleksus]

I'm a recent Linux convert, and even after reading half the Handbook I still don't understand some basic things.

I have a Fluxbox source on my USB stick.

How do I make it work?
I go to Fluxbox source directory on my USB stick.
Neither ./configure nor 'make' or 'install' don't seem to work.
I tried 'make install distclean' but it says 'install is up to date'.

Can anyone spare some guidance on this?
Thanks in advance!

[DrJ]

% su
Password: xxxx
# cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/fluxbox
# make install clean
# ^D
% rehash

You are done.

[oleksus]

Thanks, I've tried this, but I forgot to mention that there's no internet connection at the moment, so it reports many lines like 'Attempting to fetch from..blahblah' and offers to port manually and try again.

Can I get around this while being offline?

[DrJ]

You have to get the files from somewhere. If those you have are the precise ones the port is looking for, you can place those in /usr/ports/distfiles and go from there. There usually are FreeBSD-specific patches that you also have to get.

Fluxbox might be on one of the installation CDs; if so you can install it from there using sysinstall.

Practically, though, you do need an internet connection. You won't be able to do any updating, bug fixing or installing applications. Well, not easily.

[oleksus]

Weird. I placed the required tarball in the respective directories, but it repeats the same thing.

I guess, I'll have to configure internet before I'm on to fluxbox...

Well, thanks anyway.

[DrJ]

Originally Posted by oleksus

Weird. I placed the required tarball in the respective directories, but it repeats the same thing.

If the port still sought the files, then the files you placed in distfiles were not the ones that the port expected. It might be as simple as a version difference.

[oleksus]

No, the tarball it tries to fetch from ftp is exactly the same, I checked.

It seems like it's just not in the right directory?

In /usr/ports/x11-wm/fluxbox there are such folders:
Makefile distinfo files pfg-descr pkg-plist
The patches you mentioned are in the 'files' directory.

I have a tarball, and I also have it unpacked in a separate folder. Where should I put which files, so that it finds them finally, and starts to install?

[BSDfan666]

You know, fluxbox may have additional dependencies as well... any particular reason you opted for the ports route vs packages?

Have you installed imlib2/bzip2/libid3tag/jpeg/png/tiff/libungif yet?

I'm sure packages would have simplified your experience 10-fold, if only initially...

[greencross]

If you don't have configured net connection it would be more prudent to use package system. Download this file and use # pkg_add fluxbox-1.0.0.tbz command.
And as BSDfan666 told you may have to download dependencies (also packages) for fluxbox which are listed here.

[roddierod]

Originally Posted by oleksus

No, the tarball it tries to fetch from ftp is exactly the same, I checked.

It seems like it's just not in the right directory?

In /usr/ports/x11-wm/fluxbox there are such folders:
Makefile distinfo files pfg-descr pkg-plist
The patches you mentioned are in the 'files' directory.

I have a tarball, and I also have it unpacked in a separate folder. Where should I put which files, so that it finds them finally, and starts to install?

Did you get the tarball from the FreeBSD ports page on the web site? If so did you click on the name of the package (fluxbox-1.0.0_2)? If this is what you did you only downloaded the port package that tell freebsd how to build Fluxbox and what source file to get. You would need to click the link that says 'source' underneath the package name. Just wanted to point that out in case that is what you did and were wondering why it is not working.

If you did something else just ignore me

[DrJ]

Originally Posted by oleksus

I have a tarball, and I also have it unpacked in a separate folder. Where should I put which files, so that it finds them finally, and starts to install?

They go in /usr/ports/distfiles and you don't need to unzip them.

The package route mentioned also works, of course.

If you have no internet access, how are you posting here? If it is just a configuration issue, take care of that first.