Mandriva Linux 10.x and 2006..2014 (formely Mandrake Linux)

Mandriva home page: http://www.mandriva.com
Conectiva home page: http://www.conectiva.com.br

Linux Installation Hints:

• Language: don't select "use Unicode by default" in Advanced menu
• Packages: in addition to default suggestions and your choices,
  - enable "Developmnent" (usually on) or post-install gcc
  - enable "KDE" Graphic (suggested, not strictly required)
• Post-install via System→Configuration→Packaging→Install:
  - VFS7: install the gcc-5.* compiler (usually auto installed, package Development→C) and gcc-cpp-4*.mdk required for development
  - VFS6: install the gcc-3.4.1-4 compiler (usually auto installed, package Development→C) and gcc-cpp-3.4.1-4.mdk required for development
  - For proper terminal i/o execution via newfswin, install Shells→tcsh* and Terminals→xterm*
  - For optional static compilation, install static system libraries (see below)
  - There are only few editors in the standard distribution available, you may install e.g. [x]emacs or kate (package Graphics→KDE→kdeutils-kedit) which supports also highlighting for .prg and .c, or use vi or downlod editors of your choice (e.g. www.nedit.org etc).
   
• Running Mandrake as Guast in VmWare5 or 6 is supported, but the GUI display is slower than in native mode.

Installation of Visual FlagShip 7.1.* (VFS7):

• Install the .rpm based package FlagShip-7*.rpm, see the booklet for details and step-by-step instruction
• The main FlagShip directory is /usr/local/FlagShip7
• Mandriva supply all required static libraries in packages suggested above, so you may compile both dynamically (default) and statically (using the -stat compiler switch). If you get get some warnings at the end of FlagShip installation, or linker errors at static linking, post-install the required packages noted above from the Linux distribution.

Using FlagShip:

• In VFS7, read the short step-by-step instruction for using FlagShip in the booklet (available also in the main /usr/local/FlagShip7 directory)
• If in X/GUI environment (KDE, Gnome etc): open console/terminal window.
• Compile your sources as described in fsman section FSC, e.g. "FlagShip myapp*.prg", a short help is available via "FlagShip -h". Note the case sensitive names in Unix/Linux.
• Watch for displayed compiler and linker errors, and fix if any. The displayed gcc 3.4 warning "cc1: note: -fwritable-strings is deprecated; see documentation for details" is harmless and can be ignored.
• If everything is ok, execute (see fsman section FSC):
  ./a.out            # in GUI mode
  newfswin ./a.out   # for Textual i/o mode in X11 environment
• The on-line manual is available by entering "fsman &" in KDE/Gnome console for GUI mode, or "newfswin fsman" for textual mode. Printed manual is available upon request.
• Step-by-step instruction for converting available applications to GUI is given in fsman section LNG.9.6
• Examples are available in /usr/local/FlagShip[6,7]/examples and .../tools directory. Best to copy them to your working directory.
• On problems or questions, please check the on-line manual and FAQ first. If your problem persist, contact FlagShip support - we grant free tech support not only for the licensed, but also for the Test/Eval version.

Known Issues :

• There was occasionally reported problem with Eval version of FlagShip (message like "error 723 - wrong system date") caused by enabled ntpd (de)synchronisation. If this occurs with correct date/time, and you have not reset date/time manually, disable ntpd. Does not occur with the licensed VFS version.


• If the PC-8 semi-graphic characters are displayed in textual mode as Ä's (A-umlaut) etc, you eiter may
  - start the application via newfswin, newfscons or newfsterm (see above and Release Notes in fsman) which automatically sets the proper environment, or
  - disable Unicode i.e. set the environment variable "LANG=en_EN", and start the application via newfswin.
  See also and/or test with /usr/local/FlagShip6/examples/boxcommand.prg


• If the last character in the manual pages seems to be missing in GUI mode, select Courier[adobe] via Menu→Options→Font→Input/Output or assign other font via command-line parameter, see fsman -h for furtehr details.


• When compiling large sources, you may get compiler error "** Warning: C compiler not invoked" but without any displayed syntax error. This is caused by insufficient stack size (stack overflow in yacc/lex parser) for large source files or many continuation statements (check the displayed source code line). You may increase the stack by e.g. "uname -s 30000". If you get here a message "ulimit: stack size: cannot modify limit..." you need to set (as su/root/sudo) "uname -Hs 30000", then re-open the user terminal, and set "uname -s 30000" anew. You may add this also in your ~/.bashrc script for an automatic set at login.

Additional Info:

Since FlagShip translates the Xbase code to C code as an intermediate step and requires object compatible libs during the linking stage, C compilers, utilities and libraries must be chosen with great care, otherwise upredictable errors may occur.

The C compiler (and the optional static libs) is required only in the developing phase, it is not required for the user of your application, which only needs the by FlagShip produced executable (i.e. your own application executables, see also fsman section SYS.1.2 for distribution hints).