DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: Rox Filer Install Script

Hi all.

I just created an install script for the Rox Filer file manager and would like to see if it works for anyone besides me. It works in a similar way to the "Mozilla Firebird" install script since it downloads the required libraries (Slackware) and binaries and installs them.

The script works on a DSL 0.5 bootable CD system. I have not tried it out on a hard disk installed system. Here are the instructions:

Copy the following script and paste it into a text editor like Nedit or Nano.
Save it to your home directory (/home/damnsmall) as filename 'loadrox'.
From a shell prompt, do a 'chmod 755 loadrox' to make it executable.
Then do a 'sudo su' to become the root user.
Then type './loadrox' to start the script.
Choose to install the program in your HOME directory (/home/root).
Choose 'yes' to all of the install messages.
You can then start Rox Filer again at any time by typing 'rox' at the shell prompt.

Code Sample

#!/bin/sh
#
# loadrox - Downloads and installs the Rox Filer file manager for a
# Damn Small Linux user.
# Rev 0 11/15/03

#
# First, create a /usr tree on the ramdisk if the user is running from
# the Damn Small Linux Live CD. Why? Because the default /usr tree is
# linked to the read-only CDROM file system and new files are not allowed.
# Lets create a REAL /usr tree structure on the ramdisk and add a bunch of
# Symlinks back to the CDROM for all of the files inside the old /usr tree.
ls -l /usr | grep 'KNOPPIX' > /tmp/loadrox.tmp
if test -s '/tmp/loadrox.tmp'
then
echo 'System is running from a Live CD compressed image filesystem. '
echo 'Creating a writable /usr tree on the RAM Disk...'
cp -srd /KNOPPIX/usr/ /ramdisk
ln -sf --target-directory=/ /ramdisk/usr
fi
rm /tmp/loadrox.tmp

# Next, download, unpack and install the Slackware 9.1 GDK pixbuf libraries
echo 'Grabbing GDK pixbuf libraries...'
wget -c http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/slackware/slackware-9.1/slackware/l/gdk-pixbuf-0.22.0-i486-1.tgz
tar -zxvf gdk-pixbuf-0.22.0-i486-1.tgz
sh ./install/doinst.sh

# Next, download, unpack and install the Slackware 9.1 PNG libraries. DSL comes
# with libpng version 2.x and version 3.x or higher is needed by Rox Filer
echo 'Grabbing newer PNG libraries...'
wget -c http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/slackware/slackware-9.1/slackware/l/libpng-1.2.5-i386-1.tgz
tar -zxvf libpng-1.2.5-i386-1.tgz
sh ./install/doinst.sh

# Next, download, unpack and install the Slackware 8.1 XML2 libraries.
echo 'Grabbing XML2 libraries...'
wget -c http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/slackware/slackware-8.1/slackware/l/libxml2-2.4.22-i386-1.tgz
tar -zxvf libxml2-2.4.22-i386-1.tgz
sh ./install/doinst.sh

# Finally, download, unpack and install the Generic Linux Rox Filer 1.2 binaries
echo 'Grabbing Rox Filer binaries...'
echo 'Choose HOME install after the download completes'
wget -c http://unc.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/rox/rox-linux-x86-1.2.0.tgz
tar -zxvf rox-linux-x86-1.2.0.tgz
# Before running the install script, add symlinks to the newly installed
# libraries in the main /usr tree
cp -srd /home/damnsmall/usr /ramdisk
sh ./rox-linux-x86-1.2.0/install.sh

# After choosing HOME install, create a symlink in /usr/bin
ln -s /home/root/bin/rox --target-directory=/usr/bin

# Launch ROX-Filer for the first time as user damnsmall
sudo -u damnsmall rox

Nearly! I tried this on HD installed DSL 0.4.10. There's a problem around line 49 in the loadrox script. This installs everything to a new directory /ramdisk I didn't get a prompt for the HOME install directory- I guess the ROX install script didn't run. Try again, but this should all install to /usr/local instead of /home/damnsmall/ ... this way it will be accessible to all users. Dillo is installed in /usr/local also and this is a more conventional place to put added software.
ROX-Filer is great! I had been fooling around a bit with getting it to work, as I use it in my Slackware 8.1

Cbagger01, nice! I will p lay with this script some and probably include it in the next release -- if that's okay with you.

John,

You are welcome to modify the script as you wish and include it in any releases.

There are a number of improvements that I would like to make, some of them involve taking a page from the mozilla script.

For example:

Fixing the script so it will work with the hdinstall version of DSL.
See if I can get the files to install at the /usr or /usr/local location instead of the HOME directory.
Automatically create a desktop icon for the program.
Automatically create MIME type association with various programs so that, for example, if you click on an *.html file, it will automatically open it up in Dillo, etc.
See if I can avoid the libpng download. If coaxed, maybe I can get the program to work with the existing libpng that comes with DSL by default.
Make the script launch rox if the program has already been installed in the past.
Make the script skip the download step if the files already exist in the current directory.
See if I can figure out why the thumbnail viewer function is not working correctly.

I also tried this script with DSL0.5 running from compressed files on hard disk (not installed). It didn't work that way either, just so you know.

Next Page...
original here.