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Using Executor with FreeBSD
I just thought I'd pass along the following hints 'n tips in using
Executor in a FreeBSD environment.
First of all, it IS possible. The FreeBSD Linux emulation code, even the
2.0.5 version, is more than adequate to run it. 2.1 is quite good for
me. CURRENT/SNAP/STABLE/etc. versions are probably even better.
Unfortunately, the Linux sound support doesn't work. But that's just
about the only thing that doesn't.
Since the FreeBSD console driver does not work at all with Linux SVGALIB,
the SVGALIB version of Executor doesn't run, even if you have the svgalib
shared library installed.
Several error messages are generated, that can be safely ignored. They
are mainly annoyances. Here are the messages that can be ignored:
syslog() not supported (BSD sigreturn)
LINUX: 'ioctl' fd=6, typ=0x53(S), num=0xb not implemented
LINUX: 'ioctl' fd=13, typ=0x450(P), num=0xa not implemented
You will need to install the "bash" shell (it's available as part of the
FreeBSD packages/ports collection). It installs into /usr/local/bin, but
Executor expects it to be in /bin. A simple symlink will suffice,
though. As root, type: ln -s /usr/local/bin/bash /bin/bash
Even though bash is installed, Executor still needs to have the "type"
command. It needs this program in order to support printing directly
to a printer. If it can't run it, it will just print to a file in
/tmp. Why doesn't the bash built-in "type" command get executed? This
is because Executor doesn't specifically run the bash shell to execute
it, but instead it runs the standard shell "sh". In Linux, this is no
problem, since sh is usually a link to bash anyway. But, FreeBSD uses
the real Bourne shell, which does not have the "type" command built-in.
So, what I did is wrote a simple shell script to emulate it. Put this
script anywhere in your path (/usr/local/bin/type is where I stuck it),
and make sure it's executable (chmod 755 type).
#!/bin/sh
exec bash -c "type $*"
And this is it. The program works flawlessly with these modifications.
(Even without them, the program still worked, although printing directly
to a printer didn't work, and some odd error messages from the /bin/sh
shell were displayed).
I once again wish to thank the Executor team for a GREAT product, and
the FreeBSD team for a GREAT OS. Keep up the good work, all of you!
Donald Burr [d_burr@ix.netcom.com], PO Box 91212, Santa Barbara CA 93190-1212
TEL (805)564-1871 / FAX 564-2315 / WWW http://www.geopages.com/WallStreet/2072
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