Installing EDE on FreeBSD

This tutorial shows how to install latest EDE version on FreeBSD (8.x releases) and how to setup it for daily usage. FreeBSD 8.x was selected as it is bridge between 9.x and legacy 7.x versions, so installing on those versions should be quite similar.

The tutorial assume you have already have installed and configured OS; if not so, please consult FreeBSD manuals about installation procedure. For purpose of this tutorial, I'm using Standard installation with User profile.

First, we need to install cURL, FLTK and jam. EDE uses cURL to for bug reports and, during this tutorial, you will use it to get NetInstall script. It is fine to not install cURL if you decide to manualy compile everything as bug reporting will be disabled when EDE is configured and compiled. By running command:

pkg_add -r fltk jam curl

you will get FLTK runtime, development libraries with their requirements and jam build tool. After this, make sure you have running DBus; usually it will be running, but just in case check your /etc/rc.conf to have these lines:

dbus_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"

Before we proceed, you can check if FLTK was installed correctly. To do so, run:

fluid

This is FLTK GUI designer and if is running without problems, EDE should work too. In case you get this error:

Unable to find fonts. Check your FontConfig configuration.

and fluid refuse to start, you probably have bad xorg installation. Try to reinstall it with:

pkg_add -r xorg -f

Because of bug in NetInstall, make sure to you install doxygen tool first or NetInstall will report installation failure.

This part will cover using NetInstall tool. First you download it with:

curl -O http://equinox-project.org/netinstall

and start as superuser:

python netinstall

NetInstall will then download edelib and EDE sources, unpack them and install in /usr/local. If something fails, the error will be reported for further inspection.

If you want to install EDE and edelib on custom location with custom flags (e.g. enable debug feature or compile with custom FLTK version), of simply you don't want to use NetInstall, this is the way to do it. First, download edelib and EDE from download page and the commands (first edelib):

$ tar -xzpvf edelib-<VERSION>.tar.gz
$ cd edelib-<VERSION>
$ ./configure && jam
$ su                     # install edelib as root
$ jam install

Next will come EDE. If you changed edelib installation path, make sure to adjust PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable (it should always point to <prefix>/lib/pkgconfig).

$ tar -xzpvf ede-<VERSION>.tar.gz
$ cd ede-<VERSION>
$ export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"     # or change it if you have other location
$ ./configure && jam
$ su                    # install EDE as root
$ jam install

Unless you have display manager (like xdm or gdm) and you start your X session with startx command, in your xinitrc file (located at ~/.xinitrc or if you don't you have it, copy it to the same location and file from /usr/local/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc):

startede

save it and run startx.

If you have some display manager, just copy the file <prefix>/share/xsessions/ede.desktop to /usr/share/xsessions, as root. By doing this, you will get EDE as alternative desktop in display manager session list; logout from current session and EDE option should be visible.