First stab at gnucash-docs

[Jon Lapham]

Okay, I lied.  I started with "chapter 1: installation" in the tutorial 
(since it only contained the word "FIXME").  Before I get too far into 
this, I thought I would send this out to see if people have any comments 
since this is my first attempt.

I've attached the chapter1.xml file... but I'll also just paste the 
appropriate text here, it is easy enough to envision what it looks like 
from the XML code.  I have a few specific questions.

1) Are we encouraging or discouraging URL links to external sites in the 
documentation?  I noticed there was a link to the gnucash.org site in 
chapter2...

2) Can someone send me the information on how to install GnuCash on a 
Debian-esque system?  (ie: apt, .deb, etc)

3) Besides linux, what other systems do we support?  I'm guessing at 
least *BSD, so does anyone know how to install GnuCash using the *BSD 
ports system?



   <sect1 id="install1">
    <title>Installation</title>
     <para>
Installation of GnuCash can be simple, as most modern linux 
distributions come with gnucash precompiled and ready to go.  In fact, 
most likely, GnuCash is already installed.  If you do not have GnuCash 
installed, the simplest method for installing it is to insert the 
installation CD that came with your distribution and follow the 
instructions.
     </para>
     <para>
However, if GnuCash does not come with your distribution, or if you want 
to install a different version, you will have to choose one of the 
installation methods described below.  The RPM and APT installation 
methods are the simplest as they do not require you to compile any 
source code.  The "source code" method is the most complex installation 
method, but also the most general as it will work on the largest variety 
of operating systems.
     </para>
     <para>
There are a number of web sites you may find helpful.
     <listitem>
<ulink 
url="http://www.gnucash.org/pub/gnucash/"><citetitle>http://www.gnucash.org/pub/gnucash/</citetitle></ulink> 
  The official GnuCash download site, where you can find the latest 
stable source code and some precompiled RPM binary installation files.
     </listitem>
     <listitem>
<ulink 
url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=192"><citetitle>Sourceforge 
Mirror</citetitle></ulink> This is the sourceforge mirror of the project.
     </listitem>
     <listitem>
<ulink 
url="http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/4161/1/"><citetitle>LinuxPlanet 
Tutorial</citetitle></ulink>  This web site has an excellent discussion 
of the various methods of installing software on linux:
     </listitem>
     </para>

    <sect2 id="installrpm">
     <title>RPM Installation</title>
     <para>
Many linux distributions (such as RedHat, Conectiva, Suse) use the RPM 
package management system.  To determine if GnuCash is already 
installed,  type "rpm -qa | grep -i gnucash" from the command line.
     </para>
     <literallayout>
lapham at bilbo > rpm -qa | grep -i gnucash
gnucash-1.8.1-3
     </literallayout>
     <para>
To install GnuCash on one of these systems, you should first locate an 
appropriate gnucash-X.Y.Z.rpm installation file.  This can usually be 
found on one of the installation CDs that came with your distribution, 
or can be downloaded from the gnucash web site.  Once you have the 
appropriate .rpm file, issue the "rpm -ivh gnucash-X.Y.Z.rpm" command to 
install it (as root).
    </para>
     </sect2>

    <sect2 id="installapt">
     <title>APT Installation</title>
     <para>
Many linux distributions (such as Debian) use the APT package management 
system.  To determine if GnuCash is already installed,  type "?????" 
from the command line.
     </para>
     </sect2>

    <sect2 id="installsrc">
     <title>Source Code Compile and Installation</title>
     <para>
The final method of installation is to download, compile, and install 
the source code directly from the gnucash project.  This method requires 
the most effort, will take the longest to complete, and will probably 
require that you install other packages besides GnuCash in order to 
sucessfully compile GnuCash.
     </para>
     <para>
Download the "gnucash-X.Y.Z.tar.gz" file of the latest stable version of 
GnuCash, where the X, Y, and Z are the major, minor and bugfix versions 
respectively.  Uncompress and untar this file.  Enter the newly create 
directory and execute  "./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/gnucash-X.Y" (of 
course, you can install it to any other prefix).
     </para>
     <para>
During the configuration process of GnuCash, it may complain that you do 
not have certain software prerequisites installed.  You will need to 
take carful note of these messages, and install the appropriate 
software.  You must complete the "autogen.sh" process without any error 
messages.  There may be some warning messages, but these are usually 
safe to ignore.
     </para>
     <para>
After sucessfult completion of the "autogen.sh" step, execute "make" 
followed by "make install" (the make install should be run as root). 
That is all.  To run gnucash, type /opt/gnucash-X.Y/bin/gnucash
     </para>

     </sect2>

   </sect1>



-- 
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  Jon Lapham  <lapham at extracta.com.br>          Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
  Work: Extracta Moléculas Naturais SA     http://www.extracta.com.br/
  Web: http://www.jandr.org/
***-*--*----*-------*------------*--------------------*---------------

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