A Note about the origins of this distribution
The open source software packages, being brought to you by SGI have been authored by many generous individuals and organizations throughout the world. It is through their noble efforts that these useful and high quality software packages exist.
Our Contribution
We have configured and built these packages so that, to the best of our
knowledge, they run correctly on IRIX 6.x. We also repackaged
these software products so that they can be easily installed using
either inst or SoftwareManager (swmgr). In essence, this
is merely a re-distribution of software that you can download from other
sources and build by yourself. The full, original, source code is
included wherever possible, although it is not installed by default. To
install the full source under /usr/freeware/src/, click on Customize
in swmgr.
Unless otherwise noted in the detailed descriptions, the software is
installed into /usr/freeware to distinguish it from
previous versions you may have installed directly from the authors. In
some cases, system or configuration files in other locations may be
affected, see the detailed descriptions in this distribution for
details.
We've built these open source packages so that they run on IRIX 6.2
and upwards. Packages are compiled n32/mips3 wherever
possible. In very few cases, compilation is o32/mips2.
But see below for an important note.
IRIX 6.2 Note:
If (and only if) your system is IRIX 6.2 you may be required to
install some n32 run-time libraries. In particular, you
may need to install the subsystems c_eoe.sw32.lib,
motif_eoe.sw32.eoe, and x_eoe.sw32.eoe. These and
other libraries install under /usr/lib32 and they are
available from your IRIX CD.
List of contributors
Support
The software in this package is considered unsupported by SGI, and is not handled by SGI Customer Support. While we cannot make any promises, the freeware volunteers may be able to help resolve problems you encounter in the installation, setup, or execution of this software. Email with your feedback, bug reports, patches etc. will most likely be read by someone who cares.
Contacting our volunteers
If you have any questions, requests, complaints, bugs to report, please feel free to contact us at freeware@sgi.com.
If possible, please try to distinguish between SGI specific problems (e.g. in the packaging or configuration) and problems in the original source. The latter should be best handled by reporting them to the original authors or maintainers of the software.
The Future
For a variety of reasons the authors and/or SGI may decide to discontinue distributing one or more of these packages. It is more likely, however, that we will all try to bring many more packages to you in future distributions. If there's a package you would like to see as part of this distribution, please feel free to send us email.
While we try very hard to produce IRIX 6.2 versions of packages, this has become increasingly difficult as source code starts to depend on newer features and behavior. Beginning with the May 2001 release the Freeware Project will relax our IRIX 6.2 mandate and stop excluding packages that require IRIX 6.5. Most packages will still be compatible with IRIX 6.2, but a growing number will not. If you have opinions about this please let us know!
Changing your Search Path
By default the search path used by your system will not
include the /usr/freeware directories.
We have provided a tool called fixpath which
can be used to modify the files in your local environment controlling
these paths. To use the tool, open a shell window
and type: /usr/freeware/bin/fixpath.
Downloading/Installing the Packages
For the freeware.sgi.com web
download and install pages to work, you need to have root access.
For old versions of netscape, you will also need the
netscape.sw.tardist
subsystem installed. Specifically, the /usr/sbin/tardist
executable must exist; if it's there, it's installed.
Note that the packages are also available for
download via FTP.
If your FTP client doesn't support auto-install like Netscape Navigator
does, you'll have to invoke tardist manually on the
downloaded file as root.
Latest versions
The most up-to-date version of SGI Open Source distribution is on the web at: freeware.sgi.com. If you got this distribution from a CD or elsewhere, there's probably a newer version available on freeware.sgi.com.
Naturally, there's always some package that we're missing, and often we know of someone that does a good job of maintaining various packages, so we also have a list of pointers to More Freeware. If your favorite package is still not listed, Please send us email!
Security Note
From time to time, people discover security vulnerabilities in open source software. While SGI cannot be responsible for software we neither write nor support, we do distribute the original source code for audit, review, and possible correction and improvement. Many of our employees regularly contribute patches and enhancements to open source packages. We also offer advisories about security incidents of which are made aware.
At the time of this writing, we are aware of vulnerabilities in previously released versions of the following software. Please see our Security Headquarters web site for full details.
- analog (versions through 1236359820, February 2001 are vulnerable)
- bind (versions thourough 1236162620, February 2001 are vulnerable)
- htdig (versions through 1236163120, February 2001 are vulnerable)
- imap/pop (versions through 1234699020, May 1998 are vulnerable)
- nmh (versions through 1235673420, February 2001 are vulnerable)
- openssh (versions through 1237034220, February 2001 are vulnerable)
- qpopper (discontinued package; please use the fw_imap)
- screen (versions through 1236112120, August 2000 are vulnerable)
- seyon (no requests for update have been submitted; no fix planned)
** This security list last updated 2001.4.2
This is free software with open source.
Absolutely no warranties.
Your feedback to freeware@sgi.com is welcome.