From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1M4FmY-0003T2-RX for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 13 May 2009 14:50:07 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3689FE03AA; Wed, 13 May 2009 14:50:05 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtpout.karoo.kcom.com (smtpout.karoo.kcom.com [212.50.160.34]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EB211E03AA for ; Wed, 13 May 2009 14:50:04 +0000 (UTC) X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.41,187,1241391600"; d="scan'208";a="97507857" Received: from unknown (HELO compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org) ([213.152.39.90]) by smtpout.karoo.kcom.com with ESMTP; 13 May 2009 15:49:55 +0100 Received: from [192.168.1.71] (unknown [192.168.1.71]) by compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D0022137C02 for ; Wed, 13 May 2009 15:49:51 +0100 (BST) Message-Id: From: Stroller To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <200905131627.25975.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v930.3) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: how to recover a portage that wasn't in use for very long time Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 15:49:52 +0100 References: <1430318F-36A1-4095-B8DE-014A1915AC67@gmail.com> <200905131217.11212.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> <73326D2F-33AC-4BC8-9118-4782D4D700BB@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> <200905131627.25975.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.930.3) X-Archives-Salt: d88ebac3-d057-4b51-9758-61bf91f5c36d X-Archives-Hash: dc3437743f234fdc974cd1ca8eb5bb2a On 13 May 2009, at 15:27, Alan McKinnon wrote: > ... > It's just that I remember all too well what it took to get through > those many > various blockers. More often than not I was once of the first to run > into them > - I sync and update daily - but I'd hate to do it all again all in > one go, > especially when all my buddies here have forgotten the procedure. I think it does help if one upgrades a week or two after everyone else. I upgrade my main systems only every 4 - 12 weeks, and whenever I have a problem I look in the list archives and a clear upgrade procedure has most always been described. I upgraded a 2007 system to current only a few weeks ago, and I encountered ALL the portage, mktemp, com_err, util-linux & sys-libs/ss problems. Honestly, it was not so bad. All these problems were clearly documented on the list - perhaps by yourself! - and I was able to overcome all of them in the course of an afternoon. The system was down for a couple of hours because I was hasty & impatient at one point, but in my case the significant cause of delays was that the machine is an old Duron 800mhz & took time with its compilation. With a faster machine I could perhaps have done all these upgrades within an hour. Grabbing old versions of ebuilds from the attic is a bit of a pain, you wget them, rename them, copy them into /usr/local/portage, create the manifest and it's only when you try to emerge them that you find you also need a .patch file. But all these blockers are overcome just by upgrading the various packages in a straight-forward order. I reread Alexey's post after replying to yours, and the reason he's having problems is because he's being careless. If you break the system, it's obviously a gamble whether you'll get your ass out of the problem you created for yourself. If you want to be sure of not breaking the system then you have to be cautious, resolve EACH and EVERY dependency in turn and not just go "fukkit, i don't know what that package does so, i'll ignore or unmerge it, upgrade this other package to the latest version and hope everything resolves". Stroller.