TKAlbum Installation

TKAlbum is easy to install because it is just a script. However, one needs a number of other programs to actually run it. Chances are that the first 4 systems are already installed on your systems or that they can be easily installed from your distribution CDs. Furthermore, if you already have installed the album script, then you can skip steps 5 up to 7.
  1. Make sure that Tcl/TK 8.4 (or higher) is installed. Type which wish to find out whether Tcl/TK is there. Since it is part of any decent Linux distribution, it should be already there. Otherwise it can be easily installed from your Linux CD-ROM set or from http://tcl.activestate.com/. If you have an earlier version of Tcl/Tk, TKAlbum might still run, but I cannot guarantee it. (Debian packages: tcl8.4 and tk8.4)

  2. Make sure that Perl is installed. Type which perl to find out. If it is not there, install it from your Linux CD-ROM set or from http://www.perl.com/. (Debian package: perl)

  3. Check whether the IJG JPEG programs have been installed. If which jpegtran, which rdjpgcom, and which wrjpgcom are successful, you don't need anything to do. Otherwise install jpeg-xxxx.i386.rpm from your Linux CD-ROM set or download the programs from http://www.ijg.org/. (Debian package: libjpeg-progs or libjpeg-progs-mmx)

  4. Check whether Image Magick's tools convert, mogrify, and display are installed. If not, install them from your Linux CD-ROM set or from http://www.imagemagick.org/. (Debian package: imagemagick)

  5. Download album.tgz from http://marginalhacks.com/Hacks/album/Download.html or install from your Linix CD-ROM. (Debian package album).

  6. Copy the album script to a place which is part of the path variable, e.g., /usr/local/bin (of course, you need root permissions for that) or ~/bin, if you do not want to install the program systemwide. Type album -h in a shell to check whether album starts. If not, you probably have to change the first line of the album script to correctly point to the Perl interpreter.

    You may also want to copy the ffmpeg program to the same place. This program can be used to generate thumbnails from mpeg movies.

    In addition, there is much more at http://marginalhacks.com/Hacks/album/ that you may want to use. In particular, you may be interested in themes that change the appearance of the photo albums.

  7. Before album can be used, it must be called once to setup some things. It is good idea to do that now.

  8. Check whether xzgv is already installed. If not, install it from your Linux CD-ROM set or from http://rus.members.beeb.net/xzgv.html. Alternatively, you could use Image Magick's display program, which is much slower, though. (Debian package: xzgv)

  9. Install the jhead utility. Either get it from your distro CD-ROM or from the web (Debian package: jhead).

    If you cannot find a pre-built binary, download jhead-xxx.tgz from http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/jhead/, extract the jhead-xxx directory and cd into it. Type ``make'' and copy the resulting executable file jhead to a place where one can easily execute it, e.g., /usr/local/bin or ~/bin. Try it out by applying jhead to some JPEG file that has been produced by a digicam.

  10. Assuming that you already have downloaded tkalbum-xxx.tgz and have extracted the files, it is now time to cd into the tkalbum source directory, get root permissions, and type ``make install.'' This will copy the tkalbum script to /usr/local/bin and the man file to /usr/local/man/man1. Of course, you also can copy the tkalbum script to any other place, e.g. ~/bin.

  11. You are all set and can start TKAlbum by typing tkalbum. On its start, it will check that all component programs are there and that they have the right version number. You can disable this check in the General Option dialog.

    Before you can do anything useful, you have to setup a root album using the File > Set root album command. I recommend to read the README file to get an idea what you can do with TKAlbum. I also recommend to read the Documentation.html file in the album directory to get an idea what you can do with the album script.

  12. Note that it is a good idea to change convert to fconvert in the General Options menu. The fconvert script that comes with TKAlbum is much faster than convert for all cases we care about.

  13. In the same menu, it is also a good idea to replace the call to jpegtran by a call to jpegtran-mmx if possible