[Axiom-developer] Re: [Axiom-mail] Compiling Axiom

[root]

>>>I compiled axiom at work using Red Hat Fedora Core 2 without any problems.
>>>Axiom does not run when I type "axiom". It returns "Could not find a 
>>>free pty" instead.
>>>      
>>>
>>I have experienced this same problem a few days ago while installing
>>Axiom on a fresh Mandrake 10 system. I am not very familiar with the
>>Mandrake or Redhat distros, but I know they have been fairly similar
>>in the past. Perhaps this fix will work for you. You probably have
>>restrictive permissions for the pty devices under /dev/pty. Try giving
>>yourself read/write access (the error is coming from clef, the Axiom
>>rewrite of GNU Readline, which explains why you do not see the same
>>problem when executing AXIOMsys).

> Steve's suggestion did not work for me. If /dev/pty refers to pty
> directory inside dev directory, then I do not have that directory on
> my Fedora Core 2 installation.  However there a lot of devices that
> start with pty in /dev directory and changing permission of those made
> no difference for me.  What works for me is exporting
> AXIOM=/usr/local/axiom/mnt/linux in .bash_profile file and then
> including alias axiom='AXIOMsys' in .bashrc file. I guess, this is a
> standard technique and it works for a nonprogrammer like me.

AXIOMsys is the name of the actual executable image.
axiom is shell script that starts processes.
At the moment there is only one process, called clef, that we wrote
years ago. It acts like the GNU readline. AXIOMsys will work fine
without clef. Since I run axiom inside of emacs I don't need clef
but others find it useful.

It would be interesting to know some more details about your system.
That way I might be able to reproduce the problem. If I can't reproduce
it I can't fix it. 

Tim