Re: [gentoo-user] smoothest way to jump from 2006 to 2008

[Alan McKinnon]

On Tuesday 29 April 2008, reader@×××××××.com wrote:
> I'd like to jump an 2006 install up to 2008.  I've never made that
> big an update without a fresh install.

There's no such thing as a "2006 install". What does exist, is the 
collection of packages that were on the LiveCDs released in 2006. It's 
a vital difference as Gentoo doesn't care about versions, just the 
current collection of packages you might happen to have. You 
don't "upgrade" as such, thinking in those terms will get you in deep 
trouble real quick. What you do do is emerge whatever later version of 
packages you feel like having (within some technical constraints)

> What is the smoothest way to do it?

change profile
emerge --sync
emerge -avuND world

> How might I manage to change the current profile from x86/2006 to
> x86/2008

ln -s /var/portage/profiles/default-linux/2008.0/desktop /etc/make.profile

adjust the profile path to suit what you have on your machine, mine is 
in a non-standard place

If you --sync regularly and keep the box up to date you are likely to be 
severely underwhelmed by what a change in profile will do: usually not 
very much.

The profile defines some default USE flags and the collection of 
packages that make up the system set (about 60 packages or so). It will 
define things like coreutils, nano etc must be present, sometimes with 
a minimum version. These are just defaults, if you configured them 
explicitly, your changes will override the profile. Chances are you 
already meet most of the minimum requirements for even the latest 
profile so emerge -avuND world will likely do not much. If it does give 
output, study it carefully and adjust your USE to suit your 
requirements better than the profile, then re-run the emerge.

Of course, if you haven't updated the box since 2006, then you are in 
for a fun ride. I recently updated a box 6 months out of date and also 
removed everything resembling gnome at the same time. It took 4 days 
and many failed builds. It would have been quicker to reinstall from 
stage 1...    I didn't reinstall because I'm a pain loving masochist 
with a point to prove. You should take note of this error of mine and 
learn from it ;-)


-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

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