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Howto Install Docky on Fedora 14 (Laughlin)

Edit: There's no need to compile Docky from source on F14 any more. The packages have landed on the official repos. If you still want to build from source, you are welcome to use this post. For everyone else, just fire a terminal and type:
$ su -c "yum install docky"
If you already had installed it from source, see the Step 0 below to uninstall it.

About five months ago I posted a blogpost named "Howto Install Docky on Fedora". Little did I know that people will be using my guide as much as they have being doing. A few things have changed since the original post which assumed that the Fedora version running is 13 (please see the comments on the original post) and also Fedora 14 has come out. Therefore, I though of writing a wee bit more up-to-date post eventhough any of this isn't anything remotely serious. This is just to avoid answering question on the original post, as much as for the sake of everyone. Also the official install guide from Docky wiki hasn't still been updated for Fedora 14. So here goes. :)


Installing Docky 2.0.7

If you got to see my earlier post or had try to run Docky on Fedora 13, then you know that gio-sharp software didn't have a packages version of Fedora. However Fedora 14 has a packaged gio-sharp, other required packages and related *-devel packages. It's the gio-sharp-devel, ndesk-dbus-devel and ndesk-dbus-glib-devel I'm actually looking for. Unfortunately packaging these made the situation worse if you plan to use the latest Docky source (E.g.: cloned bazaar repo).

Why? Because the latest version of Docky as of this writing requires higher versions of (some of) the above mentioned software. So what we are going to do is, just sacrifice running the latest snapshot and run the latest stable release (which is 2.0.7 as of this writing).


0. Remove any version of related packages you have installed from source (i.e. without using a package managing tool). If you followed my original post, this means you'll first need to uninstall Docky (do to the build directory and run su -c 'make uninstall' ) and gio-sharp package. If you have any package installed using the package management system you'll need to uninstall it the same way (i.e., # yum remove your-pacakge).

Also, needs to removed is the environment variables set on behalf of Docky. If you followed the original post, those would be PKG_CONFIG_PATH and MONO_PATH. If you had set them manually before, unset them now (i.e., remove or comment out the necessary lines in the file you used).

If you don't do these two things, you are highly likely to run into trouble. If you didn't have any prior Docky installation in your system, just skip to step 1.

1. Install the dependencies by running the following command. You'll need root password when prompted.
su -c 'yum install mono-devel bzr bazaar automake intltool gcc GConf2-devel gtk-sharp2-devel gnome-desktop-sharp-devel gnome-keyring-sharp-devel mono-addins-devel dbus-sharp-devel gtk+extra-devel notify-sharp-devel gio-sharp-devel ndesk-dbus-devel ndesk-dbus-glib-devel'

Or, you can do the same with using "sudo" instead of "su -c" (and minus the quotes as well) if you have your system configured to use sudo.


2. Download Docky version 2.0.7 from launchpad.


3. Extract the downloaded source archive.


4. Open a terminal in the extracted directory (or just 'cd' into it).


5. Run:
./configure

If everything is Ok, it'll show the state, or else it'll show some error message. Provided you follow the instructions correctly, you should be fine.

This step will generate the data for the compiler to use such as directory locations among other things. So after you finish this step, don't try to change the directory locations and names.


6. Run:
make

This will do the compiling and building for you. If everything went well, you are ready to install.


7. Run:
su -c 'make install'
or
sudo make install
based on your preference.


That's it. If everything worked for you this far, you can try launching Docky using 'docky' command or create a shortcut (which should already be created in Applications --> Accessories menu if you are using a GNOME desktop).



Living on the Edge (Installing Docky from latest snapshots)


I'm not going to give specific steps here because this is a moving target. But I'll point you towards the right direction.

A. Make sure that you have uninstalled and removed all the remnants from earlier Docky installations. Also see Step 0 in the previous section.

B. Install the dependencies (see Step 1 of the previous section) minus dbus-sharp-devel and gio-sharp-devel.

To be honest I haven't tried this method myself beyond this. And it might not be possible at all to install the latest Docky without completely ruining your Mono environment or worse. But if you are feeling up to it go ahead. Just don't pretend I didn't warned you. ;)

C. Grab the latest (or the necessary) versions of the dbus-sharp and gio-sharp packages from source, build and install them.

It's much better to find SRPMS from Koji or elsewhere and rebuild the RPMs for the latest version, then install using package management tools. Explaining this is well beyond the scope of this post. If you already know how to do that, I have no idea why you are reading this post. :)

D. Hopefully this should be enough to run configure and make steps (See also Step 5 & 6). If this is not the case and the configure/make is complaining about version mismatches, you'll need to remove the package in question (using package management tools) and build them from source.

This is a slippery slope, which is why I didn't try it in the first place. So be warned, YMMV, very much.

E. Once you successfully compiled the system you can run it as usual. Just make sure whenever you update, to read the documentation and update (i.e., uninstall and install the latest) the dependencies.

It maybe not perilous as it sounds. But if you are not up to taking the risks, I'd suggest you follow the first method (installing the stable release) and be happy.


Honestly I'm a little amazed about the number of hits (and feedback) my original post ("Howto Install Docky on Fedora") is getting. I know these are things that's quite easy to figure out if you know your way around a Linux system. But for a new user simple things can make a big difference.

Comments

  1. TrickyHarry4:17 AM

    Hi Gaveen,

    Thanks for the update. I was indeed getting serious issues with the F13 installation notes.

    I have followed this latest set on notes and I have now been able to deploy docky without error. Thanks for the updated instructions.

    On F13 I was using the nvidia binary video and Docky was visible in the bottom pane. Now with F14 I am using the noveau video driver.

    With the driver, docky has a large banner, about 3x the hight of the docklets. Unfortunately this seems to be lower bound of my window area ... When docky started up, with Nvidia, the banner would be seen, but the video card
    would manage this.

    I should be installing the nvidia drivers to see the differences. Still early days with F14.

    I have my favourite Docky back now ... back to work ...

    ReplyDelete
  2. TrickyHarry4:45 AM

    Hi Gaveen,

    1. I have switched to the nvidia video driver now and I am still getting the tall black back-ground area that blocks out my lower portion of my screen. This is about 3-4 times the height of the docklets.

    2. When I started docky from the menu, I got a pop stating that "docky needs to
    compositing to work properly - please enable compositing"
    -- I am not sure what that means ..

    ReplyDelete
  3. TrickyHarry4:53 AM

    Hi Gaveen,

    https://answers.launchpad.net/docky/+question/91206

    - I have enabled Compiz and that has resolved the problem. Compiz was not supported with the nvidia noveau driver.

    I am now back as was in F13.

    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @TrickyHarry: It's really good to see you taking the initiative to search for the solutions. :)

    For compositing you can either use Compiz or GNOME's inbuilt compositing (which is lighter and less capable than Compiz).

    I'm really glad things worked out for you and thank you for spending your time to provide me feedback.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Excellent job!!
    Thanks it all works on F14.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Cibele: You are welcome. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Gaveen,

    Have you tried Docky 2.0.8 on F14? if so is it more stable? is the same procedure than with 2.0.7 or should we do anything different?
    Thanks in advance for your great job.

    cheers

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Cibeles Sorry, I haven't installed 2.0.8. I'm now using whatever version available in repos (2.0.7 as of this writing). So I can't really comment, but you can check the significant changes in Docky projects Changelog.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey Garveen!!

    thanks for the tip, I didn't knew it was on the official repos :D

    The only problem I've got now, is that magnification doesn't seem to work... I try to hit on the Zoom checkbox but it never gets checked, so no zoom is performed... do you know how can I change this? maybe the style file...

    Also, firefox icon has changed from its original to another (the original is only available on 48px or more). Do you know where can I get a smaller icon and how can I do to use it on docky?

    Many thanks in advance.
    Cibeles

    ReplyDelete

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