Hi folks
I recently went through the (minor hell) of updating my old workhorse
gentoo box. I hadn't touched the system much (apart from open
services like ssh) for about 1.5 years due to a series of facts:
1) It just worked so darned nice.
2) My phd endstretch didn't leave much time to computer fiddling, and
the cluster just worked so darned nice (diskless SSI booting from the
original gentoo machine (see above)).
3) It lived behind a nice firewall which I trust enough (yes I'm a bit
naive) and the open services such as ssh had been updated more
regularly.
Now I had a bit of time and sice I had moved to France for my post doc
I had to get skype in/out working, which didn't want to install
nicely. So I thought a thorough general system update was overdue.
First, my questions, then (if you really want) the arduous story on
how I did it. Feel free to comment, give tips and point out my
mistakes.
Primary:
What is a recommended way to update an old system to minimize the
amount of broken ebuilds?
Is emerge --emptytree world a good idea? Is it better than a clean
install? Or is the documentation's way good enough even for a very old
system:
emerge --update --deep --newuse world
emerge --depclean
revdep-rebuild
I have an unexplainable fobia against --depclean though. And updating
everything at once seems a bit reckless, I mean with the age of the
system it would update almost everything. The package list was a mile
long, and you never know what will break.
Secondary:
How often should one update the system to minimize hassles with broken
packages?
Too often, and the hassle of constant upgrading can get tedious even
if it works ok, and too late, and some odd dysfunctional version
combinations start showing up that the packages were not really
tested for, leading to broken ebuilds.
I did like this:
I didn't want to run a clean install or an --emptytree thingie. I
wanted to take it a few steps at a time, so that if something broke I
might have an idea about what new packages it was that broke it.
1) take a backup of the system. I have some modifications
in /etc/init.d scripts and some extra non-gentoo stuff for clustering
installed that I didn't want to risk, and I was pretty sure something
would bork and leave me clueless. lol
2) emerge sync. Nice, worked.
emerge *only the most important stuff* (oh, I'm really chicken btw):
portage, baselayout, etc.
That brought in some dependencies, but it worked out all right after a
while and a lot of figuring out the /etc/init.d and config file
changes that has happened for the last 1.5 years. And some other
changes as to where certain configs go, and how, and so on. But most
was easily searchable in docs or forums.gentoo or on this list.
Reboot here to see if it even booted any more... YEEAAAH!
3) emerge basic user packages like gcc, glibc, xorg (yes I was still
on xfree) kernel, etc.
note: I have to stay on 2.4 because I use openmosix for the
clustering, and I don't yet trust 2.6om.
For this I started using --update --deep since I did want an updated
system, but not all at once.
This still worked out all right, with just some minor headaches of
broken ebuilds. And some config files again.
hrmmpf kernel change means reboot. darned.
4) emerge --update --deep desktop stuff like KDE, openoffice,
browsers, etc...
This started generating Looooooooots of broken packages. I have spent
many hours looking through the _VERY_NICE_ bugs.gentoo.org. I still
get bitten by bugs that are filed fixed in mid 2003. lol
Some more config file updates, and restarting all significant services
to use the new software.
5) Now, muahaha, emerge --update --deep world. Aiaiai. Another batch
of broken packages, but not the critical ones, since most everything
necessary has already been updated.
Some more config files. I _really_ like dispatch-config and cfg-update
by now.
6) Well, I'm here now. The system works just fine. And yes, I recently
remembered that I had forgotten to update the USE flags to cover the
current situation (stooopid teflon memory). But I hope I can wait
until the current few remaining problems are out of the way, and then
I can perhaps (hope and pray) use the eminent and functional(?)
--newuse (and I do so very much hope works with/as --deep).
I still have some problems, mainly with skype, which works but have
some odd dependency thingie with dbus that emerge doesn't like. And
revdep-rebuild tries to bring in some stuff that are no longer in
portage. Interesting, though, is that
equery depends '=pack-group/packagename-x.y.z'
doesn't report anything depending on those old packages any more after
all the updates. How can I figure out what wants them?
revdep-rebuild? is it safe to use, and safe with --package-names
(since just about every single package it's trying to bring in is no
longer in the portage tree)
What somethingsomething-update programs should I run during the
process?
python-updater
perl-clenaner
java-config
opengl-update
modules-update
--- what am I missing -- ?
Is udev supported on 2.4.26+? would it be useful instead of devfs? and
is there a *really* good guide for switching (that might warn me of
the common problems I'm bound to run into)?
In retrospect it might have been faster to simply do a reinstall or
--emptytree. Sorry for issuing such a blasphemous statement on this
list.
Thankful for input on the matter.
Jimmy
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