F.A.Q. - 5. Installing, Using and Maintaining Fink

A: The fink command supports explicit proxy settings that are passed on to wget/curl. If you were not asked for proxies on first time installation, you can run fink configure to set it up. You can also run that command at any time to reconfigure the fink command. If you followed the instructions in the installation guide, and use /sw/bin/init.csh (or /sw/bin/init.sh), then apt-get and dselect also will use these proxy settings. Make sure that you put the protocol in front of the proxy, e.g.

ftp://proxy.yoursite.somewhere

If you are still having problems, go into System Preferences, select the Network pane, select the Proxies tab, and make sure that the box labeled "Use Passive FTP Mode (PASV)" is checked.

A: The package cvs-proxy can tunnel through HTTP proxies.

• Install the cvs-proxy package with the command:

  fink --use-binary-dist install cvs-proxy

• Switch to the CVS update method with the command:

  fink selfupdate-cvs

If fink is not configured to use your proxy, change the settings using:

fink configure.

A: No. Well, of course you can move the files using mv or the Finder, but 99% of the programs will stop working when you do. That's because basically all Unix software depends on hardcoded paths to find data files, libraries and other stuff.

A: Maybe. The general expectation is that it should work, but there may be hidden traps somewhere.

A: Almost all files installed by Fink are in /sw (or wherever you chose to install it). Thus in order to get rid of Fink, enter this command:

sudo rm -rf /sw

The only exception to this rule is XFree86 or X.org. If you installed an X server through Fink (i.e., you installed the xfree86, xfree86-rootless, or xorg packages, instead of using system-xfree86) and want to remove it, you will need additionally to enter this:

sudo rm -rf /usr/X11R6 /etc/X11 /Applications/XDarwin.app

If you aren't planning to reinstall Fink you also will want to remove the "source /sw/bin/init.csh" line you added to your .cshrc file or the "source /sw/bin/init.sh" line you added to your .bashrc file, whichever is appropriate to your setup, using a text editor.

A: First make sure you understand what 'unstable' means. Packages in the unstable tree are not in stable for any number of reasons. It could be because there are known issues, validation errors, or just not enough people giving feedback that the package works for them. For that reason, Fink doesn't search the unstable tree by default.

If you do enable unstable, please remember to e-mail the maintainer if something works (or even if it doesn't). Feedback from users like you is what we use to determine if something is ready for stable! To find out the maintainer of a package, run fink info packagename.

New in fink-0.26: If you run fink configure one of the questions will ask whether you want to turn the unstable trees on. You will need to run fink selfupdate; fink index; fink scanpackages afterward. Note: you must have either rsync or cvs updating turned on to get new package descriptions.

To configure Fink to use unstable when you have an earlier version of the fink tool than 0.26, edit /sw/etc/fink.conf, add unstable/main and unstable/crypto to the Trees: line, and then run fink selfupdate; fink index; fink scanpackages. Rsync or cvs updating is required as above.

Also note, if you don't want to install any more from unstable than your specific package(s) and its (their) dependencies, don't use the update-all command until you turn the unstable tree back off.

A: No, but it is highly recommended you do. Mixing and matching can cause unforeseen issues that make it difficult to debug problems when they do arise.

That said, if you only want one or two specific packages, and nothing else from unstable, then you need to switch over to CVS updating (i.e. use fink selfupdate-cvs), because rsync only updates the trees that are active in your fink.conf. Edit /sw/etc/fink.conf and add local/main to the Trees: line, if not present. Then you'll need to run fink selfupdate to download the package description files. Now copy the relevant .info files (and their associated .patch files, if there are any) from /sw/fink/dists/unstable/main/finkinfo (or /sw/fink/dists/unstable/crypto/finkinfo) to /sw/fink/dists/local/main/finkinfo. However, note that your package may depend on other packages (or particular versions) which are also only in unstable. You will have to move their .info and .patch files as well. After you move all of the files, make sure to run fink index, so that Fink's record of available packages is updated. Once you're done you can switch back to rsync (fink selfupdate-rsync) if you want.

A: If you're not paranoid, you can configure sudo to not ask you for a password. To do this, run visudo as root and add a line like this:

username ALL = NOPASSWD: ALL

Replace username with your actual username, of course. This line allows you to run any command via sudo without typing your password.

A: init.csh and init.sh are not supposed to be run like normal commands. These files set environment variables like PATH and MANPATH in your shell. To have a lasting effect on the shell, it must be processed with the source command for csh/tcsh, or with the . command for bash/zsh, like this:

for csh/tcsh:

source /sw/bin/init.csh

for bash/zsh:

. /sw/bin/init.sh

A: You probably pointed apt at a Debian mirror, which of course doesn't have the Fink files. You can fix this manually or through dselect. To fix it manually, edit the file /sw/etc/apt/sources.list in a text editor as root. Remove lines that mention debian.org and replace them with these:

deb http://us.dl.sourceforge.net/fink/direct_download release main crypto
deb http://us.dl.sourceforge.net/fink/direct_download current main crypto

(Or if you live in Europe, you can use eu.dl.sourceforge.net instead of us.dl.sourceforge.net)

To fix it through dselect, run "[A]ccess" again, choose the "apt" method and enter the following info:

URL: http://us.dl.sourceforge.net/fink/direct_download - Distribution: release - Components: main crypto

Then, say you want to add another source and repeat the process with "current" instead of "release".

A fixed version of the apt package (which provides the configuration script as a plug-in for dselect) is making it's way through CVS now.

A: If the message is

Can't exec "cvs": No such file or directory at 
/sw/lib/perl5/Fink/Services.pm line 216, <STDIN> line 3.
### execution of cvs failed, exit code -1

then you need to install the Developer Tools.

If, on the other hand, the last line is

### execution of su failed, exit code 1

you'll need to look further back in the output to see the error. If you see a message that your connection was refused:

(Logging in to anonymous@fink.cvs.sourceforge.net)
CVS password:
cvs [login aborted]: connect to fink.cvs.sourceforge.net:2401 failed: 
Connection refused
### execution of su failed, exit code 1
Failed: Logging into the CVS server for anonymous read-only access failed.

or a message like the following:

cvs [update aborted]: recv() from server fink.cvs.sourceforge.net: 
Connection reset by peer 
### execution of su failed, exit code 1 
Failed: Updating using CVS failed. Check the error messages above.

or

cvs [update aborted]: End of file received from server

or

cvs [update aborted]: received broken pipe signal

then it's likely that the cvs servers are overloaded and you have to try the update later.

Another possibility is that you have some bad permissions in your CVS directories, in which case you get "Permission denied" messages:

cvs update: in directory 10.2/stable/main: 
cvs update: cannot open CVS/Entries for reading: No such file or directory
cvs server: Updating 10.2/stable/main 
cvs update: cannot write 10.2/stable/main/.cvsignore: Permission denied
cvs [update aborted]: cannot make directory 10.2/stable/main/finkinfo: 
No such file or directory 
### execution of su failed, exit code 1 Failed: 
Updating using CVS failed. Check the error messages above.

In this case you need to reset your cvs directories. Use the command:

sudo find /sw/fink -type d -name 'CVS' -exec rm -rf {}\
; fink selfupdate-cvs

If, you don't see either of the above messages, then this almost always means you've modified a file in your /sw/fink/dists tree and now the maintainer has changed it. Look further back in the selfupdate-cvs output for lines that start with "C", like so:

C 10.2/unstable/main/finkinfo/libs/db31-3.1.17-6.info 
... (other info and patch files) ... 
### execution of su failed, exit code 1 
Failed: Updating using CVS failed. Check the error messages above.

The "C" means CVS had a conflict in trying to update the latest version. The fix is to delete any files that show up as starting with "C" in the output of selfupdate-cvs, and try again:

sudo rm /sw/fink/10.2/unstable/main/finkinfo/libs/db31-3.1.17-6.info
fink selfupdate-cvs

A: If this always happens, then you may have inadvertently modified (or failed to modify) your startup scripts. Run the /sw/bin/pathsetup.sh script in a terminal window. This program will attempt to detect your default shell and add a command to load Fink's shell initialization script into your shell's configuration. You'll then need to open a new terminal session so that your environment settings are loaded. Note: Some older versions fink called this script pathsetup.command instead of pathsetup.sh. Alternately, you can run the pathsetup.app application on the Fink binary distribution disk image.

On the other hand, if you only have problems in the Apple X11 terminal, the easy solution is to modify the "Terminal" entry in the X11 Application menu via the Applications->Customize Menu... option. Instead of just

xterm

change the command field to read

xterm -ls

ls here means login shell, and the result is that your full login setup gets used (just like the OS X Terminal).

These /sw/bin/init.* scripts do much more than just add /sw/bin to your PATH. Many packages will not work correctly without these additional actions.

A: You can indeed do this. If you have the Development Tools installed, then you can run the following command:

sudo /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V /sw

This makes /sw invisible, just like the standard system folders (/usr, etc.). If you don't have the Developer Tools, there are various third-party applications that let you manipulate file attributes--you need to set /sw to be invisible.

A: There are issues between dselect and Terminal.app. A workaround is to enter the following command

tcsh users:

setenv TERM xterm-color

bash users:

export TERM=xterm-color

before you run dselect. You may want to put this in your startup file (e.g. .cshrc | .profile) so that it gets run all of the time.

A: Obsolete

If you see an error sequence like the following:

dyld: perl Undefined symbols: 
_Perl_safefree
_Perl_safemalloc 
_Perl_saferealloc 
_Perl_sv_2pv 
_perl_call_sv
_perl_eval_sv 
_perl_get_sv

then what has probably happened is that you updated Perl to a new version and now storable-pm needs to be updated. You should update Fink. During the process you will be prompted to install either perl-core or system-perl; choose the latter. In addition, storable-pm should also get updated.

For OS 10.1.x, perform the following commands (you'll need the Developer Tools):

sudo mv /sw/lib/perl5/darwin/Storable.pm /tmp 
sudo mv /sw/lib/perl5/darwin/auto/Storable /tmp 
fink rebuild storable-pm 
fink selfupdate-cvs

A: If neither running fink selfupdate nor sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade updates you to a newer Fink release, then you may need to download a newer version of the fink package manually. The relevant commands are:

• 10.3.x: (0.7.1 distribution)

  curl -O http://us.dl.sf.net/fink/direct_download/dists/fink-0.7.1-updates/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/base/fink_0.22.4-1_darwin-powerpc.deb
  sudo dpkg -i fink_0.22.4-1_darwin-powerpc.deb
  rm fink_0.22.4-1_darwin-powerpc.deb
  fink selfupdate

• 10.2.x: (0.6.3 distribution)

  curl -O http://us.dl.sf.net/fink/direct_download/dists/fink-0.6.3/release/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/base/fink_0.18.3-1_darwin-powerpc.deb
  sudo dpkg -i fink_0.18.3-1_darwin-powerpc.deb
  rm fink_0.18.3-1_darwin-powerpc.deb
  fink selfupdate

A: We recommend against putting your Fink directory tree inside a directory with spaces in its name. It's just not worth the hassle.

A: If you see something like the following:

Err file: local/main Packages 
File not found 
Ign file: local/main Release 
Err file: stable/main Packages 
File not found 
Ign file: stable/main Release 
Err file: stable/crypto Packages 
File not found 
Ign file: stable/crypto Release 
...
Failed to fetch file:/sw/fink/dists/local/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/Packages
File not found 
Failed to fetch file:/sw/fink/dists/stable/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/Packages
File not found
Failed to fetch file:/sw/fink/dists/stable/crypto/binary-darwin-powerpc/Packages
File not found 
Reading Package Lists... Done 
Building Dependency Tree...Done 
E: Some index files failed to download, 
they have been ignored, or old ones used instead. 
update available list script returned error exit status 1.

then all you need to do is run fink scanpackages. This generates the files that aren't being found.

If you get an error of the following form:

W: Couldn't stat source package list file: unstable/main Packages
(/sw/var/lib/apt/lists/_sw_fink_dists_unstable_main_binary-darwin-
powerpc_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)

then you should run

sudo apt-get update
fink scanpackages

to fix it.

A: When changing the Fink distribution (of which the source and binary distros are subsets), Fink needs to be told that this has happened. To do this, you can run a script that normally gets run when you first install Fink:

/sw/lib/fink/postinstall.pl

Doing this will point Fink to the correct place.

A: Errors of the form:

gzip -dc /sw/src/dpkg-1.10.9.tar.gz | /sw/bin/tar -xf - 
### execution of gzip failed, exit code 139

or

gzip -dc /sw/src/aquaterm-0.3.0a.tar.gz | /sw/bin/tar -xf -
gzip: stdout: Broken pipe 
### execution of gzip failed, exit code 138

or

dpkg-deb -b root-base-files-1.9.0-1 /sw/fink/dists/unstable/main/binary-darwin-powerpc/base

### execution of dpkg-deb failed, exit code 1
Failed: can't create package base-files_1.9.0-1_darwin-powerpc.deb

or segmentation faults when running utilities from fileutils, e.g. ls or mv, are likely to be due to a prebinding error in a library, and can be fixed by running

sudo /sw/var/lib/fink/prebound/update-package-prebinding.pl -f

A: What happened is that somehow the OSX Terminal program has been told to run /sw/bin/pathsetup.command every time you log in. You can fix this by removing the Preferences file, ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist.

If you have other preferences that you want to keep, you can edit the file with a text editor and remove the reference to /sw/bin/pathsetup.command.

A: If your error looks like:

This first test is designed to die, so please ignore the error
message on the next line.
# Looks like your test died before it could output anything.
./00compile............................ok
./Base/initialize......................ok
./Base/param...........................ok
./Base/param_boolean...................ok
./Command/cat..........................ok
./Command/chowname.....................#     
Failed test (./Command/chowname.t at line 27)
#          got: 'root'
#     expected: 'nobody'

then you need to run Get Info on the drive/partition where Fink is installed and unselect the "Ignore ownership" button.

A: If you get an error that ends with

Failed: No mirror site list file found for mirror 'gnu'.

then most likely you need to update the fink-mirrors package, e.g. via:

fink install fink-mirrors

A: This error:

Failed: Can't move "/sw/fink" out of the way.

is usually due, in spite of what it says, to permissions errors in one of the temporary directories that get created during a selfupdate. Remove these:

sudo rm -rf /sw/fink.tmp /sw/fink.old

A: There have been problems with the Sourceforge download servers, and therefore we are moving the binary distribution repository for this very reason.

• If you have the Developer Tools installed then install the latest version of the fink-mirrors package (>= 0.24.4.1), and then reinstall fink, either via:

  fink reinstall fink

  or

  sudo apt-get install --reinstall fink

  (if for whatever reason you don't want to use the source distribution).

• If you don't have the Developer Tools installed, then you'll have to set things up manually. Edit your sources.list file as root, e.g..via

  sudo pico /sw/etc/apt/sources.list

  (use your favorite Unix-line-ending-compatible text editor). Change the lines that start with "Official binary distribution:" thusly:

  # Official binary distribution: download location for packages
  # from the latest release
  deb http://bindist.finkmirrors.net/bindist 10.3/release main crypto
  
  # Official binary distribution: download location for updated
  # packages built between releases
  deb http://bindist.finkmirrors.net/bindist 10.3/current main crypto

  The above of course assumes you're on 10.3. If you're on a different OS replace 10.3 with what your current distribution is.

  Then save your work and quit the editor. Now update your binary package list again.

A: If you see the following (so far only seen on OS 10.4):

No fonts found; this probably means that the fontconfig
library is not correctly configured. You may need to
edit the fonts.conf configuration file. More information
about fontconfig can be found in the fontconfig(3) manual
page and on http://fontconfig.org.

then you can fix it by running

sudo fc-cache

A: This message commonly means that you've tried to run the Fink installer as user who doesn't have administrative privileges. Make sure to log in at the login screen as such a user or switch to such a user in the Finder (i.e. fast user switching) before starting the Fink installer.

If you're having trouble even when using an admin account, then it's likely a problem with the permissions on your top-level directory. Use Apple's Disk Utility (from the Utilities sub-folder in your Applications folder), select the hard drive in question, choose the First Aid tab, and press Repair Disk Permissions.

A: If you get errors that include lines like:

cvs [update aborted]: connect to cvs.sourceforge.net(66.35.250.207):
2401 failed: Operation timed out

this is because of a recent restructuring of the CVS servers at sourceforge.net. Fink files are now at fink.cvs.sourceforge.net. You'll need to update the fink-mirrors package via the binary tools:

sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get install fink-mirrors