Re: [gentoo-user] Should we NEVER do an ``emerge -u world''?

[Mick]

Hi Frank,

On Wednesday 27 September 2006 19:04, sdoma wrote:

> I've tried to get documentoin for Tcl/tk, put 'doc' into the package.use
> for these files and re-emerged tcl and tk (BTW: no docs for these
> packages came up).

A search in Gmane on this ML, or the Gentoo forums will provide you with an 
answer and a way forward for this problem (I'm not using it myself so I am 
not sure what the answer is).

> emerge told me, that there is a new version of
> portage available and that it is HIGHLY recommended to upgrade portage.

Yes, it is generally good practice to upgrade portage when it tells you to do 
so.

> I did so and 87 packages where upgraded, amongst this glibc to 2.4, what
> hurts me now because I planned to install Oracle, which requires
> glibc2.3.

There was a recent update of gcc and glibc and there have been detailed 
instructions on the gentoo documentation (gcc), on this ML (both gcc & glibc) 
and the forums.  With regards to Oracle, you may need to temporarily upgrade 
to an unstable package while devs catch up with the upgraded system tools - 
search the ML and forums because I'm afraid do not use Oracle to know what's 
the solution with this problem.

> Seems x86 or ~x86 doesn't make much a difference. I reinstalled the
> system not so long ago with x86 fo this reason.

It does make a difference if you update often (on average you will be emerging 
many more packages running a ~ARCH).  Less so if you update once in a blue 
moon.  Also, a stable system is <aheam> 'stable'?  Well, most of the time it 
is more stable than running on the bleeding edge.

> I remember the same problems a couple of times in the past. /etc/fstab
> was "upgraded" to the initial one (the one with /dev/BOOT and dev/ROOT
> inside resulting in a not booting system), networking stopped working
> letting me on my own, stopping hotplug (and historical
> coldplug-nonsense) functionality, udev.rules where replaced by some
> initial one for a syntax change in udev (using ``sed'' would be a better
> choice here) ...

No critical configuration files are blindly updated/upgraded.  I do not know 
of /etc/fstab ever being updated automatically without first *asking* you 
what you want to do.  etc-update, dispatch-conf et al will always ask what to 
do with /etc/fstab (unless you have tweaked the list of directories/files 
that they are checking).

> Just a minor thing, before I realized the USB problem, I was working on
> 'localhost:unknown-domain' after the "upgrade".

/etc/conf.d/net changed as part of a new baselayout upgrade.

> I'm really sick of solving the same problems again and again. Seems
> Gentoo is a system for students not needing their comps to be working.
>
> For me it looks at this point like: "Every other distribution is a
> better choice for somebody who needs his machine for work". I don't like
> to say that, but this is my expirience. :((((((((((((((

I actually do use my machine for work.  I upgrade little and often (every 2-3 
days), except for big system upgrades which I save for the weekend just in 
case things go tits-up.  I have broadly found Gentoo's updates and upgrades 
when managed intelligently to be less disruptive than re-installing afresh 
Fedora, or SUSE every six months (I haven't tried other distros).  
Furthermore the choice of Gentoo applications and their ability to 
intelligently handle a plethora of dependencies makes it much easier to run 
an updated machine, than at least the other two distros I have just 
mentioned.

> Regards
> Frank
>
> PS: X-cuse me top-posting. This is a really exportant issue, and I'm
> disturbing it. ;-(

Until people eventually give up trying to help you.

> PS 2: Co work with LFS! They have the same target (get people to know
> the functionality of Linux). I'll install some working distro which is
> conform with other POSIX compliant systems ... with a tear in my
> eye. :((((((((((((

The Gentoo meta-distribution provides greater freedom of choice in shaping 
your system to your preferences.  The trade-off is the user time that needs 
to be invested in implementing it.  On the other hand if one of the numerous 
distros offered by the wider Linux community fits your needs better straight 
out of the box - then go for it!  WRT your comment on LFS, I would not think 
that Gentoo's primary driver is the same like LFX, although greater knowledge 
of Linux and Gentoo is a much welcomed side effect (at least by some of us ;)
-- 
Regards,
Mick