From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 8 00:06:51 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9527816A41F for ; Tue, 8 Nov 2005 00:06:51 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ronald-freebsd8@klop.yi.org) Received: from smtp-out3.tiscali.nl (smtp-out3.tiscali.nl [195.241.79.178]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D6F5C43D49 for ; Tue, 8 Nov 2005 00:06:50 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ronald-freebsd8@klop.yi.org) Received: from [82.171.39.195] (helo=guido.klop.ws) by smtp-out3.tiscali.nl with smtp (Tiscali http://www.tiscali.nl) id 1EZH0j-0000hY-PH for ; Tue, 08 Nov 2005 01:06:49 +0100 Received: (qmail 2205 invoked from network); 8 Nov 2005 00:06:48 -0000 Received: from localhost.thuis.klop.ws (HELO outgoing.local) (127.0.0.1) by localhost.thuis.klop.ws with SMTP; 8 Nov 2005 00:06:48 -0000 Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2005 01:06:47 +0100 To: Alistair , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org References: <436FE7FE.7060702@tyeurgain.free-online.co.uk> From: "Ronald Klop" Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; delsp=yes; charset=iso-8859-1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <436FE7FE.7060702@tyeurgain.free-online.co.uk> User-Agent: Opera M2/8.50 (FreeBSD, build 1358) Cc: Subject: Re: New user confused by need to do huge upgrade X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2005 00:06:51 -0000 On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 00:49:18 +0100, Alistair wrote: > Hello, All > > I am a user of Linux for many years (and an aged BSD sysadmin from > 1985-1989), but laterly mainly use Gentoo. FreeBSD seemed to be a good > alternative, so I get the 6.0 release a few days after it was released. > > Being a Gentoo person, I like the ports system, but with limited time on > my hands, I also like the compiled packages. I can get a working system > from packages then compile my own ports as need or want be. Or so I > thought. > > I installed from two CDs, and got a working KDE system. Now, I want to > do Firefox from ports with my own make.conf for P4 optimisation. Good! > So, I sync with the sources using cvsup (just like emerge --sync) > change to the Firefox ports directory, type "make" and enter dependency > hell like has never been known before. Everything that depends upon > GTK2 must be updated before Firefox can be compiled! > > I thought that FreeBSD would be more stable than Gentoo and Linux > distros in general. I now find that there is the most major release > step (5.4 to 6.0) and within a matter of a few days later, both Gnome > and KDE are subject to huge updates that require many hours (or maybe > days - it's not done yet) of CPU time. > > Maybe I am missing something. However, I just cannot see why this is > right. What I thought that FreeBSD would give me that Gentoo did not is > a coherent system within which deveopment was co-ordinated. Instead, I > seem to find the opposite. The core group can offer a major release of > the OS, while missing the fact that two hugely important development > groups are just days off their own major releases. The portstree is tagged for a release, so if you cvsup to the tag for the release, you get the 'supported' ports. If you cvsup to the most recent portstree there is always a change for a big update. The idea behind the KDE/GNOME update is to commit the stuff after the 6.0-RELEASE in stead of before too have stable KDE/GNOME packages in the release. BTW: use the port sysutils/portupgrade. This fixes a lot of dependency troubles. BTW2: if you cvsup to the latest portstree, you can't expect everything to be available in packages. In FreeBSD ports are the focus, packages come next (currently). BTW3: http://www.freshports.org/ Ronald. -- Ronald Klop Amsterdam, The Netherlands