Hint on Configuring the Archivists’ Toolkit on Linux

I finally got the Archivists’ Toolkit configured on a Linux machine for testing. I installed the Linux version of AT with Java VM built in. It was a hefty download, but it seems to work well so far.

I did notice one small peculiarity. When I tried to install using the sh ./InstallArchivistsToolkit.bin command from a terminal, the install would break, and I would get an error that began with awk: error while loading shared libraries: libdl.so.2.

I did a little bit of searching and came across this post. Apparently, when using SUSE (I am using OpenSUSE) and sometimes Fedora, one encounters problems because of a line in the binary file. To quote the above post,

export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5
should read
#xport LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5

The problem is, when you try to open and fix the .bin file in a text editor such as vi, it somehow mangles the code.

To fix the program, here’s what I did. First, I backed up my installer to make sure that I didn’t have to redownload. Then, I installed GHex, the Gnome Hex editor. If you’re using SUSE, you can install it with Yast. If you’re using Fedora, you can probably install it with Yum.

After you install GHex, start it. Click on File, then Open, and open the InstallArchivistsToolkit.bin install file. Left click on the right panel (ie. the one with characters that make sense.) Click on Edit, then replace. Type export LD in the right panel of the find section and #xport LD in the right panel of the replace section. Click on replace all. Cancel out of the replace dialog and save the file.

You should be able to run the file now. However, if you have to make this modification, you will also have to modify more of the Archivists’ Toolkit files in the exact same manner. I had to enter my Archivists_Toolkit directory and change both the Archivists_Toolkit and the AT_Initialize_Database files as well in order to get the program to run correctly. If in doubt about any part of the program, run that part from the command line, and watch for the results. If it fails because of this error, you will see awk: error while loading shared libraries: libdl.so.2 when it fails. If you see that, you know you need to edit the file.

More on Archon

For those interested in finding out more about the Archon Project, the project’s website now has a listserv and better documentation.

New Tool for Archivists

I mentioned earlier that the Archivist’s Toolkit had been released. Tomorrow, the Archon Project is scheduled to release version 1.10 of Archon. I played with version 1. It was easy to install and a very powerful tool. The digital library function was particularly promising. I noticed a couple of bugs in version 1 while testing it, so I didn’t put it into production. I am fairly certain that these bugs will be remedied in this latest release, and I cannot wait until I get the time to install and test it. All the folks at UIUC who were involved in this project need to be congratulated for their vision and vigor because they brought such a project into being. What an interesting and exciting time it is to be an archivist!

Exceptional Find

I just found a website that has sections of Conrad Gesner’s Historia Animalium. The images are simply incredible! The images below are an example. Being a USC Gamecocks fan, I just had to share…