FreeBSD Port: slimserver-6.0.2

[clive at delback.co.uk]

Dear Brooks,

I understand that you are the maintainer of the FreeBSD port of Slimserver.
I wonder if I could impose on your time for a little advice?

I should point out that I'm new to FreeBSD, but decided to try it since it
has a reputation of being very stable and able to run on quite modest
hardware. (The machine I have available is a 400MHz AMD K6-2, currently with
just 128MB of RAM, although I can increase that if necessary). I have got
some way, but am now stuck, and to be frank I'm not even confident that I'm
doing the right things. So I wondered if I could ask you whether the
sequence of operations I've tried is actually correct. Here's what I've
done:

1. Downloaded and installed the minimal install of FreeBSD 5.3 production
release onto a completely empty hard disk - no other operating systems are
lying around to confuse things. This appears to be working fine - it behaves
very much like System V Unixes that I've worked on many years ago.

2. I read that Slimserver needs Perl 5.8.6, so I downloaded the package
(perl-5.8.6_2.tbz) and installed that. It reported that it had installed
correctly.

3. I next downloaded slimserver.tar.gz (for version 6.0.2). As far as I can
tell, this should be expanded out into /usr/ports/audio/slimserver. After
installing FreeBSD, there was already a /usr/ports/audio/slimserver, but it
was for version 5.3.0. So I renamed that directory and created a new
/usr/ports/audio/slimserver, into which I placed all the files from
slimserver.tar.gz. I made sure the permissions on the directory were the
same as they were on the previous one that I'd renamed.

4. Running "make install" for slimserver automatically downloaded and
installed two other components: "mDNSResponderPosix" and "expat.5". I get
the impression that had I not already installed Perl 5.8.6, then the
slimserver install would have also downloaded and installed that.

So far so good. Can I just ask whether I've done the right things up to this
point?

After the slimserver installation had successfully installed these other
components, it tried to proceed with its own installation, and at this point
my problems began.....

It attempted to run "pkg-install" from the subdirectory "work", but this
file was not present. I saw that there was a file called "pkg-install.in" in
the "files" subdirectory, so I copied over to the "work"directory and
renamed it to drop the ".in" suffix. Was it correct to do this?

Re-running "make install", it got a bit further, then tried to run
"work/slimserver.sh", which again was missing. Looking in the "files"
directory, I saw "slimserver.sh.in", and also "softsqueeze.sh.in". Figuring
that perhaps both of these ought to be in "work", I copied them both over
and dropped the ".in" suffixes.

This time "make install" complained that the file
/usr/local/slimserver/Cache already existed. I surmised that
/usr/local/slimserver had been created during the previous pkg-install run
and had been left behind, presumably in a partially completed state, so I
deleted that directory and tried again.

Now, running "make install" starts doing something and appears to get
further, but fails with these errors:

  cp %%PREFIX%%/%%SLIMDIR%%/%%CONFFILES%%.sample: no such file or directory
  chmod %%PREFIX%%/%%SLIMDIR%%/%%CONFFILES%%: no such file or directory

I cannot find either of these commands in any of the script files inside the
/usr/ports/audio/slimserver directory hierarchy. I would imagine that items
such as %%PREFIX%%, %%SLIMDIR%%, etc. are some sort of variable that should
be automatically replaced during script executing, but I have no idea what
with.

At this point I decided that, since I am not confident I've done the right
things in any case, I should seek some expert advice. I've seen postings on
the Slim Devices forum implying that a FreeBSD install should go smoothly,
so I'm doubly concerned that I've done something silly. Is there a
step-by-step (ie. idiot's) guide to installing Slimserver on FreeBSD
anywhere?

If you can suggest anywhere that I've gone wrong, I would be most grateful.

Best wishes,
Clive Backham