Print Version The Fink F.A.Q.
This is the list of frequently asked questions about Fink. Like in most FAQs, some questions are taken from real life and some are made up. It's really more like a documentation written in an ad-hoc, question and answer style.
The FAQ consists of several pages, one for each section. All questions are listed and linked in the table of contents below.
Contents
- 1 General Questions
- 2 Relations with Other Projects
- 3 Fink mirrors
- 3.1 What are Fink Mirrors?
- 3.2 Why should I use rsync mirrors?
- 3.3 Where can I find more information about Fink mirrors?
- 3.4 I cannot connect to rsync server, what should I do?
- 3.5 I have switched to the rsync method now all info files from the unused trees are gone
- 3.6 How can I switch back and forth between methods?
- 3.7 What is a Distfiles mirror?
- 4 Upgrading Fink (version-specific troubleshooting)
- 4.1 Fink doesn't see new packages even after I've run an rsync or cvs selfupdate.
- 4.2 When I try to install stuff I get 'Can't resolve dependency "fink (>= 0.28.0)"'
- 4.3 Fink tells me to run 'sudo apt-get install libgettext3-dev=0.14.5-2' to clear up inconsistent dependencies but I'm still stuck.
- 4.4 Fink tells me 'Can't resolve dependency "dpkg (>= 1.10.21-1229)" for package "dpkg-base-files-0.3-1"'. How do I solve this?
- 5 Installing, Using and Maintaining Fink
- 5.1 How can I find out what packages Fink supports?
- 5.2 I'm behind a firewall. How do I configure Fink to use an HTTP proxy?
- 5.3 How do I update available packages from CVS when I am behind a firewall?
- 5.4 Can I move Fink to another location after installation?
- 5.5 If I move Fink after installation and provide a symlink from the old location, will it work?
- 5.6 How can I uninstall all of Fink?
- 5.7 The package database at the website lists package xxx, but apt-get and dselect know nothing about it. Who's lying?
- 5.8 There's this package in unstable that I want to install, but the fink command just says 'no package found'. How can I install it?
- 5.9 Do I really need to enable all of unstable just to install one unstable package that I want?
- 5.10 I'm tired of typing my password into sudo again and again. Is there a way around this?
- 5.11 When I try to run init.csh or init.sh, I get a "Permission denied" error. What am I doing wrong?
- 5.12 Help! I used the "[A]ccess" menu entry in dselect and now I can't download packages any more!
- 5.13 When I try to run
fink selfupdate
or "fink selfupdate-cvs", I get the error "Updating using CVS failed. Check the error messages above." - 5.14 When I use Fink, my whole machine freezes up/kernel panics/dies. Help!
- 5.15 I'm trying to install a package, but Fink can't download it. The download site shows a later version number of the package than what Fink has. What do I do?
- 5.16 I get "command not found" errors when I run Fink or anything that I installed with Fink.
- 5.17 I want to hide /opt/sw in the Finder to keep users from damaging the Fink setup.
- 5.18 I can't install anything, because I get the following error: "install-info: unrecognized option `--infodir=/opt/sw/share/info'"
- 5.19 I can't install or remove anything, because of a problem with a "files list file".
- 5.20 I get a bunch of garbage when I select packages in
dselect. How can I use it? - 5.21 I can't seem to update Fink's version.
- 5.22 Can I put Fink in a volume or directory with a space in its name?
- 5.23 When I try to do a binary update, there are many messages with "File not found" or "Couldn't stat package source list file".
- 5.24 I've changed my OS, but Fink doesn't recognize the change.
- 5.25 After installing a macOS update, Fink no longer recognizes my installed Command Line Tools.
- 5.26 I get errors with
gzip|dpkg-debI applications from thefileutilspackage! Help! - 5.27 When I open a Terminal window, I get a message that "Your environment seems to be correctly set up for Fink already.", and it logs out.
- 5.28 I have Fink installed away from the main partition and I can't update the fink package from source. There are errors involving
chowname
. - 5.29 Fink won't update my packages because it says it can't find the 'gnu' mirror.
- 5.30 I can't update Fink, because it can't move /opt/sw/fink out of the way.
- 5.31 I get a message that says "No fonts found".
- 5.32 I can't install Fink via the Installer package, because I get "volume doesn't support symlinks" errors.
- 5.33 I can't update Fink, because
package architecture (darwin-i386) does not match system (darwin-powerpc).
- 6 Compile Problems - General
- 6.1 A configure script complains that it can't find an "acceptable cc". What's that?
- 6.2 When I try a "fink selfupdate-cvs" I get this message: "cvs: Command not found."
- 6.3 I'm getting an error message involving
make - 6.4 I'm getting a strange usage message from the head command. What's broken?
- 6.5 When I try to install a package I get an error message about trying to overwrite a file that is in another package.
- 6.6 What does "execution of mv failed, exit code 1" mean when I try to build a package?
- 6.7 I can't install a package | update because I get a message that a "node" already exists.
- 6.8 I've heard that libraries and headers installed under /usr/local sometimes cause build problems for Fink. Is this true?
- 6.9 When I try to build a package, I get a message that a "table of contents" is out of date. What do I need to do?
- 6.10 Fink Commander hangs when I try to install atlas.
- 6.11 I get messages saying that I'm missing
stddef.h|wchar.h|stdlib.h|crt1.o, or that myC compiler cannot create executables
. - 6.12 I can't update, because Fink is "unable to resolve version conflict on multiple dependencies".
- 6.13 I can't install anything because I get "dpkg: parse error, in file `/opt/sw/var/lib/dpkg/status'"!
- 6.14 I get errors involving freetype.
- 6.15 I get build errors involving `Dl_info'.
- 6.16 Fink says I'm missing
gcc2orgcc3.1but I can't seem to install it. - 6.17 Fink says
Failed: Can't resolve dependency "system-java-dev", but there's no such package. - 6.18 When I try to install anything, I get
dpkg (subprocess): failed to exec dpkg-split to see if it's part of a multiparter: No such file or directory
. How do I fix this? - 6.19 I get the following message:
configure: error: XML::Parser perl module is required for intltool
. What do I do about it? - 6.20 I'm trying to download a package, but Fink goes to some weird site with
distfiles
in its name, and the file isn't there. - 6.21 I want Fink to use different options in building a package.
- 6.22 Whenever I try to build from source, Fink keeps waffling between alternate versions of the same library.
- 6.23 I get errors involving
MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETwhen I try to build a Python module. - 6.24 I get
unrecognized option `-dynamic'
errors fromlibtool. - 6.25 I get a message about missing headers in
/usr/include - 6.26 When I try to update an app package on Yosemite, I see errors involving a PkgInfo file
- 7 Compile Problems - Specific Packages
- 7.1 A package fails to build with errors involving
sed. - 7.2 I can't install gtk+2 on OS 10.5
- 7.3 I get errors involving
_Perl_Gthr_key_ptrwhen installing an xml-sax-pm package - 7.4 I can't build a Fink
gccpackage due to "conflicting types for 'pointer_t'" - 7.5 I'm having issues with a package that isn't listed here.
- 7.1 A package fails to build with errors involving
- 8 Package Usage Problems - General
- 8.1 I'm getting lots of messages like "locale not supported by C library". Is that bad?
- 8.2 There are suddenly a number of strange users on my system, with names like "mysql", "pgsql", and "games". Where did they come from?
- 8.3 How do I compile something myself using Fink-installed software?
- 8.4 I can't run any of my Fink-installed applications using the Applications menu in Apple X11.
- 8.5 I'm bewildered by the X11 options: Apple X11, XFree86, etc. What should I install?
- 8.6 When I try to run an application, I get a message that says "cannot open display:". What do I need to do?
- 8.7 I don't see my favorite program in Fink. How do I suggest a new package for inclusion in Fink?
- 8.8 What are all these
system-*"virtual packages" that are sometimes present, but that I can't seem to install or remove myself?
- 9 Package Usage Problems - Specific Packages
- 9.1 I get no sound from XMMS
- 9.2 If I am editing a file in nedit, when I open another file its window pops up but is unresponsive.
- 9.3 Help! When I start XDarwin, it immediately quits!
- 9.4 When I try to start XDarwin I get the message "xinit: No such file or directory (errno 2): no server "/usr/X11R6/bin/X" in PATH".
- 9.5 I want the delete key in Apple's X11.app to behave like that in XDarwin.
- 9.6 I'm having problems with X11 and Fink.
- 9.7 I'm still having problems with X11 and Fink.
- 9.8 After updating to Tiger (OS 10.4), whenever I use a GTK app, I get errors involving
_EVP_idea_cbc. - 9.9 I can't get the help to work for any GNOME application.