Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 22:59:27 -0500 From: Eric Kjeldergaard <kjelderg@gmail.com> To: "doug@safeport.com" <doug@safeport.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A packages question. Message-ID: <d9175cad04100220593f2ebf11@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20041002140750.L29827@pemaquid.safeport.com> References: <20041002140750.L29827@pemaquid.safeport.com>
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On Sat, 2 Oct 2004 14:58:03 -0400 (EDT), doug@safeport.com
<doug@safeport.com> wrote:
> Well actually its looking better and better. What's the worst that can happen? I
> have done 'pkg_delete -a' now several times because removing one of the packages
> for XFree86 4.3 and replacing it with the newer version removes xterm. While twm
> is not my window manager of choice, it is better than the console.
>
> pkg_add -f -r package-name does not force the installation of 2nd level
> dependencies. So installing kde 3.<{anything -gt 1}> means finding all the
> dependencies such as imake, expat, ..., qt, ... and installing or forcing them
> before going after kdelib and then kdebase which must be done in this order
> (maybe not if all the lower level dependencies are met).
>
> I am going to try this just just for grins even though I suspect this will fail
> and I will drop back for 4.10 because of one or more of the following
> possibilities:
>
> 1) Xorg and XFree 86 have (inadvertently?) dropped support for the video
> card used by my laptop. Due to its age, I suspect this is not a
> pressing problem. To report the problem I need to reinstall one or
> both to provide the information that either fails without an error.
>
> 2) Some where in the maturation of 5.x, the C++ compiler changes have
> probably introduced changes in the BPI (if not the API) that may make it
> impossible to run X-based packages without moving forward. This is
> the supposition I think I am testing by trying to use kde 3.4 which
> has been built with Xorg.
>
> 3) Buy a new PC is the wrong answer.
>
> 4) building KDE and every other X application on a 400MHz laptop is the wrong
> answer.
>
> All of that was background so I could say this. Perhaps it is time to introduce
> branches into the packages tree. The alternative (IMO) is to require that only
> packages that were on the CD set when you burned or purchased it can be
> installed. Like #3 above I believe this to be the wrong answer because its
> greatly limits the population that will use FreeBSD as a workstation.
>
> After re-reading this, please do not consider this a rant. I love FreeBSD and
> will solve my problem one way or the other, help now in the form of ideas would
> be nice, but worst case, evenutally I will buy a newer PC.
>
> The idea here was to to float the idea of a branch in the package tree.
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, 1 Oct 2004 doug@safeport.com wrote:
>
> > thanks - I will try it this way
> >
> > On Fri, 1 Oct 2004, Eric Kjeldergaard wrote:
> >
> > > While this idea may seem good on the surface, it's really a very bad idea
> > > (and I speak from experience) to hand-modify your package database. What
> > > you /should/ do instead is force the addition of the packages. `pkg_add -f
> > > <packageName>`
> > >
> > >
> > > On Fri, 1 Oct 2004 22:16:45 -0400 (EDT), doug@safeport.com
> > > <doug@safeport.com> wrote:
> > > > Neither XFree86 4.4 nor Xorg supports the video on my laptop while XFree86
> > > > 4.3 works.
> > > >
> > > > I want to set up the package database to say XFree 4.4 is installed to see
> > > > if I can install the latest packages. Does anyone know that this will not
> > > > work? Also if I could get some pointer on how to modify the package db or
> > > > where this may be documented
> > > >
> >
>
> _____
> Douglas Denault
> http://www.safeport.com
> doug@safeport.com
> Voice: 301-469-8766
> Fax: 301-469-0601
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>
You're right that the freebsd package system should (in my opinion as
well as yours) probably be updated to handle versions better. It's
very interesting that xorg and xfree would have dropped support for
your video card. Perhaps they just changed support? Besides the
point, though.
pkgdb is the tool for /manually/ editing the package database that
resides in /var/db/pkg/pkgdb.db If you look at update and force, you
should be able to figure out the exact command.
--
If I write a signature, my emails will appear more personalised.
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