[gentoo-user] building packages remotely

[gentoo-user] building packages remotely

[Maxim Wexler]

Hi group,

I've read references here and in other forums to building packages on
a desktop PC and installing them on a note/netbook remotely as a way
of relieving stress on the smaller machine.

Can someone point me to the documentation or howto? I can't seem to
come up with the proper google input that doesn't lead to garbage.

Maxim

Re: [gentoo-user] building packages remotely

[Daniel da Veiga]

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 14:08, Maxim Wexler<maxim.wexler@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi group,
>
> I've read references here and in other forums to building packages on
> a desktop PC and installing them on a note/netbook remotely as a way
> of relieving stress on the smaller machine.
>
> Can someone point me to the documentation or howto? I can't seem to
> come up with the proper google input that doesn't lead to garbage.
>

You may use DISTCC so other (more powerful) rigs can help compiling
stuff (keep in mind some packages don' t use this, as it can lead to
errors, gcc and openoffice, for instance). Or you can build binary
packages and use a binary mirror so you can use "emerge -k".

-- 
Daniel da Veiga

Re: [gentoo-user] building packages remotely

[Joshua Murphy]

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 1:08 PM, Maxim Wexler<maxim.wexler@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi group,
>
> I've read references here and in other forums to building packages on
> a desktop PC and installing them on a note/netbook remotely as a way
> of relieving stress on the smaller machine.
>
> Can someone point me to the documentation or howto? I can't seem to
> come up with the proper google input that doesn't lead to garbage.
>
> Maxim

Well, if your systems are VERY similar (chost, cflags, very similar
selection of packages, etc) you can use:

emerge --buildpkgonly some/thing

to build packages, but I personally recommend putting together a
chroot to build in for your netbook (I recommend it only, really,
because I know it to work as I use it with virtual systems), and using
it to build packages. The process isn't too difficult... and is really
a lot like any other install.

make a directory to hold it, extract an appropriate stage3 (might look
at the weekly builds to save a lot of time on updating things), add
buildpkg to your FEATURES, build anything you need, possibly even
taking the time to do an --

emerge -ev --buildpkgonly world

to get up to date packages for everything, then make those packages
available to your weaker system through some means (ftp, http, or nfs
mounted over /usr/portage/packages). And make sure to always use
"emerge -k whatever" to make sure it uses the packages. Also, USE
flags should match between the real weaker system and the chroot you
built for it. You could also reinstall the weaker system from scratch
by treating the chroot as, basically, a stage4 ... leaving you only a
need to worry about bootloader, config files, and the kernel being
configured and built properly for your needs.

A similar, but secondary, option would be to start building for a
second system using the host system's compiler and portage, building
into a secondary 'ROOT', which I tend to do with systems that have no
need at all for a compiler, portage tree, etc, and building packages
out of those in the process.

-- 
Poison [BLX]
Joshua M. Murphy
"After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless." -
The Tao Of Programming