Docbook set-up difficulties

["Ian Miller" <Ian shelob f9 co uk>]

Hello.

Having spent the last couple of days reading docbook
documentation, following links, (cursing blind links,)
and doing *lots* of experiments, I now feel able to
ask a question or two.

What I would like to be able to do is, for example,

  cp gnome-docbook-template.sgml qqq.sgml
  db2html qqq.sgml

and have it work. :-)

At this point I should mention that my Linux system
is entirely self-compiled.  This means advising me to
install <BrandName> package such-and-such isn't
going to be helpful.  I don't install binaries.  Throw
your hands in the air and walk away now if you like.

I have compiled and installed jade, as instructed in
the GDP handbook.  *It* works I think.  At least
it was able to run it on the little demo.sgml file that
comes with the jade source tarball, and the output
looked "well-formed" to me.

I have tarballs for the other things in the GDP
handbook list of things to install, but some of
their installation instructions are not very helpful.

In the case of sgml-common this means
"completely absent".  The GDP's docbook-tools
source tarball configuration script told me that a
program related to catalog installation was missing
and that I should therefore install sgml-common.
Well the sgml-common tarball that I have contains
ISO* files and a catalog but no scripts or programs,
so I'm guessing we have a <BrandName> package
I've-updated-the-package-but-not-the-tarball
situation here.

Anyway, I persevered, and "installed" the
docbook 3.1 DTD and the png-capable one in
/usr/lib/sgml, where several other sgml directories
already were.  (Actually, that's a link I created
to /usr/local/share/sgml which already existed.)
And this leads me to the problem...

The GDP handbook advises me to add a line to
my system's (DTD/SGML?) catalog/CATALOG
file for the png-capable DTD.  Well I don't know
what that is.  Given that I'm the sys admin,
chances are there isn't one :-)  Complaints from
jade about not being able to find DTDs suggest to
me that this is the problem. Where does jade look
for catalog(s) by default? Nowhere (or nohow)
obvious to me (and I have read its manual).

Could some kind soul help me out here?  I think
I just need someone to describe their own
SGML-related directories and possibly what
environment variables they have set.  The contents
and location of a working catalog/CATALOG file
would be particularly helpful probably.

Thankyou for your patience,
Ian