Lotus Notes on Linux
From Poggs' Wiki
I was a user of Lotus Notes for nine years until 2006, and was delighted to hear IBM had released a Notes client which can run natively on Linux. There are ways to make the Notes client run under Linux, but I've never considered WINE to be terribly stable.
Shortly after Notes for Linux was released, I moved jobs and work for a company who use Exchange. This page isn't being updated any more, unless an Exchange-to-Domino migration happens, which is unlikely.
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Architecture
The client runs within IBM's Workplace Managed Client, and Notes is run as a plugin within this environment. WMC is based around Eclipse, although fears of having to maintain two or three additional applications were unfounded - the Notes installation contains everything necessary.
Prerequisites
Make sure you know about Lotus Notes first - if you're a complete beginner and have never used Notes before, you'll have quite some trouble understanding what I'm on about.
On my Debian/sid laptop, I had to install libmotif3, otherwise the initial Notes setup would silently fail and bring up a blank Workplace screen. I've had some trouble installing Notes on my desktop machine - same Debian distribution, but it fails even with libmotif3. I'm still troubleshooting.
- IBM have a collection of common question on Notes for Linux which are useful to know.
- nfstools.com has a guide to installing Notes for Linux on CentOS
- Chris Whisonant has written a page on Notes for Linux
- Jack Dausman wrote a very comprehensive page on Notes for Linux.
Installation
This is one of the times where you really need to read the manual. Fail to, and you'll end up wasting an hour (as I did) trying to work out why the installation silently fails.
For anyone who needs a quick run-through:
- Unpack C93D1NA.zip in to a directory
- Unpack Personality.zip from this directory in to a new directory, which contains the IBM Workplace Managed Client files
- Do a chmod +x on setup_wct_platform.bin and setuplinux.bin
- Copy setuplinux.bin to updateSite/features/com.ibm.workplace.notesinstall.linux.feature_7.0.1.0000-0900/bin/linux/
- Create the file /etc/gre.conf:
[1.7] GRE_PATH=/usr/lib/mozilla
- Run the installer, ./setup_wct_platform.bin
- The Installation wizard for IBM Workplace Managed Client will run, and will state it will install the Lotus Notes plugin.
- After the Software License Agreement, select a directory in which to install the client.
- The installation wizard will confirm the details entered, and will report that it is Installing IBM Workplace Managed Client. Please wait...
- Upon completion, the Setup Wizard for IBM Workplace Managed Client will run, and files will be copied or 'downloaded' from subdirectories.
- After setup is complete, the Notes Application Plugin installer will run.
Installation will dump a load of cruft in your .bash_profile:
- Set $CLASSPATH to the top-level installation directory
- Add the top-level installation directory, and jvm/bim to your path
- Set $NOTESDIR to the data subdirectory of the top-level installation directory
- Set $NOTESBIN to the top-level installation directory
- Add the subdirectories jvm/bin/classic, jvm/bin and the top-level installation directory to $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
I won't comment on the politeness of dumping stuff in one's profile, versus 'source'-ing another file, because it's a minor niggle.
Caveats
- READ THE MANUAL. This is not your standard Debian-packaged software, and you will probably realise how easy Debian makes package installation.
- Make sure you create gre.conf, otherwise the installer will fail to find work out which version of Mozilla you're running. Also, make sure you have Mozilla 1.7 installed somewhere sensible.
- Ensure you have plenty of space in /tmp, important if you run / on a smallish root filesystem. I ran out of space very quickly, leading to somewhat confusing failure messages. I used tmpfs for /tmp, which uses RAM instead of disk space and sped up the installation.
Running the client
It is easier to run the icon on the desktop than execute the following command line:
/home/pwh/wmc/rcp/richclient -personality com.ibm.workplace.noteswc.standalone.linux.personality
On first run, the client will finish installing a few bits and pieces, then pop up the familiar Notes setup dialogs.
Round-up
My impressions? Innovative overall:
- Installation is quite hairy, but I've been spoilt by Debain's superb packaging system, so to others, it may not be as bad.
- Documentation is good and plentiful, up to IBM's usual high standards
- Many of the known bugs are documented with workarounds where possible
- If you assume this release is more of a development effort than production quality, you'll treat it with the respect it needs
I'd like to think IBM are testing the water with the first version of Lotus Notes for Linux. It would be foolish to release a full-blown version of the Notes client on a new OS without it being riddled with bugs. Hopefully, we'll see stability and quality improve in later versions as features are coded in a more platform-independent manner.
Ironically, after becoming excited about running Notes on my Linux machine, I've just accepted a job with another company who run Exchange. I will still keep an eye on the Notes client, and may even see if certain ex-colleagues of mine will give me an account on their Domino servers.
