Kenyon Ralph: xmobar on Debian

20090105 update: I’m running Debian on my main desktop machine now. Here’s what I did this time. I was running Ubuntu, and the notes I wrote for that still exist below.
20100315 update: Probably none of these instructions are necessary anymore, since a recent version of xmobar is in the Debian repositories. Just sudo aptitude install xmobar should be sufficient.

How to install xmobar on Debian.

I already had zlib1g-dev and libxft-dev installed. zlib1g-dev would be pulled in by libghc6-zlib-dev anyway. Also already used aptitude to install xmonad, so that might have pulled in some dependencies necessary for the following steps.

Debian instructions
1. stm
2. cabal
3. HTTP and zlib
4. cabal-install
5. X11-xft
6. xmobar
7. Notes
Old Ubuntu instructions

Debian instructions

stm

sudo aptitude install libghc6-stm-dev # dependency of xmobar

cabal

Since Debian sid doesn’t have the Haskell X11-xft package, I want to install it with cabal-install, which Debian also does not have.

darcs get --partial http://darcs.haskell.org/cabal-branches/cabal-1.6/ # (Per https://www.haskell.org/cabal/code.html.) Due to cabal-install’s dependence on Cabal >=1.6 && <1.7, but Debian sid has Cabal-1.2.3.0 at the moment, which is part of ghc6.
cd cabal-1.6
ghc --make Setup && ./Setup configure --user && ./Setup build && ./Setup install
cd ..

HTTP and zlib

HTTP and zlib are dependencies of cabal-install.

sudo aptitude install libghc6-http-dev libghc6-zlib-dev # pulls in libghc6-network-dev and libghc6-parsec-dev

Debian squeeze currently doesn’t have the required version of libghc6-http-dev, so following https://web.archive.org/web/20100914185529/http://projects.haskell.org/http/:

git clone git://code.galois.com/HTTPbis.git
runhaskell Setup configure --user && runhaskell Setup build && runhaskell Setup install

cabal-install

darcs get --partial http://darcs.haskell.org/cabal-install/
cd cabal-install
runhaskell Setup configure --user && runhaskell Setup build && runhaskell Setup install
cd ..

cabal binary is now installed as ~/.cabal/bin/cabal. I’ve added ~/.cabal/bin to my PATH.

X11-xft

cabal update
cabal install X11-xft

xmobar

darcs get --partial http://code.haskell.org/xmobar/
cd xmobar
runhaskell Setup configure --user --flags="with_xft" && runhaskell Setup build && runhaskell Setup install

Now the xmobar binary is installed as ~/.cabal/bin/xmobar.

At first, Setup configure could not find X11-xft, even though ghc-pkg list showed X11-xft as being installed in my home directory. This was because I forgot the “--user” option to Setup configure.

Notes

PROTIP: After doing any runhaskell Setup configure --user && runhaskell Setup build && runhaskell Setup install, that package is registered under ~/.ghc and visible to ghc-pkg. If you rm -rf ~/.cabal without ghc-pkg unregistering the package, then subsequent builds will fail.
runhaskell is equivalent to runghc. I suppose runhaskell is more generic, so that compilers other than ghc can be run.
Haskell Package Version Tracker - Debian versus Hackage
I had to add lowerOnStart = True to my xmobarrc to get it to work this time. Otherwise it’s the same as shown at the bottom of this page.

Old Ubuntu instructions

(December 2008) I use xmonad on Ubuntu. I use the xmobar status bar with it. Ubuntu doesn’t have a package for xmobar, nor for many of its dependencies. So to build xmobar I had to build and install a bunch of dependencies. Also, in order to make installing Haskell packages easier, I installed cabal-install, which had its own dependencies.

Dependencies with Ubuntu packages

First some dependencies can be installed using aptitude. These are libxft-dev (for xft support in xmobar), and zlib1g-dev for building cabal-install.

Building cabal-install dependencies

Building parsec, stm, network, http, and zlib should now work with the command runhaskell Setup configure --user && runhaskell Setup build && runhaskell Setup install for each. Or you could use the bootstrap.sh included with cabal-install.

I think those are all of the dependencies.

Building cabal-install

Now cabal-install should install into your home directory with the standard Haskell configure, build, and install commands:

runhaskell Setup configure --user && runhaskell Setup build && runhaskell Setup install

Installing X11-xft

With cabal installed, a simple cabal install X11-xft should work.

Building xmobar

Finally, I was able to build xmobar. I’m using the version pulled directly from the darcs repository.

xmobar.config

Here is my ~/.xmonad/xmobar.config:

Config { font = "-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-13-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
        , bgColor = "black"
        , fgColor = "grey"
        , position = TopW L 90
        , commands = [ Run Weather "KNKX" ["-t","<station>: <tempC>C","-L","18","-H","25","--normal","green","--high","red","--low","lightblue"] 36000
                    , Run Network "eth0" ["-L","0","-H","32","--normal","green","--high","red"] 10
                    , Run Cpu ["-L","3","-H","50","--normal","green","--high","red"] 10
                    , Run Memory ["-t","Mem: <usedratio>%"] 10
                    , Run Swap [] 10
                    , Run Com "uname" ["-s","-r"] "" 36000
                    , Run Date "%a %b %_d %Y %H:%M:%S" "date" 10
                    , Run StdinReader
                    ]
        , sepChar = "%"
        , alignSep = "}{"
        , template = "%StdinReader% }{ %cpu% | %memory% * %swap% | %eth0% <fc=#ee9a00>%date%</fc>| %KNKX% | %uname%"
        }

External links

This blog post was helpful: http://gimbo.org.uk/blog/2007/04/27/haskell-packages-gotcha-global-vs-per-user-package-databases/
Help make Ubuntu packages for Haskell stuff: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/Teams/UncommonProgrammingLanguages/Haskell
This thread helped figure out why zlib wasn’t building: https://www.nabble.com/zlib,-missing-zlib.h-td17547823.html