From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 20 23:16:56 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 957CD1065672 for ; Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:16:56 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sonic2000gr@gmail.com) Received: from ug-out-1314.google.com (ug-out-1314.google.com [66.249.92.171]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1DF078FC12 for ; Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:16:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sonic2000gr@gmail.com) Received: by ug-out-1314.google.com with SMTP id 30so332015ugs.39 for ; Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:16:55 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from :user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=EHN06dlMUx6SSiIPYx8yJHFgfY5IuESg2k7apI6mNWU=; b=QZCFlgPF5lk3xfh/ealgo8u7VBHLZBBhcEQNLfL2IJ7EU10zUUJSzgQjuA6WN3Q0fv bKUInIBh+mALbcSdUj4RmUfRBhCwqrNqNB/KpPw1bJFmhG2+oHLnlXmhuasHDF0Z3mA5 Vtk7/yD5OwvGOSkpQcBwBQhnUjVHZnQY7xRg4= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject :references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=hFjnKSvngOSgDRUJu6a/CaU1l51i8IEUSLUUemJKnnimXAzQQXbiK22GIrAj4bqeY0 sutzbBuIe82adhfbXA39xaXmcVHi/4ZVqgCmOgEsGg5ifLIKS7nZRpzlVmgPxH9ufDMk d1Yprbl6haEKYu1PdoFYOSvzfkZl4tQ/XyA7Y= Received: by 10.67.115.5 with SMTP id s5mr15560ugm.36.1232493414064; Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:16:54 -0800 (PST) Received: from atlantis.dyndns.org (athedsl-90230.home.otenet.gr [87.203.105.196]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id k1sm14434340ugf.3.2009.01.20.15.16.46 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:16:47 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <49765B5D.5090909@gmail.com> Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:16:45 +0200 From: Manolis Kiagias User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.17 (X11/20081011) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: twh359@earthlink.net References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Newbie: offline package use / XFCE. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:16:57 -0000 Thomas W. Holloway wrote: > Greetings from newbie land. > > I have what I hope is a simple question about using packages offline, > with particular reference to XFCE if that matters. I am not so much > asking "how do I do this?" as I am "Do I understand this correctly?" > > I have read the appropriate sections of the Handbook, Lehey's > _Complete FreeBSD_ (both paragraphs :) ), and Lucas' _Absolute FreeBSD > (2nd ed.). I have googled and done some searching of this list's > archives, and couldn't tease the answer out of them. As you will see, > it would be a LOT of work to "just try it", so I don't feel too bad > about asking before diving in. > > I would like to install XFCE on a FreeBSD 7.1 box that is and will > remain (for now) offline. No network connection at all. If I have read > correctly, this means downloading the appropriate package(s) and using > pkg_add. So far, so good (I haven't done it, but it seems clear enough). > > The package for XFCE4, as listed here > > http://www.freebsd.org/ports/xfce.html > > is a "meta-port" (I believe I understand the idea), which seems to > have about one hundred (100) dependencies. Of course, some of those > will have dependencies of their own, and so on. My question is this: > > In order to "download/ftp the package" for XFCE4, I would have to > obtain all hundred (or so) of the listed files _and_ any dependencies > they may have so as to point pkg_add at them locally. Is this correct? In short, yes. And this will be quite difficult to get right. *Unless* the machine you actually use to get the packages is also running FreeBSD. You could then pkg_add -r xfce4 on it and then recreate all the required packages and transfer them to the target machine. To recreate the packages: # cd /usr/ports # mkdir packages # cd packages # pkg_create -Rb xfce-x.y.z (hint: use pkg_info -Ix xfce to get the exact name of the xfce metaport to use with pkg_create) The same applies also if you decide to build xfce from Ports. You could still create packages in the same way. Simply copy the packages to a CD or USB drive, and pkg_add on the target machine (note you will not use '-r' on it as all the packages are local) > If not correct, what have I missed (a pointer to what I've missed > should be sufficient). > > I've also looked at it from the XFCE side, where there is a nice, > detailed doc by Benedikt Meurer, here > > > http://www.os-works.com/documentation/xfce-installers/4.2.1/xfce-installer/ > > This document refers to an older version of XFCE and may not be applicable to the current one. I've never used this, I definitely prefer to build my own packages from the official port. > This strongly implies that I can bypass the pkg_add procedure > entirely. Might be worth trying, but I'd still like to know if I've > understood what the package listing above is saying. > > Editorial comment and/or general advice on XFCE is not unwelcome. It's > just secondary to the question. > XFCE is nice, I've been using it on almost all my FreeBSD desktops. It is a no frills desktop. The default look is somewhat blunt, but it is easy to customize to taste. I also usually install ristretto (picture viewer) thunar-volman-plugin (for mounting USB drives etc) and a few other xfce utilities. It compiles rather quickly on my humble Pentium IV. As a side note, I have a machine specifically for building packages and it just happens that I finished a complete build run today (for FreeBSD 7.1 32bit). This includes XFCE, Xorg, Gnome + power tools + fifth toe, KDE4 (4.1 actually) and few other things. More than 1.5G of packages. I could possibly upload just the XFCE + dependencies packages somewhere so you can download them and use them. Contact me directly if you wish to go down that route.