FC7 linuxdcpp mini-HOWTO (Cosmin Halici)


linuxdcpp

Introduction


Linuxdcpp (aka wulfor) is a port of the win32 DC++ direct connect client to POSIX-like systems. Linuxdcpp uses the GTK+2 toolkit and despite it's name it runs on other platforms too. There are currently no official linuxdcpp binaries, so compiling from source is the only way to get the most up-to-date release.


Dependencies:

  1. cvs
  2. g++ >= 3.4
  3. pkg-config
  4. gtk+-2.0 >= 2.6
  5. gthread-2.0 >= 2.4
  6. libglade-2.0 >= 2.4
  7. libbz2

For binary-based distributions like FC, you need the development packages as well (usually has "-devel" appended to the package name).

Why did I wrote this document? Because I spent a lot of time trying to install the linuxdcpp on FC7 and finaly cause I wanted to compensate the people that helped me install it by giving you a short view of the problems you might find in your way .

This document is meant to describe my "adventures" with linuxdcpp in Fedora Core 7 so it shouldn`t be taken as a refference manual .You will probably use the same steps to install the software on other RedHat linux related distributions.The instalation will differ on most systems,so I will asume that you will have the minimum of dependencies installed on your computer (just how I've had) and that your will fallow the steps I fallowed to install the software .You can jump over the steps where you already have the library installed.Let's Begin.

Assumptions/Setup

I was using Fedora Core 7 for the instalation, but it should work with other GNU/Linux distributions running 2.6.x kernels. I am also assuming that the distribution you are using already has an internet connection. My test machine was a Pentium 4 and had 512 MB of RAM. The exact version of the kernel that I used was: 2.6.22.5-76 .

Step 1: Take a look at what you already have on your your system

You should check if you already have the dependencies installed on your system . Most of them are already installed so it shouldn't be such a big problem . To check for cvs you would normaly type :

[root]# yum list | grep cvs
cvs.i386                                 1.11.22-9.1.fc7        installed  



As you can see i'm logged as root although it's a good ideea to do all the
 configuration as a normal user and only the instalation as root.

Step 2: Install scons

yum install scons

Fedora Core 7 provides a binary package for scons so this should be easy . You could find out more about scons at scons.org , in essence it's an autoconf/automake program.

The next thing you should do is get the latest version of the program . 


cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.linuxdcpp.berlios.de:/cvsroot/linuxdcpp login
(leave password blank)
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.linuxdcpp.berlios.de:/cvsroot/linuxdcpp co linuxdcpp
After all it's done you would probably see in your curent path a new directory called linuxdcpp . Enter the directory and run : 
scons
There are a few handles but running only scons will be enough . From this moment the mini-HowTo describes the steps I had to fallow to install the software . This means that you shouldn't necesarily have to fallow the same steps. You will probably pass over some steps , although this only depends on the library's you already have installed.
The first problem I had was with the gtk+-devel package . 
Checking for gtk+-2.0 >= 2.6... no
        gtk+ >= 2.6 not found.
        Note: You might have the lib but not the headers.

I managed to find out that cairo and cairo-devel was the answear to the first problem so I installed them both with: 
yum install cairo cairo-devel
I tryed again scons in the console and got my second error . 
scons: Configure: Checking for C header file time.h...
build/sconf/conftest_4.c <-
  |
  |#include 
  |
  |
gcc -o build/sconf/conftest_4.o -c build/sconf/conftest_4.c
build/sconf/conftest_4.c:2:18: error: time.h: No such file or directory
scons: Configure: no
Weird ... after a few google searches and some irc questions I found that it needs kernel-headers and glibc-headers. 
yum install kernel-headers glibc-headers
Runned scons again and ... ofcourse ... got my third error : 
OpenSSL library (libssl) not found
        Note: You might have the lib but not the headers
Did an yum list | grep ssl-devel openssl-devel.i386 0.9.8b-14.fc7 installed but I couldn't find anything usefull . After that I tryed yum provides "ssl-devel" and didn`t had a clue. In the end I found out that it needs e2fsprogs-devel.i386 and installed it . The last error (the biggest of all in size http://pastebin.ca/695989) almost made me give up but after a few forum questions,irc questions and an yum provides "*iconv*" I found out it neads libstdc++-devel. 
yum install libstdc++-devel
Done that an entered again scons and finaly it worked. You can run the program by typing linuxdcpp in the console.

Tips

How to add a menu shortcut . 
gedit /usr/share/applications/dcpp.desktop
You could use any text editor you want . Insert in the file the fallowing : 
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=LinuxDC++
Exec=linuxdcpp
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
Icon=/opt/linuxdcpp/pixmaps/linuxdcpp.png
Categories=Application;Network;
Applications -> Internet -> DC++

Conclusion

You have now seen what problems may occur when you try to install linuxdcpp on Fedora Core 7. Hopefully, you will find this information to be interesting and useful! Special thanks to the (freenode) #fedora channel members that helped me with my questions and to Alexandru Plugaru aka "Sasha" for his advice to write this mini How-To. If you have any questions,sugestions or if you wanna say Hi to see how my day is going feel free to send an email here.
Also the original source of this article could be found here and if you want to place a comment please follow this url here.