GnuCash on Leopard
Sep 28th, 2008 by Alex
All I wanted to do was install GnuCash on my laptop. Step one of the instructions stated that I’d have to install MacPorts, which looks like something I’d want around anyways. So that required Xcode, which I don’t have. After resetting my Apple password and answering the demographic questionnaire to become a member of the Apple Development Connection, I find that the Xcode is a 1000MB download. The good news is that I’m pulling from them at a sustained 5Mb/s, so they must not be throttling too much. But this 20 minute download has given me reason to think that I should have went to find my installation DVDs. Why doesn’t Apple doesn’t make torrents available for these large files. Seems to me it would only save them money. With all the verification checks available, I don’t think it would be too hard to insure the authenticity of a package.
All of this because the thing ran do damned slow as a Windows binary.
Yikes! The Xcode Tools requires 2.6GB of disk space. That’s almost half the size of a typically Linux distribution with everything installed. MacPorts, while only a tiny subset of functionality is a mere 1.4MB and installs to /opt/local/bin by default. After a quick (but unnecessary self update), we’re off to the races.
$ sudo /opt/local/bin/port selfupdate
$ sudo /opt/local/bin/port install gnucash
As mentioned in the documentation, this takes a long time. With virtually no status information whatsoever. Checking out the running processes, the whole thing appears to be written in tcl. I need quite a few familiar GNU-style packages: expat, gperf, libiconv, ncurses, gettext, zlib, libxml, as well as gwenhywfar, Python 2.5 (which is weird, since 2.5.1 is already installed in /usr/bin), ktoblzcheck, freetype, fontconfig, pkgconfig, glib, atk, pixman, libpng, renderext, libXrender, cairo, jpeg, util-macros, xproto, libXft, pango, perl 5.8.8 (also weird, since the same version is already installed), XML-Parser, shared-mime-info, and tiff.
This is the loudest I’ve ever heard the exhaust fans spin up since I got this laptop. Probably the first time the load average has ever stayed about 1 for any duration of time.
Almost a hour in, the build bombed out when attempting to build GTK.
Error: Some libs are missing from your X11 installation. Please run this command: Error: sudo ln -s libXrandr.2.dylib /usr/X11/lib/libXrandr.2.0.0.dylib Error: Target org.macports.fetch returned: missing /usr/X11/lib/libXrandr.2.0.0.dylib
After re-reading the instructions, figured I’d try the fink method. It’s Sunday and I don’t feel like screwing around with library issues. Installing fink took about 10 minutes.
This system was not released at the time this Fink release was made. Prerelease
versions of Mac OS X might work with Fink, but there are no guarantees.
Super.
$ . /sw/bin/init.sh
$ fink install gnucash
Not found. Had to run self-update since GnuCash is in a perpetual “unstable” state and thus in the unstable/crypto tree.
$ fink selfupdate; fink index; fink scanpackages
Found it this time after a few seconds…
The following package will be installed or updated:
gnucash
The following 306 additional packages will be installed:
[...]
Ugh.
All packages were downloaded without any issues, with little to no throttling. The build process began at 11:54am. At 1:44pm and 1.9GB worth of dependencies later…
Failed: phase compiling: gtk+2-2.12.11-2 failed
Before reporting any errors, please run "fink selfupdate" and
try again. If you continue to have issues, please check to see if the
FAQ on fink's website solves the problem.
With 97 packages remaining, I received the following:
You are attempting to build gtk+2 with version 3.1 of Xcode, which
requires an update to your installed version of X11. Please download
and install X11 2.3.0 or later from
http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki/X112.3.0
Once you have installed X11 2.3.0, please re-attempt installation of
this package gtk+2.
Crap.
I’ve spent far too long today attempting to get this application installed. So much for convenience; this is definitely one app that ought to be distributed in binary form.
All this because it was too slow running on Windows. It will be faster here, really. Eventually. I hope.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Alternatively, you could have gone with this easy 4 step process:
1) Install Ubuntu
2) sudo apt-get install gnucash
3) ???
4) Profit!
the X11 dependency is an optional install you need to put on from the Leopard disk.
I can’t find a download for it on the Apple Support site, unfortunately.
it’s like the only thing that macports or fink won’t build themselves.
mokiejovis: You means, get rids of zee Leopard? Or really, 1) install Ubuntutu, 2) sudo apt-get install gnucash, 3) install fails again, 4) misery (though perhaps profit, but can’t tell without working GnuCash install).
Sean: Ugh, that would require me to locate those discs. Curses.
I had the same package fail after a few hours of building. Thanks for posting as it pointed me towards x11. For some reason I didn’t get the nice message about x11 being the problem.
I got version 2.3.1 of x11 from http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki/X112.3.1 - once installed the build continues fine. Of course it’s still building as I type…