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Hello all: |
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|
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I think Gentoo Linux is a great idea and have been anxious to try it. The lack |
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of a BSD-like packages system in most Linux distributions and the very weak design |
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behind the RPM tools and format have been the most frustrating aspects of maintaining |
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Linux systems for me. Last week I had an opportunity to try the 1.0_rc6-r11 release |
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of Gentoo Linux since this was the latest .tgz file available (I don't have a CD |
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burner). |
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|
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I found the build/bootstrap instructions are well written but they don't include any |
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information about what to do when problems in package building occur. So far I've |
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encountered two problems: |
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|
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1. the m4 package had the wrong URI in it (probably the code has moved). The |
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emerge tool did not report an error in this case but would simply hang. This |
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was a bit difficult to track down because the tool reports only the package |
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which it is fetching but not the full URI from which it is fetching. Additionally, |
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it would be helpful to have a summary of where emerge gets and writes its information |
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to and from. Things to document might include: where the list of dist files is |
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kept, where each package emerge configuration file can be found, where downloaded |
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package source distributions are stored and so forth. |
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|
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Fixing the URI did not seem to fix the problem but manually downloading the .tgz |
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and putting it in the right directory allowed the build to continue. |
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|
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2. Near the very end of building the 'db' package, a fatal error about some invalid |
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structure type occurs. I have not been able to get past this one and could use |
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any suggested help. |
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|
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I am using an old Pentium II box with only 32 Meg of RAM to initially test the |
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Gentoo Linux build process before trying to utilize it on a more modern production |
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machine. I am using an existing ext2 partition and so did not do any new |
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partitioning before embarking on this build. |
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|
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Since quite often people will probably build their own releases of |
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Gentoo, one option you might consider adding to the package system |
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during initial configuration is to allow the builder to set an option |
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which, whenever a fatal build failure occurs, e-mails the developer |
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list with key information about the system and the particular build |
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failure. This would lead to much more rapid and complete bug |
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reporting. And since the builder would consciously select this option |
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there is no privacy issue. |
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|
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I'm in the mid-down New York City area. If anyone happens to be in |
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the vicinity and might like to work with me on getting a good build, I |
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would much appreciate it (I can offer you emacs or other developer tool |
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assistance in exchange. Once the kinks are worked out, I would be |
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happy to switch all of my machines to Gentoo. E-mail based feedback |
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would be appreciate too; please e-mail directly as I am not on the |
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dev-gentoo list. |
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|
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Best regards, |
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|
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Bob Weiner |