Package Manager

The Arca Noae Package Manager is a graphical interface to installing, removing, and updating software on your OS/2-based system. It is released under GPLv3, and is freely available to everyone (see Source code access, later).

This wiki page provides some tips and tricks for getting the most out of this utility. Also note our best practices sub-wiki.

For problems, see our Troubleshooting sub-wiki.

Repositories

YUM

The table below shows the currently available YUM repositories of OS/2 software known to us. Some repositories may be added simply by installing an RPM, whereas others must be created manually. As package names may change, consult the Available packages list for these, which are typically named for the host and repository (see the Repo column, below for hints).

Note that software packages may be distributed as RPM or WarpIN. The above repositories contain RPM packaged content only. If there is no RPM packaged content currently available for a particular category, the corresponding repository will be empty.

WarpIN

The following table lists available WarpIN repositories hosted by Arca Noae and others known to us. WarpIN package handling is available in ANPM 1.1.0 and above.

Authentication

To configure an Arca Noae repository that requires authentication, enter your username and password when prompted. If your username is an email address, just use the name part without the “@domain.com” part. Non-Arca Noae authenticated repositories will have their own username/password requirements. Please consult the hosts of such other repositories for this information.

Reminder

Arca Noae Package Manager may make changes to CONFIG.SYS when the path validation check is enabled (this is the default behavior). It is always good practice to maintain a recent backup of CONFIG.SYS (and other important system configuration files).

Prerequisites

• OS/2 Warp 4 FixPak 13 or higher, eCS 1.x, 2.x, ArcaOS 5.x
• 32-bit TCP/IP stack.
• 200MB available space on local volume supporting long filenames and extended attributes to be designated as %UNIXROOT%. This is a bare minimum requirement, as %UNIXROOT% can and will grow considerably as new packages are installed.
• WarpIN 1.0.24 or higher, available here.
• kLIBC Pathrewriters, 1.0.2 or later, available here. Note that eCS version 2.x should already have the kLIBC Pathrewriters package installed. Look in your System Setup folder for the kLIBC Pathrewriters configuration object. If present, then this package is already installed. (ArcaOS 5.0 and above includes the updated and enhanced kLIBC Path Remapper which takes the place of the older kLIBC Pathrewriters.)

IMPORTANT: Systems with existing RPM & YUM which have not been updated recently (including fresh eCS installations)

Please review this page before running a YUM | Update all… operation for the first time or if you have an empty package list when Arca Noae Package Manager starts.

Initial setup of RPM & YUM

For systems with existing Python installations, please see this page.On systems with no existing RPM & YUM installation, Arca Noae Package Manager should prompt to download and install the base package (bootstrap) upon first program start. Once downloaded, you will be asked to select the drive to be designated as UNIXROOT, and the requisite directories and files will be placed under the root of that volume.

Upon completion of the extraction of the bootstrap, CONFIG.SYS will be updated to reflect the necessary changes (a backup copy of CONFIG.SYS will be saved as CONFIG.YUM), and you will be prompted to reboot to have these new settings take effect.

Exit Arca Noae Package Manager, close any other running programs, and reboot. Upon returning to the desktop following the reboot, you should run Arca Noae Package Manager to perform the tasks in the next section before adding any new packages or using any of the newly installed applications.

Post-bootstrap tasks

Reinstall bootstrapped packages

Following the initial reboot, we highly recommend performing the following tasks to get the most out of the new environment. The reinstall of all bootstrapped packages is necessary in order for any scripts which would normally be run during during RPM installation to perform their system configuration changes. We are looking at ways to handle these during bootstrap install in future releases of Arca Noae Package Manager, however, until then:

1. Start Arca Noae Package Manager, and from the list of installed packages, Ctrl-/ to select all packages.
2. From the menu, select Selected | Reinstall. You will be prompted to confirm the downloading of the packages (this should typically be under 50MB.
3. Click OK to proceed. You will be prompted to reboot during the procedure. Do so.
4. Upon returning to the desktop following the reboot, start Arca Noae Package Manager. The installation should continue automatically.Note: It is normal to see new desktop objects appear and for folders to be opened, as well as to see command windows opened for varying lengths of time during this process. These are the actions of the scripts being called during the reinstallation process.
5. Once the reinstall procedure is complete, reclaim disk space by selecting YUM Tools | Cleanup | Downloaded packages. Alternatively, you may keep these RPM in your local store,though they should not be necessary under normal circumstances.
6. Exit Arca Noae Package Manager, optionally review changes to CONFIG.SYS and clean up any extraneous objects or shadows on the desktop, and reboot.

Update all packages

Next, update all installed packages to the latest available. This is generally good practice, as packages are updated regularly. For more details on the proper procedure for updating all packages see the best practices sub-wiki.

Install documentation readers

While not always part of the bootstrap (the purpose of which is to provide a working environment, capable of installing new packages), readers such as info and man are necessary to get the most out of included package documentation.

From the Available package list, set the group filter dropdown in the upper right of the toolbar to System Environment. Look for and select (if available) info and man-db. (One or both of thee may have already been installed with the bootstrap; if not shown in the available packages list, this may be the case.) Install these.

Known issues/limitations

See the Known issues/limitations sub-wiki.

Advanced techniques

Several methods are available to reduce bandwidth and latency as well as provide connection redundancy and load balancing. Here are some ideas:

Setting up a local repository

See the RPM How-To for end users on the  Netlabs RPM and YUM project page for assistance.

Connecting via a proxy server

To configure yum to connect to all repositories via a proxy server, edit %UNIXROOT%\etc\yum\yum.conf and add the following line in the [main] section:

proxy=<proxy-uri>

So, if running a local Squid cache with the default port configured, the proper entry would be:

proxy=http://localhost:3128

This will cause all configured repository connections to run through the proxy.

To configure yum to connect via a proxy server only for a specific repository, edit the repository (YUM | Repositories…)  and add the proxy= line to the desired .repo file. You may specify different proxies for different repositories in this manner. The setting in the .repo file overrides the global setting in yum.conf.

To disable the proxy for a given repository, edit the repository (YUM | Repositories…)  and add the following to the desired .repo file:

proxy=_none_

Currently, it is not possible to configure a per-repository proxy for secure repos. Look for proxy configuration options in a future release of Arca Noae Package Manager.

Troubleshooting

See the Troubleshooting sub-wiki for assistance.

For System Builders and VARs

Arca Noae Package Manager supports custom branding to add your own logo and contact information to the Help | Product information panel. Contact Arca Noae for details.

Source code access

Full source code for Arca Noae Package Manager is available for anonymous SVN access here:

https://svn.arcanoae.com/anpm/

Alternatively, the same URL may be used to browse the code.

This entry last updated: January 23rd, 2024 by Lewis Rosenthal