What is the best method to install software on GhostBSD?

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fmh
Posts: 98
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:07 pm

What is the best method to install software on GhostBSD?

Post by fmh »

Hello,

I am new to GhostBSD. I have used PC-BSD during the 3-5 versions but have not used it since. I also have used Ubuntu and other flavors (Zevenos and Lubuntu) on and off for a few years. Normally I used the built in package managers that are built in to those Distros and the rare case the software was not available through there I would download it and normally open it with the appropriate package manager and it would do the proper process to install the software on the system. Rarely have I had to unZip a package and manual place all the files where they belong.

Under GhostBSD for me Version 3.5 Mate i386 both on real hardware and under Virtualbox and VMWare the built in Package Manager maybe is 50% successful. What I mean by that is I can go through the entire download and install process but maybe 50% of the software will run after the process. Some will finish with XX number of errors or 0 errors in the process but may or may not work. Normally I do reboot after installing software just to play it safe whether it is necessary or not.

Examples

Netsurf - Installs with 0 Errors. When running the program it will load but not connect to any Web Site.
Chromium - Installs with 27 Errors. Will load the program but nothing is displayed in the browser window. I mean nothing total white screen. You can type in a URL and it will process it but total white screen.
Hatari - Installs with 1 Error. Will not load the program because of missing a Library File.

Plus many more programs that may or may not run after installing them regardless if there were any errors during installation. The examples listed above I can reproduce on real hardware and in VMs every single time.


For the ### of it I went to ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports ... 2-release/ and downloaded some apps but the Package Manager just unpacked them into my Download Folder and didn't install them.


After ranting about this I have not fully understood the and tried the following :

http://wiki.ghostbsd.org/index.php?titl ... ge_Manager
http://wiki.ghostbsd.org/index.php?titl ... Collection

To me if the built in Package Manager worked that would be ideal for most user's needs. Simply select the program from the list and let the Package Manager worry about the dependencies and do the rest. I am not against using the command line to install programs but the GUI would be far easier and also better for attracting and keeping users on GhostBSD.

What is the best method of installing software under GhostBSD? By the best I mean that the highest probability the software will run after installation.
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ericbsd
Developer
Posts: 2052
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:54 pm

Re: What is the best method to install software on GhostBSD?

Post by ericbsd »

The Package manager in 3.5 called Bxpkg, was our solution, but a lot of people had problems with it, and I recently removed Bxpkg from the project, it caused us too much problems, and 4.0 uses pkgng instead of pkg_add.

The best way to install software right now is pkgng, but you have to run pkg2ng first, and then use 'pkg install <softwarename>'.

I am working on update manager and a package manager that will work hand in hand.
fmh
Posts: 98
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:07 pm

Re: What is the best method to install software on GhostBSD?

Post by fmh »

None of these work under 3.5. I will have to wait for Ver 4.0.

$ pkg2ng
bash: pkg2ng: command not found

$ pkg install
The package management tool is not yet installed on your system.
Do you want to fetch and install it now? [y/N]: y
Bootstrapping pkg please wait
_http._tcp.pkg.FreeBSD.org
pkg: fail to extract pkg-static

$ pkg_add -r lsof
Fetching ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports ... t/lsof.tbz... Done.
sbin/lsof: Can't create 'sbin/lsof'
man/man8/lsof.8.gz: Can't create 'man/man8/lsof.8.gz'
share/lsof/00MANIFEST: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/00MANIFEST'
share/lsof/00README: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/00README'
share/lsof/big_brother.perl5: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/big_brother.perl5'
share/lsof/count_pf.perl: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/count_pf.perl'
share/lsof/count_pf.perl5: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/count_pf.perl5'
share/lsof/identd.perl5: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/identd.perl5'
share/lsof/idrlogin.perl: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/idrlogin.perl'
share/lsof/idrlogin.perl5: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/idrlogin.perl5'
share/lsof/list_NULf.perl5: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/list_NULf.perl5'
share/lsof/list_fields.awk: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/list_fields.awk'
share/lsof/list_fields.perl: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/list_fields.perl'
share/lsof/shared.perl5: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/shared.perl5'
share/lsof/sort_res.perl5: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/sort_res.perl5'
share/lsof/watch_a_file.perl: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/watch_a_file.perl'
share/lsof/xusers.awk: Failed to create dir 'share/lsof'Can't create 'share/lsof/xusers.awk'
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors.
pkg_add: leave_playpen: can't chdir back to ''
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ericbsd
Developer
Posts: 2052
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:54 pm

Re: What is the best method to install software on GhostBSD?

Post by ericbsd »

pkg_add -r pkg

Should fix your problem
fmh
Posts: 98
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:07 pm

Re: What is the best method to install software on GhostBSD?

Post by fmh »

I had to use 'sudo' with the pkg_add -r pkg to get it run.

After that I did 'pkg2ng' which gave me
$ pkg2ng
Converting packages from /var/db/pkg
Local package database nonexistent!

For example I want to install Chromium. I type in
$ pkg install chromium-29.0.1547.57
pkg: Insufficient privilege to install packages

So I type
$ sudo pkg install chromium-29.0.1547.57
Updating repository catalogue

So I am obviously not understanding the instructions. How would I go about installing Chromium for example?
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bsdkeith
Posts: 129
Joined: Wed Jun 12, 2013 3:36 pm
Location: Surrey/Hants Border, England

Re: What is the best method to install software on GhostBSD?

Post by bsdkeith »

You are doing it right, the first time pkg is run it does update, then you run 'sudo pkg install <packagename>'.
eg. sudo pkg install firefox

(NB. I don't know if chromium is in the FreeBSD repositories.)
Linux user since 1999; & now a BSD user.
fmh
Posts: 98
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:07 pm

Re: What is the best method to install software on GhostBSD?

Post by fmh »

Chromium is available. In the repository it is at :
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports ... 547.57.tbz

How would I install this from the command line?
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ericbsd
Developer
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Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:54 pm

Re: What is the best method to install software on GhostBSD?

Post by ericbsd »

Code: Select all

sudo pkg install chromium
fmh
Posts: 98
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:07 pm

Re: What is the best method to install software on GhostBSD?

Post by fmh »

Still no go. Here's what I get. I do enter in my user password when prompted.

$ sudo pkg install chromium
Password:
Updating repository catalogue
$
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ericbsd
Developer
Posts: 2052
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:54 pm

Re: What is the best method to install software on GhostBSD?

Post by ericbsd »

Try pkg install -f.
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