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Downloading and installing cnet v4.0.4

The cnet network simulator (v4.0.4)
© Copyright (C) 1992-onwards, written by [email protected]
under licence - creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

cnet has been tested and is supported on the following platforms:

Apple M-series 'Silicon' processor (built on macOS Sonoma 14.3)
Apple with 64-bit Intel processor (built on macOS Sonoma 14.3)
Linux on 64-bit Intel processor (built on Ubuntu 23.10)

and uses the cross-platform wxWidgets GUI toolkit. The provided pre-built binaries are statically linked, and should not have additional dependencies. However, cnet protocols are compiled and linked by your native C or C++ compiler (clang on macOS, or gcc on Linux), so you will require a compiler on your system. If your platform does not exactly match any platform, above, try the installation shellscript anyway.

cnet does not run natively on Windows (any offers?) but you should have success using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL-2) on Windows-11. On a multiuser system cnet only needs to be installed once. Students on such systems do not need to install their own copies unless they wish to modify and experiment with the cnet implementation itself.

cnet's version number changes when a change to its source code affects cnet's execution semantics. The version number does not change if cosmetic changes are made to the source code, or if the documentation changes.

If you find these instructions confusing, but eventually get cnet installed, please email [email protected] with any suggestions on how the instructions could be clearer.

Firstly, for Linux (native or WSL-2)

The pre-built binary for Linux (for both native Linux, and on WSL-2) has been built on Ubuntu 23.10, and requires versions of some libraries not available in earlier Ubuntu distributions. In particular, if you are running a very standard copy of WSL-2 in Windows, or have not updated your system for a while, it is probably running Ubuntu 22.04 (nearly 2 years old).

So, your Linux distribution will likely need updating first - not a difficult task, but one that will take (about) 10 minutes if you have a good Internet connection (suggest doing this on-campus).

Firstly, we need to both update and upgrade your existing system, and will need to do this from the root acccount.
```
     shell> sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y 
```
Next, (again as root), edit the last line of text file /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades. It probably says "Prompt=lts" and it needs to say "Prompt=normal"
```
     shell> sudo your-favourite-text-editor /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades        
```
Next, we start the lengthy process of upgrading your current Ubuntu distribution to Ubuntu 23.10 You will be prompted several times about certain actions - choose the default action, often 'Y'.
```
     shell> sudo do-release-upgrade                 
```
If all appears to have gone smoothly(??), quit and restart WSL-2. You should now be able to see that your system has been upgraded to Ubuntu 23.10:
```
     shell> cat /etc/os-release                     
```
When you now (finally) get to install cnet following the instructions, below, you may still require some additional packages. Please report these as you uncover problems.
```
     shell> sudo apt install libsm6                 
```

Then, just for WSL-2

A number of students have reported further success by installing an X-windows server on their Windows machine, to enable Linux GUI programs (running inside WSL-2) to be displayed on the main Windows display.

Follow these instructions to download and install VcXsrv from here. You do not need the other software discussed, like Cypress.

Run the command (in Linux)

     shell> export DISPLAY=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2; exit;}'):0.0

for macOS or Linux

Download the shellscript install-cnet.sh

Make the shellscript executable, and run it:

     shell> chmod +x install-cnet.sh            
     shell> ./install-cnet.sh

If all goes well, you should see output similar to:

 downloading cnet-Darwin-arm64                                         
 installing executable as /usr/local/bin/cnet                          
                                                                       
 downloading cnet-lib.tgz                                              
 installing resources in /usr/local/lib/cnet                           
                                                                       
 -rwxr-xr-x   1 chris  staff  6275048 Mar  9 03:52 /usr/local/bin/cnet 
 drwxr-xr-x  81 chris  staff     2592 Mar  9 03:52 /usr/local/lib/cnet

Set a shell alias to remember the executable's location:

     shell> alias cnet=/usr/local/bin/cnet

These instructions will download and install the necessary files, and set a shell alias for the executable. However, the alias is a configuration in the current shell, and will be forgotten when that shell terminates. To make the alias persistent it needs to be added to a file read by your shell when it is first invoked.

Determine your shell:
```
     shell> echo $SHELL                         
```
- if your shell is bash, add the alias command to the file ~/.bashrc
- if your shell is zsh, add the alias command to the file ~/.zshrc
and start a new shell (or a new terminal window).

Removing cnet

To remove the cnet executable and its resources, execute

     shell> rm -rf /usr/local/bin/cnet /usr/local/lib/cnet

Building cnet from source

Coming soon ... (are you really sure you wish to do this?)

cnet v4.0.4 - [email protected]