Installing GNAT and AWS 2012 on Linux

In the past I have tried to install AWS on Windows and found it terribly difficult and, most importantly, never succeeded in building an SSL application (which is mission-critical for me). From several sources including the excellent people on the AWS forum I gathered the intuition that I might succeed on Linux. So I installed a Linux and... indeed succeeded building an SSL application!

The installation of GNAT GPL 2012 and, principally, AWS, on Linux, is not without a few difficulties. For myself and others, hereby I try to record the process step-by-step. This instalation is for AWS with SSL, sans any other extras.

1. Install Linux

I wanted to work on my Windows laptop (I need it for other projects), so I installed Linux on a virtual machine on that system.

1.1 Install VirtualBox

IIRC, this free software from Oracle installs out of the box, no difficulties here.

1.2 Install Ubuntu Desktop
Ubuntu is a Linux. The principal trick here is to install the Desktop version, not the Server version.
1.2.1 Download the ISO image of the Ubuntu Desktop installation CD.
1.2.2 Create a virtual machine on VirtualBox. IIRC, I used all default values.
1.2.3 Setup the virtual machine with a virtual CD-drive from the ISO image.
1.2.4 Turn on the virtual machine and install Ubuntu from the virtual CD.
1.3 From this point on, all operations are done on this Ubuntu system.

2. Install GNAT

2.1 Make a download package with GNAT GPL 2012 and AWS, from libre.adacore.com (the AWS part is a preparation for part 3); download, unzip, untar the package.
2.2 Run the installation program as superuser:
2.2.1 sudo ./doinstall
2.2.2 accept all default values.
2.3 Set the paths
2.3.1 export PATH=/usr/gnat/bin:$PATH
2.3.2 export LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu (or similar)
2.4 Test: write, build and run "hello.adb"

3. Install OpenSSL

3.1 Download the latest package and install thus (takes a while):
3.1.1 ./config
3.1.2 make
3.1.3 make test
3.1.4 sudo make install

4. Install AWS

4.1 Unzip and untar the AWS package downloaded in step 2.1

4.2 Change to the directory ending in "-src"

4.3 Edit "makefile.conf" as follows:
4.3.1 prefix = /usr/gnat
4.3.2 SOCKET = openssl

4.4 Edit "config/makefile" as follows:
4.4.1 LPATH = /usr/local/ssl/lib

4.5 Set the path
4.5.1 export C_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/include/i386-linux-gnu (or similar)

4.6 Issue the commands:
4.6.0 make clean
4.6.0.1 this is absolutely required if previous installations have been attempted and have failed
4.6.1 make SOCKET=openssl setup
4.6.1.1 ignore the error "Can not generate system tags. The test are disabled" (sic)
4.6.2 make
4.6.2.1 ignore the warnings "no compiler specified for language "makefile", ignoring all its sources"; ignore the warnings about ZLib licensing
4.6.3 sudo make install
4.6.3.1 ignore the errors about not being able to stat aws.html/txt/info

4.7 Test AWS
To test AWS I use the provided demos. Make on the "demos" directory does not work; we must go into each demo subdir and try make, or else gnatmake the provided project file
4.7.1 Change to a subdirectory of "demos", e.g. "demos/runme"
4.7.2 Try make
4.7.2.1 Upon success, goto 4.7.4; upon the error "make: Nothing to be done for `all'.", try 4.7.3
4.7.2.2 Probably method 4.7.3 always works i.e. there is always a valid .gpr file, so we can skip 4.7.2 entirely
4.7.3 Build the provided project, e.g.
4.7.3.1 gnatmake -P runme.gpr
4.7.4 Execute the program e.g.
4.7.4.1 ./runme