[gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, Gentoo!

As reported in other threads, my new PC had a broken RAM stick in it.
As a result, an unknown proportion of installed binaries are flaky.  One
non-functioning binary is probably GCC.

What I'd like to do is reinstall every binary, yet without erasing any
configuration info, whose creation was so arduous.

Where does portage keep it's list of installed packages?  What do I have
to do to persuade portage it has _no_ installed packages before doing
'rm -rf *' in /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin?

Has anybody any other tips to offer me for this operation?

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Freitag 12 Februar 2010, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> Hi, Gentoo!
> 
> As reported in other threads, my new PC had a broken RAM stick in it.
> As a result, an unknown proportion of installed binaries are flaky.  One
> non-functioning binary is probably GCC.
> 
> What I'd like to do is reinstall every binary, yet without erasing any
> configuration info, whose creation was so arduous.
> 
> Where does portage keep it's list of installed packages? 

/var/db/pkg

> What do I have
> to do to persuade portage it has _no_ installed packages before doing
> 'rm -rf *' in /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin?

--emtpytree

> 
> Has anybody any other tips to offer me for this operation?

tar up /etc.

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Kyle Bader]

>> Has anybody any other tips to offer me for this operation?
>
> tar up /etc.

Make sure the tar can extract on another system.  Backups that haven't
been tested are not backups! :D

-- 

Kyle

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:21:18 -0800, Kyle Bader wrote:

> >> Has anybody any other tips to offer me for this operation?  
> >
> > tar up /etc.  
> 
> Make sure the tar can extract on another system.  Backups that haven't
> been tested are not backups! :D

/etc/ is CONFIG_PROTECTed, so emerge -e world will do just what the OP
wants, rebuild everything without touching the configs.

Of course, a backup of /etc is always a handy thing to have around anyway,


-- 
Neil Bothwick

In the begining, there was nothing.

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Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Saturday 13 February 2010 00:52:32 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:21:18 -0800, Kyle Bader wrote:
> > >> Has anybody any other tips to offer me for this operation?
> > > 
> > > tar up /etc.
> > 
> > Make sure the tar can extract on another system.  Backups that haven't
> > been tested are not backups! :D
> 
> /etc/ is CONFIG_PROTECTed, so emerge -e world will do just what the OP
> wants, rebuild everything without touching the configs.
> 
> Of course, a backup of /etc is always a handy thing to have around anyway,

For this case, it's probably easier to just tar /etc/ and untar it back later.

The OP then doesn't have to deal with 600+ conf-update complaints


-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:28:57 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:

> > /etc/ is CONFIG_PROTECTed, so emerge -e world will do just what the OP
> > wants, rebuild everything without touching the configs.
> > 
> > Of course, a backup of /etc is always a handy thing to have around
> > anyway,  
> 
> For this case, it's probably easier to just tar /etc/ and untar it back
> later.
> 
> The OP then doesn't have to deal with 600+ conf-update complaints

Run conf-update and press a then d :)


-- 
Neil Bothwick

I've got a mind like a... a... what's that thing called?

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Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Saturday 13 February 2010 22:43:39 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:28:57 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > > /etc/ is CONFIG_PROTECTed, so emerge -e world will do just what the OP
> > > wants, rebuild everything without touching the configs.
> > > 
> > > Of course, a backup of /etc is always a handy thing to have around
> > > anyway,
> > 
> > For this case, it's probably easier to just tar /etc/ and untar it back
> > later.
> > 
> > The OP then doesn't have to deal with 600+ conf-update complaints
> 
> Run conf-update and press a then d :)

But I'm a paranoid snarky old git and that doesn't work for me!

If I get 600 entries in conf-update I feel compelled to examine each one and 
decide individually. Just in case....


-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:01:50 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:

> > > The OP then doesn't have to deal with 600+ conf-update complaints  
> > 
> > Run conf-update and press a then d :)  
> 
> But I'm a paranoid snarky old git and that doesn't work for me!

But d rejects all the changes, leaving your own configs. To be paranoid
that you are trying to hack your own computer mean you must have MPD too,
and I'm not referring to the Music Player Daemon :)

> If I get 600 entries in conf-update I feel compelled to examine each
> one and decide individually. Just in case....

You may grow out of that, if you have time after reading all those
configs :)

On a more serious note, conf-update automatically merges trivial changes,
so any configs you ran at the default, which is probably the majority,
won't be flaged at all.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.

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Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Sonntag 14 Februar 2010, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:01:50 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > > > The OP then doesn't have to deal with 600+ conf-update complaints
> > > 
> > > Run conf-update and press a then d :)
> > 
> > But I'm a paranoid snarky old git and that doesn't work for me!
> 
> But d rejects all the changes, leaving your own configs. To be paranoid
> that you are trying to hack your own computer mean you must have MPD too,
> and I'm not referring to the Music Player Daemon :)
> 
> > If I get 600 entries in conf-update I feel compelled to examine each
> > one and decide individually. Just in case....
> 
> You may grow out of that, if you have time after reading all those
> configs :)
> 
> On a more serious note, conf-update automatically merges trivial changes,
> so any configs you ran at the default, which is probably the majority,
> won't be flaged at all.

so does cfg-update....

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:03:40 +0100, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:

> > On a more serious note, conf-update automatically merges trivial
> > changes, so any configs you ran at the default, which is probably the
> > majority, won't be flaged at all.  
> 
> so does cfg-update....

Every now and then, someone mentions cfg-update - usually you :) - and I
give it another try, but I don't really get on with it and always go back
to conf-update. There's nothing specific wrong with it, I just prefer (or
am used to) conf-update.

I expect that if I were still using etc-update or dispatch-conf I would
welcome it with open arms though.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

The modem is the message.

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Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Mick]

On Sunday 14 February 2010 11:32:12 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:03:40 +0100, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> > > On a more serious note, conf-update automatically merges trivial
> > > changes, so any configs you ran at the default, which is probably the
> > > majority, won't be flaged at all.
> >
> > so does cfg-update....
> 
> Every now and then, someone mentions cfg-update - usually you :) - and I
> give it another try, but I don't really get on with it and always go back
> to conf-update. There's nothing specific wrong with it, I just prefer (or
> am used to) conf-update.
> 
> I expect that if I were still using etc-update or dispatch-conf I would
> welcome it with open arms though.

You make me feel out of touch with Gentoo!  Is dispatch-conf and etc-update 
that bad then?
-- 
Regards,
Mick

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Samstag 20 Februar 2010, Mick wrote:
> On Sunday 14 February 2010 11:32:12 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> > On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:03:40 +0100, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> > > > On a more serious note, conf-update automatically merges trivial
> > > > changes, so any configs you ran at the default, which is probably the
> > > > majority, won't be flaged at all.
> > > 
> > > so does cfg-update....
> > 
> > Every now and then, someone mentions cfg-update - usually you :) - and I
> > give it another try, but I don't really get on with it and always go back
> > to conf-update. There's nothing specific wrong with it, I just prefer (or
> > am used to) conf-update.
> > 
> > I expect that if I were still using etc-update or dispatch-conf I would
> > welcome it with open arms though.
> 
> You make me feel out of touch with Gentoo!  Is dispatch-conf and etc-update
> that bad then?

Not bad - not good enough. 

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:08:05 +0000, Mick wrote:

> > I expect that if I were still using etc-update or dispatch-conf I
> > would welcome it with open arms though.  
> 
> You make me feel out of touch with Gentoo!  Is dispatch-conf and
> etc-update that bad then?

They're not bad in that they do the basic job. It's just that the
alternatives can be so much better.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Secret hacker rule #11: hackers read manuals.

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Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Iain Buchanan]

On Sat, 2010-02-20 at 12:08 +0000, Mick wrote:
> On Sunday 14 February 2010 11:32:12 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> > On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:03:40 +0100, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> > > > On a more serious note, conf-update automatically merges trivial
> > > > changes, so any configs you ran at the default, which is probably the
> > > > majority, won't be flaged at all.
> > >
> > > so does cfg-update....
> > 
> > Every now and then, someone mentions cfg-update - usually you :) - and I
> > give it another try, but I don't really get on with it and always go back
> > to conf-update. There's nothing specific wrong with it, I just prefer (or
> > am used to) conf-update.
> > 
> > I expect that if I were still using etc-update or dispatch-conf I would
> > welcome it with open arms though.
> 
> You make me feel out of touch with Gentoo!  Is dispatch-conf and etc-update 
> that bad then?

out of touch would be rolling your own config update tool, like me ;)
It hasn't changed much since I started using Gentoo...

-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

In any formula, constants (especially those obtained from handbooks)
are to be treated as variables.

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[daid kahl]

>> > > > On a more serious note, conf-update automatically merges trivial
>> > > > changes, so any configs you ran at the default, which is probably the
>> > > > majority, won't be flaged at all.
>> > >
>> > > so does cfg-update....
>> >
>> > Every now and then, someone mentions cfg-update - usually you :) - and I
>> > give it another try, but I don't really get on with it and always go back
>> > to conf-update. There's nothing specific wrong with it, I just prefer (or
>> > am used to) conf-update.
>> >
>> > I expect that if I were still using etc-update or dispatch-conf I would
>> > welcome it with open arms though.

Yay, thanks for the ideas.  dispatch-conf was a welcome change from
etc-update, so this must be the next step.  And just in time too, I
updated to ~x86 last week, and I left around the 11 config files that
need more than just hand waving to deal with (looks like important
changes, but I did modifications as well to those cases).

>>
>> You make me feel out of touch with Gentoo!  Is dispatch-conf and etc-update
>> that bad then?
>
> out of touch would be rolling your own config update tool, like me ;)
> It hasn't changed much since I started using Gentoo...
>
> --
> Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

Sharing is caring!  Can we try it?  More importantly, would we want to?

I'm wondering if some of these config manglers have configs
themselves, or some place to keep track of the configs I want like red
flagged to not get accidentially overwritten (sorry I didn't read the
man pages yet because I didn't get too screwed without), because I
want to keep track of the ones I edit other than some text file or my
memory "oh yeah, vim I hated the auto-line wrapping...where's that
backup from last week?"

~daid

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Montag 22 Februar 2010, daid kahl wrote:
> >> > > > On a more serious note, conf-update automatically merges trivial
> >> > > > changes, so any configs you ran at the default, which is probably
> >> > > > the majority, won't be flaged at all.
> >> > > 
> >> > > so does cfg-update....
> >> > 
> >> > Every now and then, someone mentions cfg-update - usually you :) - and
> >> > I give it another try, but I don't really get on with it and always
> >> > go back to conf-update. There's nothing specific wrong with it, I
> >> > just prefer (or am used to) conf-update.
> >> > 
> >> > I expect that if I were still using etc-update or dispatch-conf I
> >> > would welcome it with open arms though.
> 
> Yay, thanks for the ideas.  dispatch-conf was a welcome change from
> etc-update, so this must be the next step.  And just in time too, I
> updated to ~x86 last week, and I left around the 11 config files that
> need more than just hand waving to deal with (looks like important
> changes, but I did modifications as well to those cases).
> 
> >> You make me feel out of touch with Gentoo!  Is dispatch-conf and
> >> etc-update that bad then?
> > 
> > out of touch would be rolling your own config update tool, like me ;)
> > It hasn't changed much since I started using Gentoo...
> > 
> > --
> > Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>
> 
> Sharing is caring!  Can we try it?  More importantly, would we want to?
> 
> I'm wondering if some of these config manglers have configs
> themselves, or some place to keep track of the configs I want like red
> flagged to not get accidentially overwritten (sorry I didn't read the
> man pages yet because I didn't get too screwed without), because I
> want to keep track of the ones I edit other than some text file or my
> memory "oh yeah, vim I hated the auto-line wrapping...where's that
> backup from last week?"
> 
> ~daid

well, cfg-update keeps a backup. It detects manual edits and try to resolve 
conflicts resulting from that automatically. Which works surprisingly well. If 
it can not resolve them itself, it opens a diff app you set in its config - like 
kdiff3, sdiff, beediff... etc. You do your changes, save, quit, cfg-update does 
the rest - and next time remembers what you did.

[gentoo-user] Re: How should I clean up my broken system?

[Harry Putnam]

Volker Armin Hemmann <volkerarmin@googlemail.com> writes:

> well, cfg-update keeps a backup. It detects manual edits and try to
> resolve conflicts resulting from that automatically. Which works
> surprisingly well. If

Volker gave me that same advice long ago, I've used cfg-update ever
since.

Its capable of dispatching meaningless file updates in the blink of an
eye, and offers several well known methods for resolving those that
need it.

I personally use vimdiff with it, but there are several other options.
Its just a good solid tool.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How should I clean up my broken system?

[daid kahl]

On 23 February 2010 02:06, Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> Volker Armin Hemmann <volkerarmin@googlemail.com> writes:
>
>> well, cfg-update keeps a backup. It detects manual edits and try to
>> resolve conflicts resulting from that automatically. Which works
>> surprisingly well. If
>
> Volker gave me that same advice long ago, I've used cfg-update ever
> since.
>
> Its capable of dispatching meaningless file updates in the blink of an
> eye, and offers several well known methods for resolving those that
> need it.
>
> I personally use vimdiff with it, but there are several other options.
> Its just a good solid tool.
>

Better than my first days of gentoo when I just either manually
deleted the files or copied them to the new ones as portage
complained.  I'd just search for ._ files in /etc.

Yeah, that sucked   Then I was like "oh, etc-update, this is great."
Then I was like "dispatch-conf, thats greater!"  So now that I've got
a lot of crap to clean out again...I emerged both of these guys.  I'll
probably add some extra superlatives.

Hah!

~daid

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Peter Humphrey]

On Sunday 14 February 2010 11:32:12 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:03:40 +0100, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> > > On a more serious note, conf-update automatically merges trivial
> > > changes, so any configs you ran at the default, which is probably
> > > the majority, won't be flaged at all.
> > 
> > so does cfg-update....
> 
> Every now and then, someone mentions cfg-update - usually you :) -
> and I give it another try, but I don't really get on with it and
> always go back to conf-update. There's nothing specific wrong with
> it, I just prefer (or am used to) conf-update.
> 
> I expect that if I were still using etc-update or dispatch-conf I
> would welcome it with open arms though.

I'm still using etc-update, which seems adequate except when squid is 
upgraded, but I thought I'd try cfg-update. Problem though: it demands 
dev-util/xxdiff which doesn't exist. What's a suitable substitute?

-- 
Rgds
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Alex Schuster]

Peter Humphrey writes:

> I'm still using etc-update, which seems adequate except when squid is
> upgraded, but I thought I'd try cfg-update. Problem though: it demands
> dev-util/xxdiff which doesn't exist. What's a suitable substitute?

Whatever you like. Just edit the MERGETOOL definition in /etc/cfg-
update.conf:

# +----------+
# | MERGETOOL \
# 
+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
# |The recommended tool for merging is beediff but you can also use other|
# |tools if you don't like beediff.  The Supported tools are listedbelow:|
# +----------+-----+--------------------------+--------------------------+
# | beediff  | GUI | QT                       |                          |
# | kdiff3   | GUI | KDE   (or Gnome with QT) |                          |
# | meld     | GUI | Gnome (or KDE with GTK)  |                          |
# | gtkdiff  | GUI | Gnome (or KDE with GTK)  | STAGE 3 not supported!   |
# | gvimdiff | GUI | Gnome (or KDE with GTK)  | STAGE 3 not supported!   |
# | tkdiff   | GUI | Gnome (or KDE with TK)   |                          |
# | vimdiff  | CLI | Systems without X        | STAGE 3 not supported!   |
# | sdiff    | CLI | Systems without X        | STAGE 3 not supported!   |
# | imediff2 | CLI | Systems without X        | STAGE 3 not supported!   | 
+----------+-----+--------------------------+----------------------------+
MERGE_TOOL = /usr/bin/kdiff3

	Wonko

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Peter Humphrey]

On Friday 26 February 2010 18:47:40 Alex Schuster wrote:

> > What's a suitable substitute?
> 
> Whatever you like. Just edit the MERGETOOL definition in /etc/cfg-
> update.conf:
>
> # +----------+
> # | MERGETOOL \
> #
> +------------+-------------------------------------------------------
> ----+ # |The recommended tool for merging is beediff but you can also
> use other| # |tools if you don't like beediff.  The Supported tools
> are listedbelow:| #
> +----------+-----+--------------------------+-----------------------
> ---+ # | beediff  | GUI | QT                       |                 
>         | # | kdiff3   | GUI | KDE   (or Gnome with QT) |           
>               | # | meld     | GUI | Gnome (or KDE with GTK)  |     
>                     | # | gtkdiff  | GUI | Gnome (or KDE with GTK) 
> | STAGE 3 not supported!   | # | gvimdiff | GUI | Gnome (or KDE with
> GTK)  | STAGE 3 not supported!   | # | tkdiff   | GUI | Gnome (or
> KDE with TK)   |                          | # | vimdiff  | CLI |
> Systems without X        | STAGE 3 not supported!   | # | sdiff    |
> CLI | Systems without X        | STAGE 3 not supported!   | # |
> imediff2 | CLI | Systems without X        | STAGE 3 not supported!  
> |
> +----------+-----+--------------------------+-----------------------
> -----+ MERGE_TOOL = /usr/bin/kdiff3

OK. Thanks. I'll try kdiff3.

-- 
Rgds
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[William Kenworthy]

"equery check package" compares current with the as installed checksum
(or something like that!) for the packages files.

emerge -ep world > a
edit "a" to add "equery check " before each package name
run "sh a > b" and got hrough the list in b to see whats broke - lots of
debris - config files etc will show as failing a checksum, so ignore
them.  Also ".a" libraries may not be broke, but a side effect of
lafilefixer - need to check that one.  prelink apparently doesnt affect
(or maybe updates) the checksum.

I am sure someone probably has a utility able to automate the process -
anyone?

BillK

e.g.,
myth2 ~ # equery check gcc
[ Checking sys-devel/gcc-4.3.4 ]
!!! /usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/f951 has incorrect md5sum
!!! /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/32/libgfortran.so.3.0.0 has
incorrect md5sum
!!! /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/libgcc.a has incorrect md5sum
!!! /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/libmudflapth.so.0.0.0 has
incorrect md5sum
!!! /usr/share/gcc-data/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/locale/tr/LC_MESSAGES/gcc.mo has incorrect md5sum
!!! /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/32/libgfortran.a has
incorrect md5sum
!!! /etc/env.d/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-4.3.4 has incorrect md5sum
!!! /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/include/g
++-v4/bits/boost_concept_check.h has incorrect md5sum
!!! /usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/tree1 has incorrect
md5sum
!!! /usr/share/gcc-data/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/locale/es/LC_MESSAGES/gcc.mo has incorrect md5sum
 * 944 out of 954 files good
myth2 ~ #

Yeah my gcc is broke and wont rebuild :( 


On Fri, 2010-02-12 at 19:55 +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> Hi, Gentoo!
> 
> As reported in other threads, my new PC had a broken RAM stick in it.
> As a result, an unknown proportion of installed binaries are flaky.  One
> non-functioning binary is probably GCC.
> 
> What I'd like to do is reinstall every binary, yet without erasing any
> configuration info, whose creation was so arduous.
> 
> Where does portage keep it's list of installed packages?  What do I have
> to do to persuade portage it has _no_ installed packages before doing
> 'rm -rf *' in /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin?
> 
> Has anybody any other tips to offer me for this operation?
> 
-- 
William Kenworthy <billk@iinet.net.au>
Home in Perth!

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Friday 12 February 2010 21:55:29 Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> Hi, Gentoo!
> 
> As reported in other threads, my new PC had a broken RAM stick in it.
> As a result, an unknown proportion of installed binaries are flaky.  One
> non-functioning binary is probably GCC.
> 
> What I'd like to do is reinstall every binary, yet without erasing any
> configuration info, whose creation was so arduous.
> 
> Where does portage keep it's list of installed packages?  What do I have
> to do to persuade portage it has _no_ installed packages before doing
> 'rm -rf *' in /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin?
> 
> Has anybody any other tips to offer me for this operation?

First get a working compiler installed. There are many ways, here's what I 
think is the easiest:

Boot into a Gentoo LiveCD, chroot into your install, and emerge -k the gcc 
tarball on the CD.

Reboot into the actual install, synce the portage tree and 

emerge -e world

That will rebuild everything, including gcc. 

The paranoid might want to emerge gcc itself on it's own first so that 
rebuilding world is done with the same gcc version as what it will become (gcc 
is not built first when you rebuild world, all sort of toolchain tools and 
parsers are earlier in the list). Personally, I don't do that - there is an 
actual chance that using an old compiler to build a new compiler may lead to 
incompatibility issues, but the risk is extremely small and rare, and it's 
never bitten me.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, Alan,

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 09:27:15AM +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Friday 12 February 2010 21:55:29 Alan Mackenzie wrote:

> > As reported in other threads, my new PC had a broken RAM stick in it.
> > As a result, an unknown proportion of installed binaries are flaky.
> > One non-functioning binary is probably GCC.

> > What I'd like to do is reinstall every binary, yet without erasing
> > any configuration info, whose creation was so arduous.

> > Where does portage keep it's list of installed packages?  What do I
> > have to do to persuade portage it has _no_ installed packages before
> > doing 'rm -rf *' in /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin?

> > Has anybody any other tips to offer me for this operation?

> First get a working compiler installed. There are many ways, here's
> what I think is the easiest:

> Boot into a Gentoo LiveCD, chroot into your install, and emerge -k the gcc 
> tarball on the CD.

> Reboot into the actual install, synce the portage tree and 

> emerge -e world

> That will rebuild everything, including gcc. 

Thanks!  In the end, I just used the gcc I had on the system anyway; it
wasn't broken.  I first did 'emerge -e gcc', which took an hour, then did
'emerge -e world', which took ~2 hours 30 mins.

I was being a bit paranoid.  The reason I "gave up" on the installation
CD was I failed to find out how to start my LVM2 voluble logics, or
whatever they're called.

I'm now back on track, setting up my PC.  Thanks!

> The paranoid might want to emerge gcc itself on it's own first so that
> rebuilding world is done with the same gcc version as what it will
> become (gcc is not built first when you rebuild world, all sort of
> toolchain tools and parsers are earlier in the list). Personally, I
> don't do that - there is an actual chance that using an old compiler to
> build a new compiler may lead to incompatibility issues, but the risk
> is extremely small and rare, and it's never bitten me.

There was that apocryphal tale of the origianl Unix hacker who hardwired
a backdoor login into the system, and hacked cc to _keep_ inserting the
backdoor each time the system was built, and to keep this hack in cc each
time cc was compiled.  Whew!

> -- 
> alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Stroller]

On 13 Feb 2010, at 17:51, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> ...
> There was that apocryphal tale of the origianl Unix hacker who  
> hardwired
> a backdoor login into the system, and hacked cc to _keep_ inserting  
> the
> backdoor each time the system was built, and to keep this hack in cc  
> each
> time cc was compiled.  Whew!

This is completely OT, but:

- Not apocryphal.
- KenThompson.

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TheKenThompsonHack

http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] How should I clean up my broken system?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Saturday 13 February 2010 19:51:05 Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> Thanks!  In the end, I just used the gcc I had on the system anyway; it
> wasn't broken.  I first did 'emerge -e gcc', which took an hour, then did
> 'emerge -e world', which took ~2 hours 30 mins.
> 
> I was being a bit paranoid.  The reason I "gave up" on the installation
> CD was I failed to find out how to start my LVM2 voluble logics, or
> whatever they're called.

Oh yes, I forgot about that. I have old LiveCDs around too that don't support 
LVM. It can get bloody annoying when you forget and use it anyway. These days 
I use RIPLinux on a small spare USB stick as my rescue system


> I'm now back on track, setting up my PC.  Thanks!
> 
> > The paranoid might want to emerge gcc itself on it's own first so that
> > rebuilding world is done with the same gcc version as what it will
> > become (gcc is not built first when you rebuild world, all sort of
> > toolchain tools and parsers are earlier in the list). Personally, I
> > don't do that - there is an actual chance that using an old compiler to
> > build a new compiler may lead to incompatibility issues, but the risk
> > is extremely small and rare, and it's never bitten me.
> 
> There was that apocryphal tale of the origianl Unix hacker who hardwired
> a backdoor login into the system, and hacked cc to keep inserting the
> backdoor each time the system was built, and to keep this hack in cc each
> time cc was compiled.  Whew!

That's not a myth either :-)

There was a story on /. about that very thing just the other day!


-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com