News From The Workbench 2016-12

Prepare for C-Compilers defaulting to 64-bit

As many distributions move towards 64-bit as default for binaries, so does the upcoming Solaris 12. You can see this for instance in the userland source gate on java.net. One main change is, that the new developerstudio compiler versions and OSDistro delivered "gcc" default to "-m64", that means, if you don't specify the bitness, you create 64-bit objects by default. Therefore I'm testing a change for include/<base.inc|x86_sse2.inc|stdcxx.inc> which explicitly sets "-m32" for the C-compilerflags. The include file arch64.inc already has the switch "-m64". For the non-64-bit targets you'll most likely run into errors like "wrong ELF format" if the switch "-m32" is missing.

To be clear, Solaris continues to support (most of the) 32-bit and 64-bit binaries at the same time. Only the Kernel lost the ability to boot in 32-bit mode some longer time ago. The kernel being 64-bit boot-mode only is not a big deal, as Solaris continues to allow the ABI for 32-bit userland programs. Most of the public libraries are still delivered in dual-arch packages, so you have /usr/lib for 32-bit and /usr/lib/$ARCH/ for 64-bit. Read this blog for more details: Moving Oracle Solaris to LP64 bit by bit

Recompiling packages for Solaris 12 (development)

This time before you issue "pkg update -v" please make a snapshot of your bootenvironment with "beadm create solaris12@pre-pkg-update-meaningful-xyzxyz". It is for you just in case SFE packages mix up with the update.

I'm recompiling libraries for Solaris 12 Build 112 (this is non-public you know). So if you are one of the lucky Solaris 12 testers, then you can enjoy watching video with vlc or mplayer, as well as watching mp4 videos in firefox 45 with the help of ffmpeg. These are the multimedia targeting packages, but I plan to recompile every package which has been compiled before (builds 79 and 88). Around build 100++ so many things have changed so it is best to recompile all SFE packages. One example is that package names have changed, gnome3 came in and so on.

Please expect the IPS repository "localhosts12" contents to change frequently and have a higher risk of broken dependencies or libraries only for Solaris 12 (IPS publisher "localhosts12"). Please consider setting this "localhosts12" publisher to "--disable" in case you need a stable SFE stack over the next few weeks. I'm sorry for this type of inconvenience. We have to go this way for now, until there is an initiative from you, dear users, to help building a "release" repository with tested/stable packages. If you want to help, please stand up now (sfepackages at g mail dod com). It will be a learning curve for you, but I don't know other options yet.

LibreOffice5 for Solaris 11, 12, OpenIndiana

I've done preparations for creating new packages with the major number "5". It's been lots of small changes and litte tweaks to other packages and include files. But this should be almost finished now. So it's a matter of time until I find a day or two to actually do the package creation, test them and eventually eliminate new issues/bug.
I dont' really want to break the old package stack by mixing up new library versions.

If you are currently waiting with your LibreOffice install because you insist on verison "5", well, to be honest, then I can't help you today. LibreOffice4 is of such good quality that you shouldn't wait installing it today.

pkgbuild 1.3.105 is latest one, now collecting issues / bugs to eventually make an update

With a little luck, I can take over the source for pkgbuild. Things aren't finished today, but I hope to take over the source soon.
Do you have issues with pkgbuild on your OSDistro? If yes, then please tell me the details. In case you have a patch or a workaround, I happily receive the (prelimiary) patches and instructions for workarounds from you.

Translation of this blog wanted

If you feel that your mother language should be represented in e.g. the articles like "quicklinks to repositories" here on the blog, then please get in contact with me. I can arrange that you can have a translated page in your mother language. I could think that for e.g. Japanese or Simplified Chinese or Russian, French, Spanish, Swiss German, Austrian German, Swaheli or any other language could help new users very much to get to speed with SFE packages quickly. I'm very much interestet in non-western langugages. Please consider volunteering.
Please, write me an email to sfepackages at g mail dod com if you feel you can do such a simple translation for mainly this first and most important page: Quick links to Repositories

New functions for this drupal blog

I've added a bunch of new modules to this drupal blog site. Just in case you see errors or some odd behaviour, please drop me a note and speficy what doesn't work. So I get a chance to fix this.
My call in the previous section about translastion has been serious. So I prepared the site for being able to carry multiply versions of one article, the original one in english language and copies in your favourite translation.

Feeeeeeedbaaaaaaack please

Feedback is the fuel for OpenSource programmers. They *need* to know that you like the fruits. If you have some nice words, and even if you have some critics/issues, please do not hesitate to tell them. It only can make everything better and stronger!

As always, to know if things are going the right path for you, I strongly encourage you to give feedback. Tell me what works for you, which packages are most important to you and on which packages you're waiting badly.
Drop a comment here on the blog or write on twitter @sfepackages, or write me an email to sfepackages at g mail dod com.

I very much hope you have fun with the SFE packages and can make good use of them.

Regards,

Thomas