Running on Linux (incl. WSL)

Medley can run on any Linux system that includes X Windows, including Windows System For Linux on Windows 11 and Windows 10 Build 19044+.

It is also recommended that the Linux system have a web browser installed. For WSL installations, the browser(s) on the Windows side will suffice. A browser is not strictly necessary to run Medley, but several features of the system (e.g., displaying some user documentation) will not work without an external browser installed.

Medley can be installed on your system in one of two configurations: standard and local. Standard installation will install Medley into system directories and install any prerequisite packages. Local installation will install Medley into any user directory but any prerequisite packages must be installed manually.

On WSL, Medley will run on either WSL1 or WSL2. WSL2 is preferred, but for older machines that do not support virtualization (see here) or Windows builds prior to Windows 10 Build 19041, WSL1 will work just fine although it will be limited to the VNC mode (see below). See here for more information on running Medley on WSL.

Standard Installation (Debian-based systems only)

Standard installations are currently supported only for Debian-based systems (i.e., systems that support dpkg), including Debian-based distros on WSL.

In a standard installation, Medley is installed in system directories (specifically, /usr/local/interlisp) and support like man pages and (a link to) the medley executable are also installed in standard system locations (e.g., /usr/local/man and /usr/local/bin).

Standard installations are ideal for users who want to explore Medley (including its system code) or to develop applications built on top of Medley. Standard installations are not good for users who want to modify the Medley system code, since that code is installed in protected locations.

Standard installation uses apt to install a .deb package downloaded from the Medley downloads site. The .deb package will install Medley as well as any other packages needed for Medley to run.

There are separate .deb packages for “standard” Linux and for WSL (as well as for the three machine architectures - X86_64, ARM64, ARMv7). The WSL packages differ only in that they include an additional functionality to have Medley display in a VNC Window instead of a standard X Window. This is useful on high resolution displays since the VNC window will scale according to the Windows Settings->Display->Scale setting, while the X Window on WSL will not so scale. The WSL packages also install the wslu package, which is used by Medley to connect to external browsers as described above. Aside from these two features, a non-WSL .deb package will install and run on WSL.

To install a standard package and run Medley:

  1. Download

    Using a browser download from the Medley downloads site the .deb package for your platform (i.e., “standard” Linux or WSL) and your machine architecture (X86_64, ARM64, or ARMv7) to <deb_filepath>.

    Note that on WSL, <deb_filepath> will depend on whether the browser was started in Windows or in WSL. If downloading to the standard Downloads folder, using a WSL-based browser <deb_filepath> will be in ~/Downloads. If using a Windows-based browser, <deb_filepath> will be in /mnt/c/Users/<username>/Downloads.

  2. Install

    In a terminal:

    ubuntu@oio:~$ sudo apt update
ubuntu@oio:~$ sudo apt install -y <deb_filepath>

  3. Run

    In a terminal:

    ubuntu@oio:~$ medley

    There are many options to the medley command. For a brief overview, run medley --help. For a more complete description, run man medley or medley --man or click here.

    For first-time users: medley --apps or for WSL medley --apps --vnc is a good starting point. This will give you a fully populated Medley system, including the applications built on Medley such as Notecards and Rooms.

Notes:

  • By default, medley will create a directory in $HOME/il. This will be used by the Medley system as its LOGINDIR. Medley will start up with LOGINDIR as its current connected directory. It will load the personal init file (if any) from LOGINDIR/INIT or LOGINDIR/INIT.LCOM. Finally, Medley will use LOGINDIR/vmem/ to store its virtual memory file(s). The location of LOGINDIR can be changed using the --logindir option to medley.

Local Installation

In a local installation, the Medley system is installed into any user directory from a .tar file. Multiple “Medleys” can be installed in different directories on one machine without interference (except see description of Medley LOGINDIR below). Local installation makes it easy (from a file management p.o.v.) to modify the Medley system code.

Local installation doesn’t involve a package manager, so you are responsible for installing any prerequisite packages onto your system before you installing Medley.

Also note that with local installations, man medley will not work. However, as indicated below, ./medley --man will show the medley man page.

To install and run Medley locally:

  1. Install prerequite packages

    • For non-WSL installations, use your distro’s package manager to install xdg-utils.

    • For WSL all installations, use your distro’s package manager to install wslu.

      Note that some distros do not include wslu in their standard repos. See https://wslutiliti.es/wslu/install.html for installation instructions if this is the case.

      Also note that wslu v4.0 does not work with Medley, so you will need to install either a version < v.40 or >= v4.1.

    • For WSL installations where the VNC feature will be used, install the tigervnc-standalone-server and tigervnc-xorg-extension packages.

      When using the VNC feature Medley will display in a VNC Window instead of a standard X Window. This is useful on high resolution displays since the VNC window will scale according to the Windows Settings->Display->Scale setting, while the X Window on WSL will not so scale.

      Note that Medley will install and run even if none of these prerequite packages are installed. However, some features (e.g., viewing documentation in an external browser) will be inoperable.

  2. Download

    Using a browser download from the Medley downloads site the tar (.tgz) file for your platform (i.e., “standard” Linux or WSL) and your machine architecture (X86_64, ARM64, or ARMv7) to <tar_filepath>.

    Note that on WSL, <tar_filepath> will depend on whether the browser was started in Windows or in WSL. If downloading to the standard Downloads folder, using a WSL-based browser <tar_filepath> will be in ~/Downloads. If using a Windows-based browser, <tar_filepath> will be in /mnt/c/Users/<username>/Downloads.

  3. Install Medley

    In a terminal:

    ubuntu@oio:~$ mkdir <interlisp_directory>
ubuntu@oio:~$ tar -C <interlisp_directory> -xzf <tar_filepath>

  4. Run Medley

    In a terminal:

    ubuntu@oio:~$ cd <interlisp_directory>/medley
ubuntu@oio:~$ ./medley

    There are many options to the medley command. For a brief overview, run ./medley --help. For a more complete description, run ./medley --man or click here.

    For first-time users: ./medley --apps or for WSL (and you have installed the VNC prerequisites) ./medley --apps --vnc is a good starting point. This will give you a fully populated Medley system, including the applications built on Medley such as Notecards and Rooms.

Notes:

  • By default, medley will create a directory in $HOME/il. This will be used by the Medley system as its LOGINDIR. Medley will start up LOGINDIR as its current connected directory. It will load any personal init file from LOGINDIR/INIT or LOGINDIR/INIT.LCOM. Finally, Medley will use LOGINDIR/vmem/ to store its virtual memory file(s). The location of LOGINDIR can be changed using the --logindir option to medley. In particular, if you have multiple installations of Medley that you would like to keep completely separate, then you can use the --logindir - option, which will set LOGINDIR to <medley_directory>/logindir.