This tutorial will take you each and every step of the way through installing Linux programs in OS X – using Fink and FinkCommander. Something I should men.
The Mac is one of the most reliable computing platforms available, and can make a great platform for not only running the Mac OS, such as the current, but also Windows and Linux. In fact, is a very popular platform for running Linux. Under the hood, the Mac's hardware is remarkably similar to most of the parts used in modern PCs. You'll find the same processor families, graphics engines, networking chips, and a great deal more.
Running Windows on a Mac When Apple changed from PowerPC architecture to Intel, many wondered if the Intel Macs could run Windows. Turns out the only real stumbling block was getting Windows to run on an instead of the then much more common. Apple even lent a hand to the effort by releasing.
This tutorial will take you each and every step of the way through installing Linux programs in OS X – using Fink and FinkCommander. Something I should mention up front – during this process you’ll be asked to enter your password about a half-million times. I left those ‘steps’ out to keep this shorter. The first step in getting Linux programs running in OS X is to install X11, if it isn’t already. To check if it’s installed, open Finder, select Applications and then Utilities. If you don’t see X11 (or X11.app depending on your view settings) it’s not installed. Fortunately, I have a for that as well.
Once you’ve got X11 installed, visit and download the appropriate version of Fink for your Mac. Once the download has completed, open the.dmg file and run Fink xx-xx installer.pkg. The Fink installer will launch. Click Continue and I Agree a bunch of times. You’ll be prompted for your password at least once during the installation. Towards the end of the installation, a Setting up your Fink environment window will pop up. Make sure to click Yes.
Assuming all went well, a confirmation window should appear. Click Close to finish the Fink installer. Now, back in that.dmg file, locate the folder titled FinkCommander and open it. Drag the FinkCommander file to your Applications folder. This is an important step – FinkCommander will not work properly if you run it from inside the.dmg file. From your Applications, locate FinkCommander and launch it.
You’ll be presented with a rather large list of Linux packages – but before you go crazy installing them, you’ll need to run a few updates first. Select Source from the top menu and then Scanpackages from the drop-down list.
Do not be surprised if you’re prompted to enter your password – twice, and then get a message (see screenshot below) saying you need to run Scanpackages again. Repeat the Source - Scanpackages process and the 2nd time it’ll work. Now select Source from the top menu, Utilities and then Index. Watch as FinkCommander runs some updates, and once that has completed. Select Binary and then Update descriptions.
Now locate Fink in the list of packages. You can sort the packages by Name to quickly locate it, or use the Search feature. Select Fink by clicking on it once. With Fink highlighted, select Binary and then Install. And once again, watch as Fink updates itself. Now it’s time for some fun.
Locate a Linux program/package that you want to install. I used trackballs (a silly but fun game) as an example. Once you’ve found the program you want to install, highlight it by clicking it once. Select Binary and then Install. During the installation, you may get a pop-up window asking for you to respond to something (see screenshot below). Generally it’s looking for a Y/n (yes/no) answer – but check the status part of FinkCommander.
In this case, the default is Y (yes), so you can select Accept default response and click Submit. Fink will automatically determine any packages that are required to run whatever program you chose to install, and install them as well.
To launch your recently installed program, open up a Terminal and type in the programs name. If you’re a Quicksilver user (and you should be!) – keep reading for instructions on how to launch Linux programs with it. Once you’ve installed a Linux app or two using Fink, you can launch them with Quicksilver if you add the folder they’re stored in to Quicksilver’s catalog. Bring up the Quicksilver preferences by invoking Quicksilver and click the Apple key +, Select Catalog from the top menu. Click the + (plus sign) and select File & Folder Scanner. Navigate to Macintosh HD - sw - bin and click Open. Make sure the bin folder was added to the Sources list.
From the side drawer, change the Include Contents: entry to Folder Contents. Back in the Catalog window, click the Refresh button (the swirl arrow). The bin entry in the Sources list should now have 80+ items (give or take) indexed. Exit out of the Quicksilver preferences. Invoke Quicksilver and test it out. Susan: Yes, Gnome is available, but a bit dated, though it looks like there’s been some work to bring everything up to version 2.16. This article’s headline is a bit misleading.
Fink does not install Linux applications– The binaries are in Mac OS X/Darwin Mach-0 format, not ELF. The Fink project provides Mac builds of popular applications designed for a variety of UNIX-type operating systems, such as Linux and Solaris. The Fink maintainers have worked out the build specifics for Mac OS X and make binaries available. The graphical programs use X11 and by extension Gnome or KDE, just as they do on other UNIX platforms.
Personally, I’d like to see more work towards implementing GTK and QT APIs for the Aqua desktop and Core Graphics, bypassing X11, but these things take time. For those comfortable with X11, Gnome and KDE, Fink dramatically expands your choices for Mac software. I am going to attempt to run a linux based environmental modeling system on my new MacBook. Does anyone know if my 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo can handle running a Linux application this complicated? It takes 99.9% of my processing power and 3 hours to run on an old Pentium 4 with Linux installed. I want to speed things up a bit, and I wouldn’t mind the portability.
I estimated I could probably run it in 45 min. On this processor, but I’ve never ran a Linux app on my Mac, and I am unsure if there is any% CPU lost when you’re running the app from fink in OS X. Please, can anyone tell me how to remove fink from my mac?? I’ve read this: Q3.6: How can I remove all of Fink?
A: Almost all files installed by Fink are in /sw (or wherever you chose to install it). Thus in order to get rid of Fink, enter this command: sudo rm -rf /sw The only exception to this rule is XFree86. If you also need to remove XFree86, additionally enter this: sudo rm -rf /usr/X11R6 /etc/X11 /Applications/XDarwin.app You also will want to remove the “source /sw/bin/init.csh” line you added to your.cshrc file. To do this, type “pico /.cshrc”. Navigate to the “source /sw/bin/init.csh” line and type control-K to remove it.
Then type control-O, return, control-X to exit. But i have no idea that how to process it.
Where should i enter “sudo rm -rf /sw” this command????? Please help!!!! Thanks loads!!!!