On Thu, 2008-04-24 at 11:23 +1000, Edward Stow wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 9:38 AM, Norbert Hartl <norbert at hartl.name> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 2008-04-24 at 08:20 +1000, Edward Stow wrote:
> >  > On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 3:35 PM, Miguel Enrique Cobá Martínez
> >  > <m.coba.m at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  >
> >  > > >
> >  > >  I use squeak inside a chroot as per instructions here:
> >  > >
> >  > >  http://alioth.debian.org/docman/view.php/30192/21/debian-amd64-howto.html
> >  > >
> >  > >  as there is no 64 bit perfect setup for squeak
> >  > >
> >  > >  I installed squeak inside the chroot with the repositories from squeak.org
> >  > > (section other OSes)
> >  > >
> >  > >  hope this help
> >  >
> >  > Yes is does -- it does confirm that a simple install is not available
> >  > for amd64 architecture.  By simple, I mean  sudo apt-get install
> >  > squeak.
> >
> >  > And it doesn't.  I have a hard time convincing my sys admins and their
> >  > bosses to take seriously a package that does not have a
> >  > straightforward install process on 64 bit machines.
> >  >
> >  > chroot'ing in their words is for 'legacy and un-supported systems that
> >  > should not be installed on a production server.'
> >  >
> >  > I am trying to set up a demonstration server that will allow squeak
> >  > with seaside to be considered a viable alternative.  I should say that
> >  > I'm not a sys admin and am feeling very frustrated with the lack of
> >  > installable options.
> >  >
> >  > So please ... could those that maintain the debian and / or other os
> >  > vms create an installable 64 bit deb and / or rpm.
> >  >
> >
> >  At the moment there is no packaged version which does compile on amd64.
> >  Otherwise it would be quite simple to create such a package. You can run
> >  32 bit applications on 64 bit but on a debian package level this is not
> >  an easy task to achieve.
> >
> >  If you want to setup an demonstration server why you don't take the
> >  installer script which comes with the vm package on squeakvm.org ? This
> >  installs the 32bit binaries on your machine.
> >
> >  I created a package for you which is a amd64 target ubuntu package which
> >  contains the binaries from the 3.10.1 i686 package from squeakvm.org.[1]
> >  It installs into /opt/squeak. You can use use
> >
> >  /opt/squeak/bin/squeakvm YOUR-IMAGE
> >
> >  to start squeak. Don't be misled by the ubuntu in the package name. It
> >  should install on debian as well.
> >
> >  Let me know if you have trouble using it.
> >
> >  [1] http://selfish.org/files/deb/squeak-vm-i686_0.1ubuntu1_amd64.deb
> >
> >  Norbert
> 
> Thanks that works.
> 
> But this is really a plea --- My guess is that 95% of potential users
> would have stopped by now  when apt-get install does not work.
> 
Yes, sure it is. For the desktop side of the software the barrier is 
lowered with the one-click experience images.
To be honest. How far will you get on a server if an easy installation
is your barrier? squeak does not provide any start/stop scripts for the
image. There is no maintenance scripts nor is there logging. You have
to know your software in order to use it properly. You are right I often
wish, too, that some things are achievable easier. But that includes the
configuration of a apache/tomcat webserver, too.
If you pass all this you still have to beat your sys admins. And that is
a hard task :) Taking your arguments (from the sys ads) and my
assumption that you are using java server stuff there is a huge gap.
They say "un-supported" and they use debian which is an OS which is not
supported. You should use ubuntu for that. They care about production
systems and they use a 64 bit OS version. There are really less needs to
have a 64 bit OS nowadays but there are still some problems. If I care
about stability I use 32 bit these days. Are you using java? Java on 64 
bit linux systems is just not stable. Openjdk is getting there slowly 
but it is IMHO not production ready. So I assume you use the 32 bit
ones. Then were is the difference? That in debian there is package which
installs you "legacy" 32 bit code on your 64 bit platform. That is 
exactly what my package does. If a lot of people think this is a way to 
go I would maintain such a package for some time.

I don't know what is your experience. Mine shows all the time that the
good stuff is pain in first. But most of the time it was worth it. So
don't give up. You have to know that you have at least one of the best
communities I know behind you :)

I'm glad my package worked. Are there any other finding a wrapper 
package for 32 bit squeak on amd64 useful?

Norbert