Installing gtk-geas on OS X David Jones Introduction gtk-geas is an Open Source interpreter for the Quest format of computer text adventures. gtk-geas was created by Mark Tilford. gtk-geas can be used to play the files produced by Quest, such as Beam_1_10.cas (an entry into the 2006 IFComp). This document is a series of instructions for building a runnable version of gtk-geas that runs on Mac OS X (gtk-geas was initially designed to run on Linux). The author of this document used these instructions to run gtk-geas on Mac OS X 10.4.8 on Intel hardware. It's entirely likely that other versions of Mac OS X and PowerPC hardware will work, but they're untested. I would be pleased to receive reports of success. I have only a surface understanding of most of the technologies used in building gtk-geas so it's entirely possible that there are simpler ways or that this method does not work for you for some reason. Please feel to get in touch (drj@pobox.com), but please don't be disappointed if I can't help. If you have any comments or suggestions to improve this document then also get in touch. Overview and Prerequisites gtk-geas relies on a number of major technologies none of which come by default on Mac OS X, but all of which can be installed (either using Apple's installers provided with the OS installation media, or third party installers). Let me warn you now, none of this is very Mac like; it's all very Unix like. You'll need X11 server (Apple), X11 SDK (Apple), gcc (Apple), GTK (fink). The Apple installers come on the OS X installation discs, so you must have these discs. These are the CDs or DVDs that came with your computer or the ones from the new OS if you upgraded from 10.3 to 10.4 (or similar). You'll also need to use Apple's Terminal application (it's in /Applications/Utilities if you don't know where to find it). Many steps in the procedure described below require you to type commands into a Terminal window. If you're not familiar with Terminal then don't panic, but please be careful when typing. You will also need to execute these instructions from an account with administrator privileges (which if you're the only person using your Mac you almost certainly have). Procedure If you have a set of 10.4.6 install DVDs (like I do) then insert Disc 1. Installing gcc: [Skip this step if you know you already have gcc installed] Open the "Xcode Tools" folder. Open the XcodeTools.mpkg document (it's a package installer). This runs the Installer program. Click your way through this until it's installed everything that it wanted to. To check that it has worked, open a Terminal window and type "gcc" followed by Return. You should get a response something like: "i686-apple-darwin8-gcc-4.0.1: no input files". Installing X11 [Skip this step if you know you already have X11 installed] Open the "Optional Installs" package. This is at the top level of the 10.4.6 Install Disc 1 but you may need to scroll the Finer window to find it. Click your way through this and when presented with a list of packages to install select the X11 package and continue until it's installed. To check that X11 is installed open your Applications folder, there should be an X11 application now. Installing fink (fink is a repository of Unix software for OS X) [Skip this step if you know you already have fink installed] Download a fink binary installer from http://fink.sourceforge.net/download/bindist.php Open the installer, click it until it installs. I downloaded Fink-0.8.1-Intel-Installer.dmg . You may need the PowerPC version, and there may be newer version by the time you read this. If you need more detailed hand-holding or are unsure on some aspect, please refer to the fink documentation on http://fink.sourceforge.net/doc/users-guide/index.php (specifically section 2). If you have Terminal windows open at this point then you should probably close them and reopen them (to get the new environment variables that allow you to run fink). Enabling fink's unstable tree [Skip this step if you know you already have the unstable tree for fink installed] (This is a summary of the instructions contained in FAQ question 5.8 for fink; please refer there for more detailed instructions: http://fink.sourceforge.net/faq/usage-fink.php?phpLang=en#unstable ) The file /sw/etc/fink.conf needs editing; the line beginning Trees: needs the text " unstable/main unstable/crypto" adding to it. If you're Unix skills are good you can simply go to a Terminal window and type "sudo vi /sw/etc/fink.conf" and perform the edit. If you're a Unix novice, then do this: - First find the /sw/etc folder in Finder: use the Finder's "Go >> Computer" menu item, then open the system disk. In that disk you should see a folder called "sw"; open it and then open the "etc" folder contained within. - Copy the fink.conf file to the desktop (which I do by dragging and using F11 to exposé my desktop). Ctrl-click on the fink.conf copy that you made and select "Open With >> TextEdit". - Find the line beginning "Trees:" and add the text " unstable/main unstable/crypto" to the end of the line. Save the file and close TextEdit. - Drag the fink.conf file from the Desktop back to the /sw/etc folder; Finder will say that you need to authenticate and that you may be overwriting a file. Overwrite the file and authenticate (I have a sneaking suspicion that things are not so simple in OS X 10.3). Having edited the fink.conf file you need to run some fink commands in order to make it take notice: Open a Terminal window (or use one already open) and type the commands: "run fink selfupdate; fink index; fink scanpackages" followed by Return. Installing gtkmm-2.4 Go to a Terminal window and type "sudo fink install gtkmm2.4-dev" followed by Return. Authenticate by using your password. This will take some while. Building gtk-geas All of this takes place in a Terminal window, so open one (or find one). cd to where the geas folder has been unpacked. For me this is geas-osx-src-0.1 on my Desktop, and I use the following sequence of cd commands: cd cd Desktop cd geas-osx-src-0.1 type make to build geas: make If successful this should have built a program in a file called gtk-geas. Check by doing: ls -l gtk-geas Running gtk-geas gtk-geas requires X11 and must be run from within an X11 window. Start X11 (it's an application in Applications/Utilities). You should see a window a bit like Terminal appear (like Terminal only faster and more ugly) titled "xterm". From within this xterm window you need to cd to where you built gtk-geas and then run it: cd cd Desktop cd geas-osx-src-0.1 ./gtk-geas & This should start gtk-geas. gtk-geas may (and definitely will on early beta versions) print text and messages on the xterm window whence it was launched, you should ignore these. Especially since I suspect they contain spoilers for any game you try and run. Enjoy.