Re: [gentoo-user] update fails, but I don't see why

[n952162 <n952162@web.de>]

That's good.  I'll do that


On 12/13/20 10:40 PM, Dale wrote:
> n952162 wrote:
>> On 12/13/20 10:02 PM, n952162 wrote:
>>> On 12/13/20 9:06 PM, Dale wrote:
>>>> Mark Knecht wrote:
>>>>> On Sun, Dec 13, 2020 at 12:03 PM n952162 <n952162@web.de
>>>>> <mailto:n952162@web.de>> wrote:
>>>>>> On 12/13/20 9:18 AM, Neil Bothwick wrote:
>>>>>>> Nearly 2 months, quite a long time in Gentoo update terms.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> Okay, is the solution then to re-install?
>>>>>>
>>>>> Personally I wouldn't start with a reinstall.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'd start with my world file and remove/comment out every
>>>>> 'application' not required to keep the machine running/booting. That
>>>>> should be nearly everything other than things like grub, your kernels,
>>>>> hardware drivers, terminals, etc.
>>>>>
>>>>> NOTE: Just because you comment something out in the world file doesn't
>>>>> mean it won't run, it just won't get updated or be part of portage's
>>>>> considerations about what to do.
>>>>>
>>>>> At that point emerge @world should only be considering, from a build
>>>>> POV, the stuff you really need.
>>>>>
>>>>> This python problem everyone is having I cannot help with. Solving
>>>>> problems like that is why people run Gentoo. With lots of power comes
>>>>> lots of responsibility. However with all the applications
>>>>> 'unconsidered' you have a chance of getting the really important stuff
>>>>> built and booting.
>>>>>
>>>>> If I got that far then I'd start adding apps back in/uncommenting one
>>>>> or two at a time and see if I could make headway.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've updated machines that were a year out of date but it took days
>>>>> and days. If I didn't want to build code every week I decided I
>>>>> couldn't run Gentoo.
>>>>>
>>>>> HTH,
>>>>> Mark
>>>> I agree.  I update once a week.  It seems a pretty good balance between
>>>> not having to do it to often and not having such drastic changes
>>>> that it
>>>> makes things hard to work through.
>>>>
>>>> That said, when the tree is in the process of huge changes, it can
>>>> create problems even with weekly updates.  Right now, it is python and
>>>> the speed it is moving at.  Some versions that have been around for
>>>> ages, 2.7, is being removed.  Then python 3.6 is leaving etc etc etc.
>>>> Those of us that have been around long enough have seen this with other
>>>> packages as well.  Some packages are just hard to upgrade to begin with
>>>> and some create circular problems. The longer it goes between updates,
>>>> the larger that problem gets to be.  You get two different packages
>>>> doing that, you can find yourself running around in circles trying to
>>>> get emerge to chew what it can.
>>>>
>>>> While I usually do updates on Sunday evening, I'm considering doing
>>>> twice a week, Sunday and Wednesday.  At least until python settles down
>>>> a bit. Thing is, I think the worst part may be about over.  I think 2.7
>>>> is gone here, I think 3.6 is too.  That's two down.  It seems 3.7 and
>>>> above will be around a while but if they start going away soon, I
>>>> may do
>>>> two updates a week if it starts making updates harder.
>>>>
>>>> Time can be a problem but sometimes it just depends on what packages
>>>> have changed and how fast they have changed.  For some systems that
>>>> haven't been updated in a while, having to remove python 2.7 and 3.6 in
>>>> one go, can cause problems that are hard to get around.  Right now just
>>>> isn't a good time to let updates get to far apart.
>>>>
>>>> The only thing that makes some of this survivable, getting help on this
>>>> mailing list.  Some people can decode the output of emerge and find a
>>>> way to work through it. Some are fairly easy, some not so much.
>>>> Sometimes removing/commenting out things in the world file will help.
>>>> Sometimes doing @system first helps. Sometimes you just have to update
>>>> certain packages in small chunks to get through a upgrade. Finding that
>>>> right option sometimes requires help.
>>>>
>>>> Just some thoughts.
>>>>
>>>> Dale
>>>>
>>>> :-)  :-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> My problem is I can't find a diagnostic methodology.  The one I most
>>> often hear is, update more often, or trail and error solutions.
>>>
>>> Does all that information in emerge's output point the way to the
>>> problem, and I just have to learn to understand it,  or am I just
>>> wasting my time there?  Are there better tools than log parsing? I know,
>>> there are lots of good tools,  but there needs to be methodology for
>>> using them (like understanding gentoo ;-) )
>>>
>>>
>> But commenting stuff out of the world file is at least a path. I'll
>> start with that tomorrow.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> Another option some use, sets.  That way instead of updating world all
> in one go, they update sets instead.  Example.  You have several GUIs
> installed, KDE, Gnome and maybe even a couple more.  You break those up
> into sets for each one.  Most of the time, you may can just update world
> all in one go.  At times, it may be easier to update the lighter
> desktops first then move to the next until they are all done.  Then
> update world which should be a much smaller set of updates since most
> updates would already be done.
>
> Quite a few here use sets.  It can work well depending on your setup.
> If you do use them, there is people here than can help you work through
> issues.  Linkys:
>
> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki//etc/portage/sets
>
> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Package_sets
>
> Last one is about sets already being used.  Good for examples tho.
> Helps to understand how they work.
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-)
>