Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

windtalker · 2008-04-03 19:09:43

Still learning the command line here sooooo....

I've read and reread everything recommended regarding AUR.
Somewhere I'm overlooking or missing something.
The AUR users guide says to:

Users can access the AUR [community] repo by adding/uncommenting this line in their pacman.conf file:
Include = /etc/pacman.d/community

Well that line doesn't exist so the guide says to:

If /etc/pacman.d/community does not exist then it should be created and contain the following:
[community]
Server = ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/community/os/i686/

Evidently I might have a pacman.d/community, but when I pull it up with nano, it's a totally blank page which leads me to believe it's there but not actually created.

I can't find anything that tells me what I need to do to make sure I've created a pacman.d/community.

Is a blank page right or shouldn't there be some text in there with comments?

I can and have installed a few things with yaourt, but I know that I've been lucky so far with that as I know something isn't right.
I have to use my user password and then my root password in that order or nothing will finish installing so I've stopped using it until I have a better understanding of it.

Man,, all I wanna do is try out doom3-phantasm,,, for now anyway.

Last edited by windtalker (2008-04-04 00:40:26)

floke · 2008-04-03 19:24:52

You need to put the Community server in your /etc/pacman.conf file

For example, here's the one I use:

[community]
Server = http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp. … ty/os/i686

You also need to add your permissions in the sudoers file,

See here for details

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/10/05 … oers-list/

(but be careful not to bugger it up!)

** EDIT: I needed to do this myself (fresh arch install) - you need the 'sudo' and 'vi' packages installed; and actually I've never done it the visudo way, but have always edited the /etc/sudoers file with a normal editor - though its not recommended!

Last edited by floke (2008-04-03 19:28:54)

brebs · 2008-04-03 19:26:57

doom3-phantasm is not in "community" - it's in "unsupported".

What page are you reading? It's out of date. Use:

[community]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

That Include line is just like the others in that file, and you *need* the [community] tag above it.

theringmaster · 2008-04-03 19:51:47

you can just install yaourt and it will go out and get aur packages just as easy as pacman does its thing with repos.

windtalker · 2008-04-03 20:46:40

Floke:
I tried that, pacman won't synch with that addy.

Brebs;
That's how pacman.conf is set for all the repo's listed. [mirrorlist]
I know phantasm is in unsupported, I'm trying to figure out how to get unsupported added to pacman so I can get it.

Theringmaster:

Yaourt is installed and as I've said I've used it, but, as I also said, each time I use it just before it completes the install it asks for my password, which is fine, but I have to first enter my user password which it refuses, then my root password which it accepts.
It flat wil not settle for me simply using my root password like it should.
I've tried several times and this is something that I'm missing also somewhere somehow.
To my way of thinking, it should be like pacman and accept my root password no questions asked.

I'll also add that I've tried installing phantasm with yaourt.
It found all the depends and compiled the complete package.
When it came to the stage to do the actual install, it asked for a pasword.
I've tried my user pasword followed by my root password and was kicked out.
I've tried just my user password and was rejected.
I've tried my root password and was rejected and when re-entered was kicked out.
Unless things have changed with Arch and the guide is out of date, there should be a way to add unsupported to pacman.

I'll try flokes suggestion of changing the permissions in sudo and see what happens.
Thx guys.

edit: How the heck does one save a change in VI?

Last edited by windtalker (2008-04-03 21:12:12)

brebs · 2008-04-03 21:13:29

windtalker wrote:

there should be a way to add unsupported to pacman.

As often said, there will never be an official way, because it would be a horrendous security flaw. Any John Doe can upload a malicious pkgbuild to Unsupported.

In vi, do: :x

Last edited by brebs (2008-04-03 21:14:14)

MoonSwan · 2008-04-03 21:30:33

In case you are missing the obvious (I did when I began with some CLI stuff), nano if invoked by itself brings up a blank page. IE: nano ... you will be dumped to a blank page. However if you do: nano /etc/pacman.conf ... will bring you to your page you wish to edit.

Quitting vi w/out saving, I believe, is done with ":q" (no quotes). I hate vi but I've had to read a few commands from my "Linux in a Nutshell" book to get to grips with visudo.

windtalker · 2008-04-04 00:19:05

Here are the commands that worked for me in visudo.
An hour of googling finally revealed them as none of my Linux books even mentioned visudo.

Note: you have to hit the esc key after you have made your changes before any of the below can be used.

:w Write to file (sudoers.tmp) and continue in Command mode.
:q Quit. (Will not quit unless you have saved changes.)
:wq Write to file (sudoers) and quit. (Sudoers.tmp is deleted.)
:q! Quit without saving changes.

Dirhael · 2008-04-04 00:33:42

windtalker wrote:

...none of my Linux books even mentioned visudo.

That's because "visudo" == "vi" so there is absolutely no reason why they would mention any commands specifically for it.

psych1610 · 2008-04-04 00:59:04

I doubt this will help but I can try.

I access community with the way Brebs suggested and it works. I can access it with pacman and yaourt. The only way to access unsupported AUR is via yaourt as far as I know. It can download a package from there and install automatically or you can download it then complete the steps to install. I have a post around here somewhere with the right wiki article linked to in it.

By the way, and this is completely unrelated to your post. Thanks so much for your assistance (with providing the driver) and your encouragement telling me to persist with Arch. The same day, or day after, I read that I downloaded the driver, messed with hwd which didn't work and then succeeded with another command.

As of right now I have gnome installed successfully and accessing the internet. Actually, I'm writing this post from Arch Thanks so much for your help, greatly appreciated.

Dave

brebs · 2008-04-04 01:10:14

psych1610 wrote:

The only way to access unsupported AUR is via yaourt as far as I know.

Completely wrong. wget the tarball, unpack it, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, look at it before you install it.

I cannot emphasize this enough. One day, I'm going to upload a pkgbuild which changes your most important files to repetitions of "you've just been pwned", to remind everyone what "security" means

theringmaster · 2008-04-04 01:13:22

windtalker wrote:

Floke:
I tried that, pacman won't synch with that addy.
Brebs;
That's how pacman.conf is set for all the repo's listed. [mirrorlist]
I know phantasm is in unsupported, I'm trying to figure out how to get unsupported added to pacman so I can get it.
Theringmaster:
Yaourt is installed and as I've said I've used it, but, as I also said, each time I use it just before it completes the install it asks for my password, which is fine, but I have to first enter my user password which it refuses, then my root password which it accepts.
It flat wil not settle for me simply using my root password like it should.
I've tried several times and this is something that I'm missing also somewhere somehow.
To my way of thinking, it should be like pacman and accept my root password no questions asked.
I'll also add that I've tried installing phantasm with yaourt.
It found all the depends and compiled the complete package.
When it came to the stage to do the actual install, it asked for a pasword.
I've tried my user pasword followed by my root password and was kicked out.
I've tried just my user password and was rejected.
I've tried my root password and was rejected and when re-entered was kicked out.
Unless things have changed with Arch and the guide is out of date, there should be a way to add unsupported to pacman.
I'll try flokes suggestion of changing the permissions in sudo and see what happens.
Thx guys.
edit: How the heck does one save a change in VI?

you do have to have sudo installed and configured (just a three step process see wiki) to use yaourt properly. to save a change in vi press :wq

psych1610 · 2008-04-04 01:37:55

Brebs, is that completely wrong as in it won't work? Or is it completely wrong as in it is entirely unrecommended with possibility of destroying a system should some smartass put some bad code in there meant to destroy a system. Just curious as I'm still learning.

As far as looking inside of it I'm confused as to what good that would do me. I couldn't tell whats supposed to be in there from whats not supposed to be in there, I'm sure. So sometimes it may not do any good at all.

brebs · 2008-04-04 01:53:40

psych1610 wrote:

entirely unrecommended

Yep. To put it in the mildest possible way.

psych1610 · 2008-04-04 02:56:28

Ok thanks, now that I know that I'll look inside for sure. Having said that, is there anything particular that should NOT be present or anything I can look for thats a dead give away the package would do me some harm? I don't actually know how to program or anything like that. What can a simple newbie look for?

Dave

floke · 2008-04-04 07:24:05

Most of the build scripts will have clean up operations at the end, removing particular files that are no longer needed.
The obvious danger is a command that removes your entire root partition and everything on it.
Check out this sticky on malicious commands over at the Ubuntu forum for more info.

http://ubuntuforums.org/announcement.php?f=147

B-Con · 2008-04-04 08:24:06

brebs wrote:

psych1610 wrote:
The only way to access unsupported AUR is via yaourt as far as I know.
Completely wrong. wget the tarball, unpack it, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, look at it before you install it.
I cannot emphasize this enough. One day, I'm going to upload a pkgbuild which changes your most important files to repetitions of "you've just been pwned", to remind everyone what "security" means

Someone around here had/has a signature with pacman roulette. That was the wimpy version. Installing random non-confirmed packages from the AUR, that's roulette Arch-style.

ibendiben · 2008-04-04 09:35:30

From my experience it isn't needed to use vi to configure your sudoers file. I use nano for that, as it is my default editor.
I'm not entirely sure if this is common behavior though, cause I did read somewhere sudoers was only editable with vi.
Anyway, if nano is your default editor, as root (su -> [enter] -> password -> [enter]) you need to do:

nano /etc/sudoers

and uncomment the line (remove the "#" in front of):

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

and quit with [ctrl]+x followed by choosing to save changes with a "y" and finally choosing where to store by just hitting [enter] as you wish to leave it where it was.
Now if your user is added to the wheel group (did you do that?) you can now use all (root) commands with sudo <command>, by entering the user's password.

psych1610 · 2008-04-04 15:21:27

Thanks floke, I'll look through that. I understand the important of looking through files, but if I don't know what to look for it's useless. At this point in the game I couldn't spot a malicious command from one thats needed for the operation to run.

ibendiben · 2008-04-04 16:25:06

So only install packages with a lot of votes, or packages where a "trusted*" user posted a positive comment... not that this garantees anything, but it is at least something at this point of "the game"
You can also post any PKGBUILD up this forum, so other users may help you understanding/determining whether it is safe to use or not.

*as in user you trust

MoonSwan · 2008-04-11 00:38:42

Sudo itself says not to use any other editor but visudo to edit its configuration files as it can cause permissions issues & other nastiness. I find vi/visudo to be a huge pita but I read, recently, of one fellows' troubles because he used nano instead of visudo to edit his sudoers file.

Quoted from the sudoers file itself:

sudoers file.
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
# Failure to use 'visudo' may result in syntax or file permission errors
# that prevent sudo from running.
#
# See the sudoers man page for the details on how to write a sudoers file.

ibendiben · 2008-04-11 10:55:24

Ok, thanks for clearing that up... luckely sudo runs flawlessly till now

ghostHack · 2008-04-11 18:32:26

The reason visudo is recommended is that when you close the sudoers file it checks that all the syntax is valid and gives you the opportunity to fix any errors. If the syntax is wrong then sudo will not work properly which can be a big problem if you have disabled the root account and use sudo from a normal user to perform all administration tasks since you will be unable to edit the sudoers file to correct it.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-04-03 19:09:43

Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#2 2008-04-03 19:24:52

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#3 2008-04-03 19:26:57

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#4 2008-04-03 19:51:47

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#5 2008-04-03 20:46:40

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#6 2008-04-03 21:13:29

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#7 2008-04-03 21:30:33

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#8 2008-04-04 00:19:05

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#9 2008-04-04 00:33:42

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#10 2008-04-04 00:59:04

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#11 2008-04-04 01:10:14

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#12 2008-04-04 01:13:22

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#13 2008-04-04 01:37:55

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#14 2008-04-04 01:53:40

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#15 2008-04-04 02:56:28

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#16 2008-04-04 07:24:05

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#17 2008-04-04 08:24:06

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#18 2008-04-04 09:35:30

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#19 2008-04-04 15:21:27

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#20 2008-04-04 16:25:06

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#21 2008-04-11 00:38:42

Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

#22 2008-04-11 10:55:24

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Re: Need some help understanding AUR please<solved>

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