ChrisKnight – Page 6 – The Wacky World of Chris Knight

2017/09/152019/09/05

Installing MacPorts on MacOS “High Sierra”

Update 10.15: If you are looking for instructions on how to install MacPorts on Catalina, try here.

Update: The official MacPorts installer is out. Go get it! https://www.macports.org/install.php

Another year, another OS X update. I assume you are here because you downloaded the High Sierra GM from Apple, and were disappointed that there isn’t a MacPorts installer yet. While I am sure they will release it soon, perhaps we can get you over the hump so you can beat up High Sierra before the official drop date. If you are comfortable compiling software by hand, we should be able to get thru this easy-peasy.

I am doing this on a clean install of High Sierra. If you are attempting an upgrade from any previous version, your process may vary in unexpected ways. You will want to make sure you’ve downloaded the latest version of Xcode, and you should probably follow the MacPorts uninstall instructions so you have less cruft around that could interfere with the process. If you have an upgrade issue, please comment here and I’ll do my best to help you out and improve the instructions.

This is my first pass at getting it running. I’m going to share all my steps. One or two things I do might be unnecessary, and could be removed later if I refine the process; but I promise I wouldn’t have hit the Publish button if the overall process didn’t work.

Install MacOS “High Sierra”
Connect to the internet
Install Xcode 9 from the App Store.
Launch Xcode:
1. Agree to the license.
2. Let it install the extra components it says it needs.
3. Quit xcode.
Open a terminal window:
```
sudo bash
```
```
xcode-select --install
```
When the pop-up launches, install the command line tools.
```
cd ~/Desktop
```
```
mkdir macports
```
```
cd macports
```

curl -O https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-2.4.1.tar.gz

```
tar -xzvf MacPorts-2.4.1.tar.gz
```
```
cd MacPorts-2.4.1
```
```
./configure --enable-readline
```
```
make
```
```
make install
```

echo 'export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH' >> ~/.profile

```
source ~/.profile
```
```
port -v selfupdate
```

At this point, you should be ready to start reinstalling your ports! Wee!

After manually installing MacPorts with the above instructions I was able to install subversion and wget, which are my usual two first validation tests. Subversion alone has a total of 33 dependencies alone, and combined they have 135 dependent packages; which does a pretty good job of verifying MacPorts is working.

2017/06/29

The Hanged Man

A lifetime ago, someone offered to draw me as a Tarot Card. I randomly picked The Hanged Man, and I kept it even though the artist tried to get me to re-draw. The design came out well, and it captured a lot of aspects of my life from that time period; but I never displayed the picture anywhere due to factors of drama. I’d largely forgotten about it, though it was squirreled away in my picture archive.

Today my order of hobo coins came in. And tucked in the package was a bonus item from one of this artist’s previous kickstarters. A tarot card. The Hanged Man.

2017/06/29

Memory. It’s a funny thing.

Memory is such a funny thing. Scrambled and chaotic, it doesn’t have a user accessible file structure or an index, and the search engine is for crap. Sherlock referred to it as his Mind Palace. I find that term particularly apt, because in reality you are not standing in the middle of a field with your memories stretching out in all directions and plainly visible if you just look in the right direction. Rather, it seems like my memories are piled up in corners, stacked on flat surfaces, and wedged between unrelated volumes. My point of reference seems to dictate what I can perceive, and due to the chaos I might be standing in the middle of a room of related memories, but I can’t see the one I left in the hallway. This framework was painfully reinforced today.

It’s been a rough week. I’ve spent a lot of it wracked with grief. This morning was different, though. Instead of grief I have been high strung with anxiety. I couldn’t figure out the source. I vacillated between wanting to go to work to be around people, and wanting to stay home and hide. At the top of my thoughts was that I had a package arriving today, and did I want to be home for it or did I just want to get it later. Over and over, round and round, it was diving me crazy. In the end, I went to work because it was the least financially impacting decision when all the other factors kept cancelling each other out over and over.

What was the package? Does it matter? It was a cute kickstarter I bought into a few months ago. Custom designed coins done in the style of depression era hobo coins. Hobo coins were crafted works of art that used coins as the base, but with intricate designs inlaid over the original design of the coin. I saw the kickstarter on BoingBoing, and thought they would make really cool trinkets to give to friends and strangers.

So, having decided to do something, rather than get stuck in an indecision loop, I headed to work. I’m walking own Market Street, on my way to my office, and my phone chimes with a delivery notice. My hobo coins have arrived. Cool, right?

My next thought was “Now I can give Sam and Elliot… the… coins… I… got… them…” and Boom! I’m leaning against a lamp post on Market Street bawling my eyes out. Sure, I’ve been thinking about Elliot, and thinking about the coins arriving, but as my conscious mind moved around my Mind Palace, it was never at the right spot to see the various memories in the same frame. My subconscious mind, on the other hand, really wanted me to just go back to bed and avoid this day all together.

Memory. It’s a funny thing.