23.3.3Installing the Squeak VM
Depending on the Smalltalk dialect you are using, the installation of the VM is different. Installing Squeak on a Debian system is simple. Install Squeak by entering the following command on the terminal:
$ sudo apt-get install squeak-vm
Note that installing and running Squeak does not require you to have the X Window System installed. Just tell the installer not to pull these dependencies in, when you are asked for it. Squeak remains runnable headless without a user-interface, this is what you want to do on most servers anyway. Up-to-date information on the status of the Squeak VM you find at http://www.squeakvm.org/unix/.
Now you should be able to start the VM. Typing the squeak
command executes a helper script that allows one to install new images and sources in the current directory, and run the VM. The VM itself can be started using the squeakvm
command.
$ squeakvm -help $ squeakvm -vm-display-null imagename.image
You can find additional help on starting the VM and the possible command line parameters in the man pages:
$ man squeak
In the next section we are going to look at how we can run the VM as a daemon.