                                Welcome to SlimServer 
   
This document describes the steps for installing the SlimServer on Unix-like platforms.

Version 5.8.3 or higher of Perl is required.

Version 5.8.8 or higher of Perl is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!

Additional information can be found on the Wiki at: http://wiki.slimdevices.com/

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Generic Notes:

You might be prompted to the Bin/build-perl-modules.pl script on your platform.

If any of the required binary modules fails to load on your system, The script
will download the modules, and build them for your OS. In order for the
build-perl-modules script to run successfully, you must have You must have:

- C Compiler - gcc, or your platforms system compiler (ANSI, not K&R)

- make

- Perl 5.8.3 or greater, and the required development libs (if any; some
  platforms put this in a separate package, such as 'libperl-dev')

- MySQL 4.1.xx or 5.0.xx. Included as a binary with SlimServer for Windows 
  NT/2000/XP, Linux (i386) and Mac OS X.

  This might also be a package on your system, such as mysql-server &
  libdbd-mysql-perl (for the supporting libraries).

  For information about using MySQL with other operating systems, see our Wiki at:
  http://wiki.slimdevices.com/

- For XML::Parser to build properly - http://expat.sourceforge.net/
  This might also be a package on your system, such as expat-dev, libexpat-dev, etc.

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Linux Notes (Debian/Ubuntu Install):

	Please see the Wiki:

	http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?DebianPackage

	for the latest install instructions.

Linux Notes (RPM Install):

	The Linux RPMs install the software under /usr/local/slimserver
	There is one critical config file, /etc/slimserver.config
	There is also a /etc/sysconfig/slimserver that handles
	startup from /etc/rc/d/init.d

	The standard installation creates a non-priviledged user names "slimserver"
	that is used to own files and directories, and is used as the
	login account for the slimserver daemon.

	The standard RPM puts the appropriate entries in /etc/rc.d/init.d
	so that automated startup works as you expect.

	In the 6.* releases, there is a log file written to /tmp/slimserver.log
	This can be changed by editing the /etc/sysconfig/slimserver

	If you've installed the RPM on a RedHat or Mandrake Linux system, you can start 
	the server with this command:

		/etc/rc.d/init.d/slimserver start

	and stop it with this:

		/etc/rc.d/init.d/slimserver stop

	and check that the daemon is running with

		/etc/rc.d/init.d/slimserver status
		
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FreeBSD Notes:

	In a normal installation of FreeBSD the version of Perl is 5.00 and not 
	sufficient for use with the SlimServer software, which requires 5.8.3 or greater.

	To upgrade Perl to 5.8:

	First become the superuser, then issue the following commands

	# cd /usr/ports/lang/perl5.8
	# make install clean
	# rehash
	# use.perl port

	The Linux standard installation creates a user, slimserver, that owns
	all the appropriate files and is the login account for the 
	slimserver daemon. There is no requirement that the slimserver daemon
	execute with extensive priviledges. As always, executing the perl programs
	as "root" is not good security practice.

	You will also need MySQL installed - preferrably 5.0.xx or higher.
	Both the server itself (in your $PATH) and the development libraries.

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Tarball Notes:

	If you aren't installing the RPM, you can start the server from a command line 
	with the following command:

	   ./slimserver.pl --daemon
	   
	This will start up the server and run itself in the background.

	Visit the URL that's printed out with your web browser to configure your 
	SlimServer and see the complete documentation.

	As part of the debugging support, if there is no /etc/slimserver.conf file, or
	if it is not readable when the slimserver starts, it will look for ~.slimserver.conf
	that is, the normally hidden file .slimserver.conf in the home directory of 
	the current user.

	If the server dies without any visible error messages, check the log file.
	For more verbose messages, start the program with the options of --d_server

	To refresh the configuration parameters, you can simply delete the /etc/slimserver.conf
	file (or rename it to something else). This will cause the slimserver to
	search for the ~.slimserver.conf, and failing that, to recreate it with default values.
