Re: [gentoo-user] Re: kde4 upgrading
On Wednesday 28 October 2009 02:28:43 James wrote: PS, if one of you really smart guys figures out mass/parallel upgrades, then I'd use that, even set up my own server to keep it efficient. I'm not smart enough (not enough time at current mental aptitude) to set all of that up, unless somebody else does the foundational work. But I very much like the concept. Upgrade a master system. Test it. Then push your own binaries/files to the other systems you manage. Somebody figures that out, i.e. works out the bugs, Gentoo is going mainstream.. If someone did that, they could just put their admin scripts and settings in an ebuild. Then users could just emerge that ebuild and set the list of installed packages. VERY COOL. All that already exists and is fully supported by portage. Build your packages on one central machine and pull them from the workstations. man emerge and search for BINHOST. The only catch is to define the various settings (USE, CHOST, CFLAGS) to something compatible with all your machines. This is not a big deal, it's the kind of decisions a binary distro must make and those work fine -- alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: kde4 upgrading
I've edited your message when quoting it in order to meet my agenda. On 28 Oct 2009, at 00:28, James wrote: PS, if one of you really smart guys figures out mass/parallel upgrades, then I'd use that, even set up my own server to keep it efficient. I'm not smart enough (not enough time at current mental aptitude) to set all of that up, unless somebody else does the foundational work. But I very much like the concept. Upgrade a master system. Test it. Then push your own binaries/files to the other systems you manage. There are already a number of ways of managing multiple machines. How do you think universities, corporations and public bodies with hundreds or thousands of desktops manage? I think I would be looking at something like having the machines PXE boot a single image or NFS mounting various directories, if I were in your situation. I've never actually done this, but I'm sure a little research would produce a less labour intensive solution. ... Interesting, but not what I'm looking for. I do not mind upgrading the systems one at a time. I just do 1 per day, while I do other work. What has me hacked is that every time I do an upgrade to kde4, it seems to be a different set of problems, even though the upgrades are a few days apart. Multiply across a dozen workstations, and it's a time sink. It seems to me, from your description, that your dozen machines are at the limit of your ability to maintain this way. No one would ever consider upgrading sites with 100 machines one by one each day, and it would be crazy to try and run a beefy thin-client server just to serve one or two desktops. So the network has grown from a couple of machines to a dozen, and you're still doing things the same way - the question is, will you be able to continue doing things the same way if you were to double the number of PCs by next year? I think that alternative methods of approaching system administration are sure to bring their own problems and require an investment of time to implement, but I don't see how upgrading machines one by one is sustainable. Honestly, it would be driving me crazy to be in your position, and I think some other alternative might well show time and hassle saved once it's up and running. Stroller.
[gentoo-user] Re: kde4 upgrading
Alan McKinnon alan.mckinnon at gmail.com writes: 4.3.2 seems to work fine for most folk. These days it's X causing grief, not KDE... OK, so I keep the system locked down on X (that it is using) and just deal with kde4 for now. Pick the primary workstation and get that one right, either using sets you like or the -meta packages. kde-meta is ideal for me. I thought it was going away? Since kde(4)-meta is alive and well, that is my preferred method. I hope when kde-meta goes away (?) there is a migration plan? When this whole kde4 venture started for me (feb 09) I was told to avoid meta as it is going away... x11-terms/clusterssh is your friend here: configure it to log into all your workstations; launch it; what you type is sent to every workstation aka how-to-update-many-machines-in-parallel Interesting, but not what I'm looking for. I do not mind upgrading the systems one at a time. I just do 1 per day, while I do other work. What has me hacked is that every time I do an upgrade to kde4, it seems to be a different set of problems, even though the upgrades are a few days apart. Multiply across a dozen workstations, and it's a time sink. Granted, I have various CPU arch (intel or amd64) different video hardware and various X and drivers that contributes. But chasing down packages in sets and dealing with the daily dynamic (every few days a different issue) is just too much for me. META_MAN is my hero! How long is kde-meta going to be around? That's really what I'm looking for. PS, if one of you really smart guys figures out mass/parallel upgrades, then I'd use that, even set up my own server to keep it efficient. I'm not smart enough (not enough time at current mental aptitude) to set all of that up, unless somebody else does the foundational work. But I very much like the concept. Upgrade a master system. Test it. Then push your own binaries/files to the other systems you manage. Somebody figures that out, i.e. works out the bugs, Gentoo is going mainstream.. If someone did that, they could just put their admin scripts and settings in an ebuild. Then users could just emerge that ebuild and set the list of installed packages. VERY COOL. James
[gentoo-user] Re: kde4 upgrading
Frank Steinmetzger Warp_7 at gmx.de writes: aka how-to-update-many-machines-in-parallel Another possibility would be to compile on one machine and then distribute the binary packages using --buildpkg and --usepkg. That would only work of course if the hardware is identical and/or CFLAGS and CHOST are compatible. This does sound enticing. Has anyone does this sort of thing? James
[gentoo-user] Re: kde4 upgrading
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 James wrote: kde-meta is ideal for me. I thought it was going away? Since kde(4)-meta is alive and well, that is my preferred method. I hope when kde-meta goes away (?) there is a migration plan? When this whole kde4 venture started for me (feb 09) I was told to avoid meta as it is going away... [...] How long is kde-meta going to be around? That's really what I'm looking for. kde-base/kde*-meta won't be going away any time soon, if at all. The original plan, way back when, was to transition everything to sets, but the current implementation in portage 2.2_rc* does not currently do everything that is needed, so we are recommending the usage of the meta packages. - -- Jonathan Callen Gentoo KDE Developer -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v2.0.13 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkrnym4ACgkQOypDUo0oQOo9ZQCbBwM1fUMQzv+mReF/aaEkr8I7 LLUAmgIaNDiixVl5fd+PQY2OjqMPY1pU =icEh -END PGP SIGNATURE-
