Home > Skunkware

Documentation

Release Notes

Table of Contents

What is it ?

SCO Skunkware is the generic name for a free collection of software prebuilt for SCO systems. This distribution is Skunkware 7.1.0 and is intended for use on the UnixWare 7.1.0 platform. To obtain SCO Skunkware pre-built for use on SCO OpenServer, see the SCO Skunkware Web Site or you may wish to order the Skunkware 98 CD.

Distributions are released on CD periodically and a repository of this and previous distributions as well as updates and corrections can always be found at http://www.sco.com/skunkware.

SCO Skunkware contains a wide variety of software ranging from educational and experimental research tools to commercial grade software suitable for use on a production server.

It is provided for free and is not formally supported by SCO.

The software on the Skunkware CD-ROM is licensed under a variety of terms. Much of it is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Some is licensed under the GNU Library General Public License. Other components are licensed under the Artistic License. Many of the components are "freeware" with no restrictions on their redistribution while a few components are "shareware" meaning the author would like you to try the software and, if you wish to use it, send her some money. A few components are commercial products which can be used freely for non-commercial purposes (e.g. msql). Some components simply restrict their use to non-commercial purposes.

To determine the licensing conditions for a particular component, see the corresponding source in the source directory. With the infrequent exception of SCO proprietary code, all Skunkware components are accompanied by the source used to build them. The source is archived in the src subdirectory by category. The categories are:

Skunkware Software Categories
audio emulators libraries shellutil fileutil mail sysadmin db net
textproc devtools interp news video editors lib shells www
X11 Graphical Categories
apps fonts games graphics misc savers utils viewers winman
Many of the components of SCO Skunkware may be viewed as productivity and development tools to be taken seriously. Don't let its whimsical nature fool you. Examples of serious tools on Skunkware include:
  • The GNU C Compilation system
  • Mtools - DOS filesystem manipulation tools
  • Scripting languages (Tcl, Tk, Python, Expect)
  • Internet/Network tools (apache, squid, xdir, many more)
  • Editors and text processing tools (xcoral, xemacs, ghostscript, vim, xhtml)
  • Typesetting and document formatting tools (teTeX, SGML-Tools, Lyx, Groff)
  • Graphical tools (the GIMP, ImageMagick, XV, Netpbm, Xfig, graphics libs)
  • Many many more
Of course, Skunkware also contains fun stuff. Gotta have something to keep the polecats entertained thru the night. Examples include:
  • Games (xdoom, xgalaga, xboing, xpool)
  • Graphics (mathematical recreations, animation viewers, image manipulators)
  • Audio (audio players and editors, mixers, CD players, games with sound)
  • Stuff (view astrology charts, graphical fish tank, lots more)
Several of the components on this CD should be considered experimental. Consider Skunkware a research tool. Examples:
  • Egcs, the Experimental GNU Compilation System from Cygnus.
  • Alpha or pre-release versions of window managers and graphical tools
  • A variety of Java classes and applications from Acme Laboratories
  • VRwave, a Java based VRML 2.0 browser
  • Endo, a tool for exploring dynamical systems in the plane

Remember, Skunkware is freely distributed and unsupported software. No warranty is made on any of the Skunkware components. Support and assistance with this software is not provided by SCO. In many cases, however, an e-mail to skunkware@sco.com describing any problem you might have may result in a reply/fix/solution. And ...

The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. and SCO Skunkware are not related to, affiliated with or licensed by the famous Lockheed Martin Skunk Works (R), the creator of the F-117 Stealth Fighter, SR-71, U-2, Venturestar(tm), Darkstar(tm), and other pioneering air and spacecraft.

Getting Started

  • Mounting the Skunkware CD-ROM

    [Note that it is not necessary to mount the Skunkware CD-ROM in order to install the pkgadd installable packages. See the section below on installing the Skunkware software.]

    To mount the Skunkware CD-ROM on an SCO UnixWare system, use the command:

    # mount -r -f cdfs /dev/cdrom/cdrom1 /mount-point

    where mount-point refers to the full pathname of the directory on which you wish to mount the CD-ROM (e.g. /mnt). Note also that the CD-ROM device name may vary from system to system.

    On an SCO OpenServer Release 5 system issue the command:

    # mount -r /dev/cd0 /mount-point

  • Making room for the Skunkware software

    The installation of all the Skunkware components requires about 800 MB of free space on the root partition (/usr/local). If your root partition does not have sufficient space, or you wish to utilize an alternate filesystem for the Skunkware components, prior to installing Skunkware create a symbolic link in /usr as follows (using /u as the alternate filesystem):

    # mv /usr/local /u/local
    # ln -s /u/local /usr/local

    The above commands assume a separate /u filesystem with sufficient disk space. The exact name of the alternate filesystem mount point is system dependent.

  • Installing the Skunkware Software

    The installation of all the Skunkware components requires about 800 MB of free space on the root partition (/usr/local).

    After mounting the Skunkware CD (mount -r -f cdfs /dev/cdrom/c1b0t0l0 /mnt), run the command (as root):

    # /mnt/INSTALL

    The Skunkware INSTALL script will allow you to select from a menu of Skunkware "software sets" including All Components, Development Tools, Shells, Audio/Video Components, etc. The INSTALL script acts as a front-end for a non-interactive installation using the Software Manager (pkgadd).

    NOTE: A full installation of SCO Skunkware will consume over 800 Megabytes of disk space and take a couple of hours.

    To install an individual package, execute the command:

    # pkgadd -d /mnt Package

    where "Package" is the name of the desired component and /mnt is the mount point of the Skunkware CDROM. If the Skunkware CDROM is not mounted, execute the command:

    # pkgadd -d /dev/cdrom/cdrom1 Package

    See the file /mount-point/COMPONENTS for the list of available components.

  • Configuring your system for use with Skunkware

    After completing the installation of the Skunkware components you desire, you may wish to add /usr/local/bin to your PATH and /usr/local/man to your MANPATH. You may also wish to add /usr/local/java to your CLASSPATH. It should not be necessary to add /usr/local/lib to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH as the Skunkware shared libraries have been built with the appropriate flags.

  • Browsing the Skunkware HTML Documents

    For an introductory tour, point a web browser at /mount-point/index.html

    # /usr/bin/X11/netscape file:/mount-point/index.html

    If you do not have Netscape Navigator installed, download a trial copy from http://www2.sco.com or use any browser that supports tables and open the URL file:/mount-point/index.html (assuming you mounted the CD on /mount-point).

    If you do not have or want a graphical browser, you can use Lynx (a character browser) which is included as part of the UnixWare 7 installation. Execute the command:

    # lynx file:/mount-point/index.html

    SCO Skunkware 7.1.0 contains files suitable for installation with the pkgadd facility. In addition, there are hundreds of source archives (almost everything on the CD is accompanied by the source used to build it).

  • Removing the Skunkware software

    All of the Skunkware 7.1.0 software can be removed by issuing the command:

    # /mount-point/REMOVE

    where mount-point indicates the directory on which the Skunkware CDROM is mounted. Individual components can be removed with the command:

    # pkgrm Component

    where Component is the individual component name.

    A list of all installed Skunkware components can be retrieved with:

    # pkginfo -c skunkware

    Accessing the CD on other platforms

    On any other system, after mounting or otherwise making the High-Sierra Rockridge CD-ROM filesystem accessible, point your WWW browser to mount-point/index.html where mount-point indicates the UNIX directory or Windows drive representing the CD-ROM.

    Source Code Distribution

    In almost all cases, source code is also provided, so you can rebuild for earlier SCO releases or other platforms. A full source archive for this and previous Skunkware releases is available at either http://www.sco.com/skunkware/src/ or ftp://ftp.sco.com/skunkware/src/.

    Source code is provided in the src directory. In some cases, source code is provided but no compiled binaries. The source distributions are in bzip2 compressed tar or cpio format. In order to extract these, use the command:

    $ bunzip2 -c /mount-point/src/<directory>/<package>.tar.bz2 | tar xf -

    or, in the case of a compressed cpio archive:

    $ bunzip2 -c /mount-point/src/<directory>/<package>.cpio.bz2 | cpio -icdu

    Where <directory> refers to the top-level source directory and <package> is the package name (e.g. gzip-1.2.4).

    If you do not have bunzip2 installed (part of the bzip2 package), you can install it off of the SCO Skunkware CD via the command:

    (UnixWare 7 systems)
    # pkgadd -d /mount-point bzip2

    Precompiled binaries for use on SCO OpenServer and UnixWare 2.x systems can be found in /mount-point/osr5/bin and /mount-point/uw2/bin.

    Due to space constraints on the CD-ROM, a few source archives were not included. To retrieve the source code for these components, either visit the Skunkware web site or run the convenience shell script provided in the source directory on the CD-ROM. For instance, to retrieve the XEmacs source archives used to build XEmacs on this distribution, execute the shell script:

    # src/editors/xemacs-get

    Technical Library Supplements

    You may also find the SCO Technical Library Supplements to be of interest. These are drawn from the SCO Support Online System, and are accessible via anonymous ftp on the Internet from ftp.sco.com or via web facilities at http://www.sco.com

    Default Package Configurations

    Many of the Skunkware packages contain configuration files. In order to avoid excessive user interaction during installation and to provide a consistent and well integrated set of configurations, the Skunkware packages have been pre-configured (with the exception of xmcd which will prompt you for your CD-ROM make and model; and inn which may prompt for a "news" user password).

    Generally, you will not need to alter the default configurations but you may choose to do so. Some of the package pre-configurations are as follows:

    • The Apache web server is configured to run on port 8080. If you are not going to use Squid as an httpd accelerator, you may wish to run the Apache web server on port 80. To do so, modify /usr/local/lib/apache/etc/httpd.conf. Further, the default document directory for the Apache web server is set to /usr/local/lib/apache/share/htdocs. If you wish to serve your HTML documents out of a different location, modify /usr/local/lib/apache/etc/httpd.conf.
    • This release of Apache for UnixWare 7 has been preconfigured to act as the server for the SCO Webtop. If the SCO Webtop is installed, you can use a Java capable browser on any platform to open the URL http://your.server.name/webtop to access the SCO Webtop login screen. You may wish to run Apache on port 80 in this case. If so, be sure to disable the Netscape FastTrack server which runs by default on port 80.
    • The Squid Internet Object Cache is configured to run on port 80 and to act as an httpd accelerator for the server running on port 8080 (by default, the Apache web server). If you wish to use this default configuration, remember to stop/disable any other server running on port 80. In particular, the Netscape FastTrack server is usually configured to run on port 80.
    • Several packages install documentation, manuals, tutorials and other introductory and informative matter as HTML documents in /usr/local/man/html. During the installation of these packages, a symbolic link is created in the default Apache web server document root. Thus, the documentation for these packages can be accessed via a browser. For instance, the HTML documents describing the Xcoral editor are installed in /usr/local/man/html/xcoral. A symbolic link pointing to this location is installed as /usr/local/lib/apache/htdocs/docs/xcoral. Thus, to access the Xcoral HTML documentation, you need only open the URL http://your.server.name/docs/xcoral/ These convenience links are provided for Count, SmallEiffel, addressbook, crossfire, gd, giftrans, gimp, git, gv, GNU history, Hypermail, jasmin, klassmaster, mathrec, msql, mutt, mysql, nedit, omniORB, php, GNU readline, sox, squid, tcsh, vrwave, wget, wwwtar, xacc, xcoral, xtar, xtide and xv.
    • If you mount the CD-ROM under your default document root, you will be able to serve up the Skunkware HTML documents with your web server. For instance, after installing the apache and squid packages, if you mounted the Skunkware CD-ROM on /usr/local/lib/apache/share/htdocs/skunkware, then opening the URL http://your.server.name/skunkware/ would allow you to browse the contents of the Skunkware CD-ROM from any browser that could access your server.
    • The INN installation is configured to install many of its files owned by the user "news" and group "news". During the inn package installation, this user/group is created if it doesn't already exist. If the installation creates a "news" user, you will be prompted for a password during installation.
    • The Xmcd (Motif audio CD player) package will prompt you for the CD drive configuration during the installation. If you wish to configure Xmcd during the installation, you should know the make and model number of your CD drive(s).
    • The Netpbm suite of graphical file conversion utilities are in the gutils package. In order to install these utilities, issue the command:

      # pkgadd -d /mnt glibs xpm gutils

      They are installed in /usr/local/bin. The gutils package is installed either during a full installation of Skunkware or as part of the "Development Tools" software set.
    • The Perl package on this release contains many useful Perl modules. Additional Perl modules will be available via http://www.sco.com/skunkware/osr5/interp/perl/. These include various database interfaces, ImageMagick enhancements and more.
    • Alternate window managers' default configurations are those provided in the source distributions and will need to be tailored for use on UnixWare 7. That is, the rc startup files for fvwm, fvwm95, KDE and WindowMaker may need system-specific configuration. The Skunkware team plans on making UnixWare specific window manager configuration files available via the Skunkware web site at http://www.sco.com/skunkware/x11/winman/.
    • Individual account configuration of WindowMaker must be done prior to using the WindowMaker window manager. To do so, login as the user who desires to use WindowMaker and run the WindowMaker configuration script:

      $ /usr/local/bin/wmaker.inst

    • XBuffy default mailboxes are set in the file /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XBuffy. In order to get xbuffy to monitor your personal mailboxes, you will need to add a line similar to the following to your $HOME/.Xdefaults :

      *mailboxes: /usr/spool/mail/wfp:/home/wfp/.mailbox

      replacing the user name wfp with your own.

    Known Limitations and Problems

    Comments

    We are interested in your general comments about this distribution and about development tools in general. Please feel free to e-mail skunkware@sco.com with comments, criticisms and suggestions.

    Ron Record rr@sco.com
    Open Source Program Architect SCO
    400 Encinal St. Santa Cruz, CA 95061