The FreeWRL FAQ : building from sources

Introduction

This is the Build from Sources documentation. It tries to answer most questions about building FreeWRL from sources. If you encounter something that is not covered on this FAQ, please send an email to John Stewart at freewrl-09 -at- rogers.com.

Mailing list

There is a mailing list about FreeWRL. This is a closed list, so you must be on the list to send mail to it. (this is an anti-spam measure). The address is freewrl@crc.ca. To subscribe to this list, send an email to freewrl-join@crc.ca. The subject and contents of the message do not matter; you should get a reply to the request in a few minutes.

For more information on the mailing list interface, look at the GNU Mailman web page.

How can I help?

We are always looking for coding help, but realize that FreeWRL (and any project of this magnitude) is difficult for people to jump in to. Giving us a pat on the back helps; telling us what FreeWRL is used for helps; submitting bugs helps.

(Linux) Building FreeWRL from sources on Linux computers

Linux requirements

Build process maintainer tools

• automake (version >= 1.10)
• autoconf (version >= 2.60)
• libtool (version >= 2.2)

Build dependencies

Packages required are from Debian (you can find similar packages in your distribution):

• X11 development files (package: x11-dev, libxxf86vm-dev, libxaw7-dev)
• OpenGL development files (package: libgl-dev)
• Motif library (optional, package: lesstif2-dev)
• JPEG library (package: libjpeg62-dev)
• PNG library (package: libpng12-dev)
• XML library (package: libxml2-dev)
• Expat library (package: libexpat1-dev)
• Java compiler (optional, package: java-compiler)
• Javascript Engine, SpiderMonkey for example (optional, package: libmozjs-dev)
• Browser plugin development files (optional, package: iceape-dev)

Debian trick to download and install all that (provided you installed our Debian repository in your sources):

sudo apt-get build-dep freewrl

Runtime dependencies

• X11 libraries (package: libxaw7)
• OpenGL libraries (package: libgl1, libglu1)
• Motif library (optional) (package: lesstif2)
• Freetype library (package: libfreetype6)
• PNG library (package: libpng12-0)
• JPEG library (package: libjpeg62)
• XML library (package: libxml2)
• Expat library (package: libexpat1)
• Javascript Engine library (package: libmozjs1d)
• Java runtime environment (package: java-runtime)
• Vera font (package: ttf-bitstream-vera)
• Internet download helper (package: wget)
• Sound converter (optional) (package: sox)
• Image converter (package: convert)

Getting the sources

Download the source package from Sourceforge.

Download the sources from CVS.

Configure the package

If you have installed all the dependencies in the system (/usr) you should be able to configure the package without option. If you have installed any of them in special directory, you should provide this directoy to configure (see ./configure --help).

./configure [options]

Build the software

make

Now decide where to install FreeWRL. Default is /usr/local. If you choose to install it in your $HOME, provide this destination directory to make with the argument DESTDIR=mydir, or with a combination of DESTDIR and prefix

Example 1 (normal install, in /usr/local):

make install [DESTDIR=...]

Example 2 (install in $HOME/freewrl without the annoying /usr):

make install DESTDIR=~/freewrl prefix=""

If you've choosen non-standard installation, don't forget to set PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH accordingly:

export PATH=~/freewrl/bin:$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/freewrl/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

You can put those two lines in a little environment file that you'd source before using FreeWRL.

Building freewrl with Spidermonkey

Freewrl will no longer build against spidermonkey, since it has been surpassed by mozilla's newer javascript engine libraries (xulrunner-1.8 and xulrunner-1.9). But freewrl is still compatible with spidermonkey, and the following modifications will allow you to build freewrl against spidermonkey-1.7 if it is already installed on your system.

Edit spidermonkey.pc in the freewrl source directory, and change the prefix path (the first line of this file) to match your system.

Edit configure.ac, and find the following lines:

AC_MSG_NOTICE([Determining Javascript engine to build against])
found_JAVASCRIPT_ENGINE=no
case "$os_type" in
     mac) 
        AC_MY_CHECK_MODULE(JAVASCRIPT_ENGINE,spidermonkey,1.7.0)
        ;;
     *)
        AC_MY_CHECK_MODULE(JAVASCRIPT_ENGINE,mozilla-js,1.9)
        AC_MY_CHECK_MODULE(JAVASCRIPT_ENGINE,xulrunner-js,1.8)
        AC_MY_CHECK_MODULE(JAVASCRIPT_ENGINE,seamonkey-js)
        AC_MY_CHECK_MODULE(JAVASCRIPT_ENGINE,firefox-js)
        AC_MY_CHECK_MODULE(JAVASCRIPT_ENGINE,firefox2-js)
        ;;
esac

Insert the line "AC_MY_CHECK_MODULE(JAVASCRIPT_ENGINE,spidermonkey,1.7.0)" just above the line for mozilla-js.

Run "autoreconf --force --install" to rebuild the configure script.

Run ./configure and make as per the instructions above.

(OSX) Building FreeWRL from sources on Apple computers

Building from source on OSX : X11 target

Requirements: OSX build environment

• pkgconfig
• spidermonkey
• libxml2
• expat

OSX build environment

(Optional) XQuartz

Mac Ports installation:

$ sudo port selfupdate

Required packages installation:

$ sudo port install pkgconfig
$ sudo port install spidermonkey
$ sudo port install libxml2
$ sudo port install expat

Building FreeWRL/FreeWRL from sources

$ export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PWD:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH

$ autoreconf
$ ./configure --enable-debug --with-target=motif

$ make

$ src/bin/freewrl