LimeWire is a great program you can use to access Gnutella, the free file-sharing network. LimeWire works well, looks great, and is written in 100% Java.
Since LimeWire is written in Java, you need to have Java installed on your computer first. If you haven't yet, go to "Install Java" and follow those instructions. Then come back here to continue with LimeWire.
Download LimeWire from http://www.limewire.com/index.jsp/download. If you click the first Linux link, you'll actually be taken to CNET's Download.com to get the file. I've noticed one really annoying thing about downloading from CNET with Mozilla 0.9.3, which is what I'm using now. If you've got Javascript turned on, then CNET tells your browser to start downloading the file automatically. Unfortunately, the file ends with the ".bz2" extension, and Mozilla doesn't know that it's supposed to save a bz2 file, so instead it just displays it in the browser window, which is completely useless. So you've got two choices - turn off Javascript temporarily in Mozilla before you get to CNET (Edit > Preferences > Advanced, & then uncheck "Enable JavaScript for Navigator") and then turn it on again when you're done downloading, or go to one of the other download sites listed on http://www.limewire.com/index.jsp/download.
Once you've successfully downloaded LimeWire, move it to the directory we're going to keep it in and then cd there yourself:
# mv LimeWireLinux.tgz /usr/local
# cd /usr/local
Now unpack the tar file and then cd into the resulting directory:
# tar zxvf LimeWireLinux.tgz
# cd LimeWire
LimeWire requires that you run the following command first before going any further:
# export J2SE_PREEMPTCLOSE=1
Now the moment of truth. Let's start LimeWire for the first time in order to configure it. Make sure you're in the LimeWire directory (/usr/local/LimeWire) and run the following:
$ /usr/local/j2re1.3.1/bin/java -cp . RunLime
If you see several limes complaining that "Font specified in font.properties not found", don't worry - LimeWire should still run. In fact, LimeWire should now be running and asking you to configure it. Go ahead and do so. Test it and make sure you can download something from the Gnutella network. Then, after you've made sure everything works, close the program.
I don't know about you, but I don't particularly feel like typing in this - /usr/local/j2re1.3.1/bin/java -cp . RunLime - every time I want to run LimeWire. So let's make an alias instead. If you don't know anything about aliases, check out "Add aliases" first. Add the following alias to /etc/bashrc (remember, you've got to be root):
$ alias limewire='/usr/local/j2re1.3.1/bin/java -cp .'
Now in order to run LimeWire, you'll still need to be in the LimeWire directory at /usr/local/LimeWire, but you'll have to type a lot less. In fact, you'll cd to /usr/local/LimeWire, and then run the following:
$ limewire RunLime
Don't forget that you've got to run the following command from within /etc in order to make your new alias active (or log out & log back in, but who wants to do that?):
$ . bashrc
By the way, don't forget to take care of the tar file - it's not a good idea to leave junk all over your filesystem. You can either delete the file - rm /usr/local/LimeWireLinux.tgz - or save it in case you ever need it again, or want to use it on another machine. That's what I do, and I created a special directory in my home directory that I use to store downloaded installers. So I use this command instead:
$ mv LimeWireLinux.tgz /home/rsgranne/src/installed
If you want to do this, substitute your username for mine (rsgranne) and mkdir "src" and "installed" first!
|