HOWTO: Install GNU Emacs with antialiasing
Emacs is an amazing piece of software, but it's also hellishly ugly by default.
Here, I'll show you how to get it from CVS with antialiasing and GTK support, like this;
http://www.activist-news.co.uk/misc/emacs_aa_screen.png
My apologies in advance; I'm not sure of the dependencies, other than CVS and TLA. Hopefully any error messages should be verbose enough for you to figure it out.
I've read I guide similar to this before, but I've lost the URL. Kudos to whoever wrote that one.
engla recommends using checkinstall as "It makes me feel much better about my system, knowing that it's easy to just throw something you compile-installed out again if you screwed up."
- First, we want to get it from CVS. To do so, run;
Code:
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/cvsroot/emacs co emacs
- Now, cd into emacs, and get the Xft branch of Emacs by running
Code:
cd emacs
cvs up -Pd -r XFT_JHD_BRANCH
- Next get the following emacs-snapshot-debian directory
Code:
tla register-archive jerome@debian.org--2005 http://people.debian.org/~jerome/arch/jerome@debian.org--2005/
tla get -A jerome@debian.org--2005 emacs-snapshot-debian--main
- And then rename the directory "debian" and put it in emacs/src. You then have to edit out the build instructions for the -nox variant of Emacs in emacs/src/debian/rules. You can find the edited file here.
- And now you're good to go! From the emacs directory, run the following commands (make bootstrap takes a while, so go grab some lunch).
Code:
./configure --with-x-toolkit=gtk --with-xft=yes
make bootstrap
make
sudo make install
- There we are, that wasn't too bad! To set your font, add something like the following to ~/.Xresources (you may need to restart X before it takes effect).
Code:
Emacs*font: Monospace-7
And finally, you might want to create a menu item for it. Happy hacking!
Re: HOWTO: Install GNU Emacs with antialiasing
I get the following error:
Code:
walla@ubuntu:~/emacs$ tla get -A jerome@debian.org--2005 emacs-snapshot-debian--main
archive not registered: jerome@debian.org--2005
(see register-archive)
walla@ubuntu:~/emacs$
....I'm a noob at this stuff
Re: HOWTO: Install GNU Emacs with antialiasing
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wallakoala
I get the following error:
Code:
walla@ubuntu:~/emacs$ tla get -A jerome@debian.org--2005 emacs-snapshot-debian--main
archive not registered: jerome@debian.org--2005
(see register-archive)
walla@ubuntu:~/emacs$
Argh, sorry, I put the wrong line in :-#
I'll change that now.
Re: HOWTO: Install GNU Emacs with antialiasing
Quote:
Originally Posted by trevorv
Argh, sorry, I put the wrong line in :-#
I'll change that now.
Ok, it works now. I'm still waiting for make bootstrap to finish....:P
Re: HOWTO: Install GNU Emacs with antialiasing
Thanks for this. I've been waiting for the antialiasing before giving emacs a serious try.
Quote:
Originally Posted by trevorv
My apologies in advance; I'm not sure of the dependencies, other than CVS and TLA.
Perhaps
Code:
sudo apt-get build-dep emacs
sudo apt-get install cvs tla
would take care of most issues that might come up.
Re: HOWTO: Install GNU Emacs with antialiasing
Wow...this is sick. Emacs looks nice! Thanks for this awesome how to!
Re: HOWTO: Install GNU Emacs with antialiasing
This how-to seems to be very nice. I didn't try it yet, so forgive my ignorance.
If I installed emacs from the repositories with apt-get, as usual. And then install some fonts in X, maybe using xft, for instance, or some other one, and add it to the .Xresource file, would it work? I do also "emacs -fn <somefont>", and seems to be nice. Im using now the font "terminus". I really don't know how better is your recipe.
Re: HOWTO: Install GNU Emacs with antialiasing
Quote:
Originally Posted by ubuntumaneh
If I installed emacs from the repositories with apt-get, as usual. And then install some fonts in X, maybe using xft, for instance, or some other one, and add it to the .Xresource file, would it work? I do also "emacs -fn <somefont>", and seems to be nice. Im using now the font "terminus". I really don't know how better is your recipe.
I'm not 100% sure how Emacs is packaged in the repositories, but I'm almost certain this won't work. Emacs needs to compiled with xft support.
Re: HOWTO: Install GNU Emacs with antialiasing
I have looked around in the web, and happen to learn that what you've just said is correct. Emacs has to be compiled with xft support. I did't know that emacs was not able to support these fonts. I was so used to terminus, that I did't realized there was the possibility to use other fonts in my work. I have installed the cleartype here, but never thought of using it in emacs. So you just point us a very nice thing. I will try your how-to right now.
Hope to see this kind of stuff already in dapper.
Re: HOWTO: Install GNU Emacs with antialiasing
This is great, I though about this earlier today!
Building emacs was a breeze, and it seems to be faster now, too!
I removed all my emacs packages before installing, but I don't know if that's neccessary.
You should recommend 'checkinstall' to everyone. It makes me feel much better about my system, knowing that it's easy to just throw something you compile-istalled out again if you screwed up.