Unix: Under the Mac OS X hood. A beginner's guide.

KDE's file browser and "K" menu running alongside Apple Mac OS X.

A list of Fink commands in a KDE terminal.

KDE is hugely customizable. Icon themes and sounds can all be 'played' with, on a level OS X and Windows could learn a lot from.

The random black box and sticky 'K' menu bugs, when running KDE rootless in XDarwin, don't appear to affect functionality of existsing tasks, such as a terminal session, but they don't exactly look pretty either.

Mac OS X is built upon the rock solid UNIX Operating System. What this means in simple terms for you, the new-to-Mac user, is that the world of open source, free software has never been more accessible.

We're going to use a bit of software called Fink to get the ball rolling. Using Fink we're going to download, compile and install some applications, including the KDE desktop environment, and run them alongside Mac OS.

KDE is more readily associated with the Linux environment, but by compiling it's source code, using Apple's developer tools, Fink can build KDE and run it inside an x11 window on your Mac OS desktop.

Now that previous paragraph used some terms those of you really brand new to all this might want to raise your hand and ask about. Those familiar can skip at this point, but in short..

• Apple Developer Tools can be downloaded for free from Apple.com. Fink uses the compilers included in ADT to build applications and programs from their source code.
• x11 is, broadly speaking, a toolkit for building Graphic User Interfaces with, and all Unix varients, such as Linux and Mac OS can use it, although in the case of the Mac Apple developed their own windowing system, called Quartz, to display the OS X User Interface.
• Fink knows where to find the source code and components needed to build programs because it is syncronised to a Concurrent Versioning System (CVS), which automates the tracking of changes made to code by developers all over the world.

First things Fink.

After downloading and installing Fink you need to drag and drop "Fink Commander" into your applications folder. Launch Fink commander and have a look around. Go into the preferences and check the box marked 'Use unstable packages', in the 'Fink' tab of the preferences window. Quit Fink Commander when you're done.

Now open a Terminal session. You'll find Terminal in Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities. While Fink can be used with the Commander program I personally find it easier to use the command line, and not just because Commander can be a little buggy. The command line gives much greater flexibility over how you use Fink, and to the real beginner it provides a good opportunity to familiarize one's self with a command line application.

In the terminal window you will see the name of your computer followed by the account username you are logged in as. Something like: Apple-Macintosh:~ jamesgardner$. This is the command prompt. You can change the way the terminal appears, including the size of the font, using the preferences menu.

In the terminal type: fink selfupdate and hit Return. Fink will phone home to make sure it is using the latest version of itself, and if need be download any updates. Once that's done type: fink list xorg. 'List' is a command Fink uses to list the names of any packages from the CVS which match your search word. So for example try typing fink list games. You should see a short list of packages for the gnome and KDE environment which contain the word 'games' in their package name.

Back to xorg. Apple's X11 windowing system, which bundles with OS X Tiger, isn't always stable when providing windows for certain applications. You don't need to worry too much about the why's and wherefores, but removing it and replacing it with the official reference implementation of the X Window System is preferable, so we'll make xorg's XDarwin the first application we compile using Fink.

At the command line type: fink install xorg. Fink will ask you a bunch of questions for which you shouldn't need to change from the default, so simply hit 'Return' on each option and wait for xorg to begin downloading. Fink will fetch, build and install the necessary code so that, after a while, you have a fully working binary of the XDarwin windowing system in your Applications folder. Once xorg is installed you should use it instead of Apple's X11. Now, let's have a bash at installing an environment which we can run some applications in.

Installing KDE.

A word to the wise, waiting for Fink to compile applications, especially ones as complex as an entire desktop environment like KDE, takes a very long time. You will be leaving your computer switched on working quite hard for at least one or two overnight sessions. If you have an older Mac which barely meets minimum system requirements for running OS X Tiger, don't plan on turning it off for a very long time.

KDE, as with all open source applications, is made up of thousands of lines of code "borrowed" from hundreds of different packages. The packages upon which KDE is dependent can be automatically installed by Fink. Fink will go out and find the source code for the programs which comprise of the KDE base package and build them so that you have a working KDE environment. After that is done you can add to the KDE suite at your leisure, again using Fink to go out and find the packages you want to install.

At the terminal type: fink install bundle-kde-i18n. i18n is the international version of KDE which it is recommended you use. Once Fink has asked you some questions, again for which you can assume the default response for which will work just fine, KDE will begin compiling. The only times at which the default response to Fink's questions might not work for you, is if a server which Fink is trying to download from is off-line. At this point Fink will ask you if you want to choose a new mirror or abandon your install. If you choose to find a new mirror Fink will pick up where it left off once it finds a server which is available. If you choose to abandon your install, packages which have already been successfully compiled and installed will not need to worked on again when you resume your session.

Other occasions upon which you might need to re-start the compile process include times when Fink throws so-called build-lock failures. Every now and then Fink can become confused and loose track of which package it has already installed and which it still needs to work on. When Fink is building a package it locks the file which holds the source code. If you try to begin a separate Fink session in another Terminal window which attempts to build the same dependent package as another Fink session, the package can not be unlocked, or removed automatically by Fink. In this instance you should manually remove the package and build it again.

In these cases Fink is quite good at guessing what kind of command you might try using to solve the build-lock problem and it will hint at this in the error log, displayed above the Terminal command prompt, but occasionally you will need to refer to the Fink website's Frequently Asked Questions for a particular package.

Other UNIX commands and getting KDE working.

When you launch XDarwin the default empty state X windows will draw on a gray background. Pretty uninteresting. Changing the preferences settings for XDarwin so that it launches in a so-called Rootless state will enable it to draw the KDE widows over the top of your Mac OS Desktop. But first things first, we need to tell XDarwin to launch KDE when a new session begins. To do this you need to launch a UNIX application called pico, which is basically a simple text file editor. Using pico we're going to create a hidden UNIX system file named .xinitrc to instruct XDarwin how to launch KDE.

At the terminal type: pico .xinitrc and hit 'Return'. Pico launches and creates a new file named .xinitrc. In the pico window cut and paste this line of code:

source /sw/bin/init.sh
/sw/bin/startkde >/tmp/kde.log 2>&1

..and save the .xinitrc file by choosing CTRL and X to exit and choosing 'Yes' when pico asks you if you want to save the changes you've made to the file.

Now, when you launch XDawin, it refers to the line in the code above which points to the startkde program. After a second you'll see the KDE splash screen and KDE will begin loading the default programs which display the 'K' menu and the control center, et cetera. Once KDE is launched you will notice that even though your XDarwin preferences are set to show in Rootless, as opposed to Fullscreen, KDE's background and icons still obscure your Mac OS X desktop.

In KDE open the Control Center by selecting it from the 'K' menu. Go to the desktop settings and in the behavior tab deselect "Show icons on desktop", then click "Apply". You should now be able to see the Mac OS X desktop as well as the 'K' menu and toolbar.

Known issues.

Running in Rootless mode occasionally conflicts with Exposé, Apple's animated window organizer and desktop management tool. Large black squares, selectable as windows but which contain no other UI elements, appear dotted around the place and the 'K' menu sticks open, even though it is not selectable. The black box window bug doesn't appear to affect the functionality of any running tasks and the sticky 'K' menu doesn't prevent the 'K' menu from re-opening properly.

KDE can also seem to hog the processor and spin up the Mac's fan due to over heating. As with all things experimental (hence having to allow Fink to use unstable packages) it's recommended that you back up and save any important information on your Mac before you begin playing around.

I hope this has been of some help towards getting people new to Mac OS X interested in having a look under the hood. Here's some useful links and references for use with this article.

Fink

Apple developer tools. You will need to be signed in to access the members section, but ADC is free.

KDE. Learn more about the KDE environment.

Wikipedia entries:

"X" Windowing systems

Quartz: Core Graphics framework.

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