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The basics of setting up an open-source Actionscript 2 development environment are detailed very well by Carlos Rovira [1] in his excellent article "Towards Open Source Flash Development." After reading that post, you may be wondering, "Ok, Eclipse is Java-based, this setup should work on GNU/Linux...does it?". Yep. But it's not particularly straightforward.

Install Ubuntu

Here's how to get the FAMES environment working on Ubuntu GNU/Linux [2] - it's a good distro to choose if you're new to GNU/Linux, because it's got Debian's [3] fantastic package management and excellent hardware detection, with (as this is written) a very up-to-date selection of software. I used the Ubuntu "Breezy Badger" preview release [4], but the instructions below should work with any Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution.

I'm assuming that you're familiar with the basics of installing GNU/Linux, using the command line, and using apt-get or Synaptic for package management - a full tutorial about all of these subjects is a little beyond the scope of an article like this one. Do your partitioning, run a base install, and get your security updates. The Ubuntu Forums[5] are a good place to find help if you're having trouble with a basic install. If you're experimenting with GNU/Linux for the first time, take a look through the Ubuntu Guide [6].

Add repositories

Due to patent laws [7] and the goal of maintaining a completely Free Software operating system, the base Ubuntu install doesn't contain some of the key software components you need to get the FAMES environment to run. The non-free Sun Java binaries and the non-free Macromedia Flash Player are the primary things you need from outside the main Ubuntu distro. I'll try to find time to do some testing with fully Free Software alternatives in the near future, but it may still be a while before Actionscript coders can take their rightful place within the ranks of the ideologically pure[8].

As a side note, Actionscripters who care about Free Software [9] should apparently be working on their beards[10] [11] as well as free component sets and class libraries. While growing yours, or waiting for one to arrive in the mail if you don't have the hormones, you can add some extra repositories to your stock Ubuntu install. Fire up a command line and type:

This will display your current list of software sources, that is, where your system downloads its software from. Here's my sources.list, you should be able to copy and paste it into your sources.list, save the file, and be in business:

Note: In theory you really only needs Section 2 and Section 3, but I haven't tested this install procedure that way; if you have success doing it that way please let me know.

Don't forget to update your system's list of available packages after changing your sources.list:

Note: The repository URLs for the Marillat [12] (http://debian.video.free.fr/) and/or the Ubuntu Backports [13] (http://backports.ubuntuforums.org/) repositories may be subject to change. If the lines from Section 2 and Section 3 in the above sources.list generate errors, go to the websites for those projects and check to see if the repository URLs are the same as what I've got above. In particular, the Ubuntu Backports repositories will probably change soon, as they currently point to the Hoary Hedgehog (5.04) archives rather than the new Breezy Badger (5.10) archives.

Now you can install the Flash player:

(or use Synaptic to do the same thing).

Install Java 1.5

Flashout needs Java 1.5 to run properly, but Ubuntu ships with Java 1.4.2. Installing Java 1.5 on Ubuntu can be a little bit daunting if you've never done it before, there are detailed instructions available on the web, the installation of Java 1.5 works pretty well if you simply follow the first post in this thread [14].

Here's the catch: that process gets you Java, but typing

at a command line tells you, frustratingly, that the system is still using Java 1.4.2. Now, you could enter a really long command line to tell Eclipse to fire up using the correct Java interpreter every time you want to use it, or you could switch the default Java Virtual Machine. I chose the second route, for the sake of convenience. To switch the default JVM to version 1.5, you need to run the following command in the terminal:

...and wherever update-alternatives comes up with a java binary that's not version 1.5, select it. You'll get asked a number of times to select what programs to use for a specific function. If it's not a java-related program, just accept the default, but if you see something with java in it, select the java 1.5 option:

In this case you should select "3".

Install Eclipse

In a rare (for me) departure from apt-get convention, I'd advise you not to bother with getting Eclipse from the Ubuntu repositories. Eclipse has a great internal update system of its own and there's no real reason to depend on apt-get to deal with upgrading all of your finicky IDE settings. Just download Eclipse normally and stick it somewhere like /opt/eclipse (Note: I used this location and the rest of this tutorial assumes that this is where you've placed your Eclipse binary, keep your eyes open when following the directions below if you've put it in a different spot). If you want a more detailed look at the different ways to install Eclipse on Ubuntu, take a peek at the Ubuntu tutorial on the subject, but keep in mind that all I did was go to the Eclipse.org download site and grab the latest, greatest .tar.gz file I could get my hands on (Eclipse 3.1.1 as I write this). Please note that the latest versions of Flashout require Eclipse 3.1 or better.

Install MTASC, ASDT, and Flashout

Installation of MTASC, ASDT, and Flashout works pretty much like it does in the Rovira article[15] or the various tutorials on http://osflash.org [16]. I copied the MTASC binary and libraries to /opt/mtasc/, you can place them wherever you like.

Fix the SWT Error

However, once all preferences are set, and a Flashout file created for the project, double-clicking on the Flashout file to set compilation preferences brings up a notice from Eclipse when you go to view your Flashout file, saying that an SWT error has occurred. This is due to the MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME environment variable not being set. You can set it by editing your .bashrc file.

Add these lines to the bottom:

At this point it should all be working! You can run your new environment by typing

at a command line, and set up the Actionscript 2 (ASDT), MTASC, and Flashout preferences normally as in the Rovira article.

A More Convenient SWT Error Fix

Opening a terminal and typing "/opt/eclipse/eclipse" at the command line works, but it's not the most elegant solution - an application launcher would be more convenient, but making a new launcher and pointing it to /opt/eclipse/eclipse results in the SWT error coming back. This happens because the launcher doesn't have access to the exported bash shell environment variables. There is a way to do it, though: export the MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME variable in the /etc/environment file. To do this, type

and paste the statements exporting the environment variable into it:

After logging out of GNOME and logging back in, the MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME variable is now available to everything in the GNOME environment, including any application launchers you make. To add a new launcher, right-click on the taskbar, and select "Add to panel==>Custom application launcher". Enter "Eclipse" for the Name field, and "/opt/eclipse/eclipse" in the Command. Clicking on the launcher brings up the fully-functional Eclipse environment. Don't forget to delete the "export MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME" directive from your .bashrc file!

Getting the MM classes from the Windows partition

If you're dual-booting, you may want to use the Macromedia Actionscript 2 classes from your Windows installation. Depending on what instructions you gave Ubuntu when you went through your partitioning process, your Windows volume may already be mounted on the desktop. If it's not, you can set it to mount automatically at boot time (and mount it right now for immediate use).

At a command line:

Then add a line to your /etc/fstab so that Linux can find your Windows filesystem:

Assuming you've already made the /media/windows directory, you can just paste in the following line:

At this point, you could restart the machine to have the Windows partition mount, or you could simply run the following command in a terminal instead:

A drive icon with the label "windows" should appear on the desktop immediately. After that you can point Flashout and MTASC to your core Macromedia classes in the same way as you would on Windows or OS X.