[gentoo-dev] 2 build problems with Gentoo Linux 1.0_rc6-r11

[Bob Weiner]

Hello all:

I think Gentoo Linux is a great idea and have been anxious to try it.  The lack
of a BSD-like packages system in most Linux distributions and the very weak design
behind the RPM tools and format have been the most frustrating aspects of maintaining
Linux systems for me.  Last week I had an opportunity to try the 1.0_rc6-r11 release
of Gentoo Linux since this was the latest .tgz file available (I don't have a CD
burner).

I found the build/bootstrap instructions are well written but they don't include any
information about what to do when problems in package building occur.  So far I've
encountered two problems:

  1.  the m4 package had the wrong URI in it (probably the code has moved).  The
      emerge tool did not report an error in this case but would simply hang.  This
      was a bit difficult to track down because the tool reports only the package
      which it is fetching but not the full URI from which it is fetching.  Additionally,
      it would be helpful to have a summary of where emerge gets and writes its information
      to and from.  Things to document might include: where the list of dist files is
      kept, where each package emerge configuration file can be found, where downloaded
      package source distributions are stored and so forth.

      Fixing the URI did not seem to fix the problem but manually downloading the .tgz
      and putting it in the right directory allowed the build to continue.

  2.  Near the very end of building the 'db' package, a fatal error about some invalid
      structure type occurs.  I have not been able to get past this one and could use
      any suggested help.

      I am using an old Pentium II box with only 32 Meg of RAM to initially test the
      Gentoo Linux build process before trying to utilize it on a more modern production
      machine.  I am using an existing ext2 partition and so did not do any new
      partitioning before embarking on this build. 

Since quite often people will probably build their own releases of
Gentoo, one option you might consider adding to the package system
during initial configuration is to allow the builder to set an option
which, whenever a fatal build failure occurs, e-mails the developer
list with key information about the system and the particular build
failure.  This would lead to much more rapid and complete bug
reporting.  And since the builder would consciously select this option
there is no privacy issue.

I'm in the mid-down New York City area.  If anyone happens to be in
the vicinity and might like to work with me on getting a good build, I
would much appreciate it (I can offer you emacs or other developer tool
assistance in exchange.  Once the kinks are worked out, I would be
happy to switch all of my machines to Gentoo.  E-mail based feedback
would be appreciate too; please e-mail directly as I am not on the
dev-gentoo list.

Best regards,

Bob Weiner