Updated for Mathematica 4.X by Murray
Stokely. Merged with work by
Bojan Bistrovic.
This document describes the process of installing the Linux version of Mathematica® 4.X onto a
FreeBSD system.
The Linux version of Mathematica runs perfectly under FreeBSD however the
binaries shipped by Wolfram need to be branded so that FreeBSD knows to use the Linux ABI
to execute them.
The Linux version of Mathematica or Mathematica for Students can be ordered directly from
Wolfram at http://www.wolfram.com/.
The Linux binaries are located in the Unix directory of the
Mathematica CDROM distributed
by Wolfram. You need to copy this directory tree to your local hard drive so that you can
brand the Linux binaries with brandelf(1) before
running the installer:
# mount /cdrom
# cp -rp /cdrom/Unix/ /localdir/
# brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/Kernel/Binaries/Linux/*
# brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/FrontEnd/Binaries/Linux/*
# brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/Installation/Binaries/Linux/*
# brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/Graphics/Binaries/Linux/*
# brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/Converters/Binaries/Linux/*
# brandelf -t Linux /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/LicenseManager/Binaries/Linux/mathlm
# cd /localdir/Installers/Linux/
# ./MathInstaller
Alternatively, you can simply set the default ELF brand to Linux for all unbranded
binaries with the command:
# sysctl kern.fallback_elf_brand=3
This will make FreeBSD assume that unbranded ELF binaries use the Linux ABI and so you
should be able to run the installer straight from the CDROM.
Before you can run Mathematica you will have to obtain a password from Wolfram
that corresponds to your ``machine ID''.
Once you have installed the Linux compatibility runtime libraries and unpacked Mathematica you can obtain the
``machine ID'' by running the program mathinfo in the
installation directory. This machine ID is based solely on the MAC address of your first
Ethernet card.
# cd /localdir/Files/SystemFiles/Installation/Binaries/Linux
# mathinfo
disco.example.com 7115-70839-20412
When you register with Wolfram, either by email, phone or fax, you will give them the
``machine ID'' and they will respond with a corresponding password consisting of groups
of numbers. You can then enter this information when you attempt to run Mathematica for the first time
exactly as you would for any other Mathematica platform.
Mathematica uses some
special fonts to display characters not present in any of the standard font sets
(integrals, sums, Greek letters, etc.). The X protocol requires these fonts to be install
locally. This means you will have
to copy these fonts from the CDROM or from a host with Mathematica installed to your local machine. These fonts are
normally stored in /cdrom/Unix/Files/SystemFiles/Fonts on the
CDROM, or /usr/local/mathematica/SystemFiles/Fonts on your hard
drive. The actual fonts are in the subdirectories Type1 and X. There are several ways to use them, as described below.
The first way is to copy them into one of the existing font directories in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts. This will require editing the fonts.dir file, adding the font names to it, and changing the
number of fonts on the first line. Alternatively, you should also just be able to run
mkfontdir(1) in
the directory you have copied them to.
The second way to do this is to copy the directories to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts:
# cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts
# mkdir X
# mkdir MathType1
# cd /cdrom/Unix/Files/SystemFiles/Fonts
# cp X/* /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/X
# cp Type1/* /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/MathType1
# cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/X
# mkfontdir
# cd ../MathType1
# mkfontdir
Now add the new font directories to your font path:
# xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/X
# xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/MathType1
# xset fp rehash
If you are using the XFree86™ server, you can have these font directories
loaded automatically by adding them to your XF86Config
file.
If you do not already have a
directory called /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1, you can change
the name of the MathType1 directory in the example above to Type1.
