OS X 10.5 vs. lftp, readline and a HP Photosmart 1115

Compiling the readline 5.2 library and lftp on OS X 10.5, with necessary patches, plus getting an old HP Photosmart printer to work with the system supplied Gutenprint.

Since I have this shiny new Macbook there have been a few things missing. Although I kept being told to use them shiny graphical FTP thingies, I always return to lftp. It does all you could ever want to do with a file transfer program and is not limited to FTP. And apart from that I just don't want an FTP client resembling a rubber duck like on every desktop at work. :x

However… there are obstacles.

readline 5.2

This one does not compile out of the box, however it's just a missing linker flag "-dynamiclib" that is needed on OS X. Obviously the knowledge is all there, it was just forgotten to add Darwin 9 to the list. Invoking the linker command manually or using the patch below will make it compile.

readline 5.2 OS X 10.5 patch

--- readline-5.2/support/shobj-conf 2006-04-11 15:15:43.000000000 +0200
+++ readline-5.2_patched/support/shobj-conf 2009-01-10 11:40:30.000000000 +0100
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@
    ;;
 
 # Darwin/MacOS X
-darwin8*)
+darwin89*)
    SHOBJ_STATUS=supported
    SHLIB_STATUS=supported
    
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@
    SHLIB_LIBSUFF='dylib'
 
    case "${host_os}" in
-   darwin[78]*)    SHOBJ_LDFLAGS=''
+   darwin[789]*)   SHOBJ_LDFLAGS=''
            SHLIB_XLDFLAGS='-dynamiclib -arch_only `/usr/bin/arch` -install_name $(libdir)/$@ -current_version $(SHLIB_MAJOR)$(SHLIB_MINOR) -compatibility_version $(SHLIB_MAJOR) -v'
            ;;
    *)      SHOBJ_LDFLAGS='-dynamic'

lftp

Doesn't want to compile either, the configure aborts when trying to include the just compiled libreadline. Running "export LDFLAGS=/usr/local/lib" and rerun configure makes it work just fine. [Note: assuming readline went into the default dir.]

And there it is: LFTP! ^^ Now on to the continued “Ugh, why not use a graphical ftp client?” comments.

The printer drivers from hell

Since I didn't want to install the ancient Turobprint I had on 10.5 again the printer suddenly turned into a piece from electronic waste from the past. Well, HP hardware anyway. *cough* My experiences with HP printer “drivers” for OS X were somewhat unpleasant at best. But since the hardware itself still worked, why not give Gutenprint a try. Well, it way almost boring. OS X already includes version 5.1.3. Plugged in the printer, selected the driver and the Photosmart 1115 worked right away. Truly sad, that HP is unable to provide working drivers themselves. Emphasize on working, there are drivers. ;)