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Thread ID: 51908 2004-12-03 01:55:00 Package installation on Linux jcr1 (893) Press F1
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299803 2004-12-03 01:55:00 I have tried Gentoo twice, without too much success. I will try again when I'm less busy.
PPPoE configured brilliantly, the manual is excellent. But! my cd containing stage 3 base files was corrupt.

Anyway, there are many package managers - apt, rpm, emerge etc. etc. & is it true to say that they will only install the packages available for a particular distro? An example, I run Libranet, which is based on Debian, but not all Debian packages will install, the ones listed with Libranet (in Synaptic for example), generally will, although dependancies are hell.
But for an expert in Linux, does it really matter, can any package be made to install on any distro by compiling from source etc. & is this practical?
jcr1 (893)
299804 2004-12-03 02:11:00 > Anyway, there are many package managers - apt, rpm,
> emerge etc . etc . & is it true to say that they will
> only install the packages available for a particular
> distro?

It depends on the distro, Yoper for eg, will install from Sysnaptic, Kget, RPM . Most distro's use there own package tree or repository of pre-compled packages, how these go will depend to a large extent on the ability and effort of the package maintaners of that distro and how the distro impements it's version of packages . Some are better than others .

An example, I run Libranet, which is based
> on Debian, but not all Debian packages will install,
> the ones listed with Libranet (in Synaptic for
> example), generally will, although dependancies are
> hell .

I've found the Mepis and Yoper dependecies have been handled very well . They are the two distro's I have any real experience [sic] with, so can't really comment on others .

> But for an expert in Linux, does it really matter,
> can any package be made to install on any distro by
> compiling from source etc . & is this practical?

Yes you can compile if you have the knowledge, it's not always pratical though, it depends on you and the situation .
Murray P (44)
299805 2004-12-03 02:14:00 If you get a source package you can compile it and run it . I think most if not all distributions use the standard file system layout .

The "challenge" level varies . You may need to install some "devel" packages so you have various declaration files (especially for device drivers and system-type stuff) . You might have to sort out required libraries yourself .

But it's all doable . The main thing is: read the documentation files . All source packages have README, INSTALL, etc files included . READ THEM . The developers didn't write them to be ignored . They contain essential information .
Graham L (2)
299806 2004-12-03 03:00:00 Thanks Murray P & Graham L,
Much as I thought.
After my brush with Gentoo I realised that Libranet was starting to get a bit dated and I guess I was pondering the universality of Linux & how I might update fairly painlessly.
jcr1 (893)
299807 2004-12-03 05:10:00 Gentoo have approx 14,000 applications in the portage tree so chances are the application you want is already in there with an ebuild so you can just:
emerge appname

Stage3 on a CD? Im sure you download Stage3 from the 'net during install......
Chilling_Silence (9)
299808 2004-12-03 05:44:00 >Stage3 on a CD? Im sure you download Stage3 from the 'net during install......
I was prompted for it on the cd, then got the corrupt... message; so I downloaded it from the net which was OK but I got stumped a bit further along in the install process.
Next time I tried it was the stage3 download that got me.

But like I said, I will try again.

Just need a bit more time; small chunks are no good & getting up early, late nights are no good either; but it will get better.
jcr1 (893)
299809 2004-12-03 06:13:00 jcr1 :
If you want a hand, send me an email - I'd be more than happy to help get it going :-)

Im on MSN/Jabber/ICQ otherwise

Good luck ;-)
Chilling_Silence (9)
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