Arch Linux

jerrym

Member

From: Kannapolis, NC

Registered: 2005-07-08

Posts: 60

installing from unstable

wanted openoffice2 so i uncommented the line to use unstable in my pacman.conf file and commented out the current and extra lines

[current]
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/current

[extra]
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/extra

#[unstable]
# Add your preferred servers here, they will be used first
Include = /etc/pacman.d/unstable

is there a better way to install packages from unstable without having to do this everytime. also when i change it back to do a system update (-Syu) will it mess up the packages i installed from unstable?

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He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot.
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Registered Linux User #319935
Registered Linux Machine #204881

Snowman

Developer/Forum Fellow

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2004-08-20

Posts: 5,212

Re: installing from unstable

The packages in unstable and current/extra don't have the same names so they won't interfere with each other.  You can leave them uncommented.  The "tricky" repo is testing since it contains packages that will eventually be moved to current/extra..

Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

Website

Re: installing from unstable

IIRC, [unstable] doesn't contain packages that are named the same as packages in [current] and [extra]. So you can leave them all uncommented.

I may be wrong. But I assume the package for open office in unstable is named openoffice2, and not openoffice.

Dusty

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Snowman

Developer/Forum Fellow

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2004-08-20

Posts: 5,212

Re: installing from unstable

I may be wrong. But I assume the package for open office in unstable is named openoffice2, and not openoffice.
Dusty

That's correct.

scarecrow

Member

From: Greece

Registered: 2004-11-18

Posts: 715

Re: installing from unstable

And you can have both OOo 1.1.4 and OOo 1.9.113 installed with no issues- ban your MIME settings.

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Microshaft delenda est

jerrym

Member

From: Kannapolis, NC

Registered: 2005-07-08

Posts: 60

Re: installing from unstable

thanks to you all.

got openoffice2 installed at home, but now at work i am behind a firewall/proxy. i have it so i can install stuff using wget and all that, but some of the repos cant download the db.tar.gz file. says length: unspecified

can i download the package file itself and use pacman to install it?

---

He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot.
- - - Groucho Marx

Registered Linux User #319935
Registered Linux Machine #204881

phrakture

Arch Overlord

From: behind you

Registered: 2003-10-29

Posts: 7,879

Website

Re: installing from unstable

can i download the package file itself and use pacman to install it?

both should work:

pacman -A http://www.path.to/package/to/install.pkg.tar.gz

wget http://www.path.to/package/to/install.pkg.tar.gz
pacman -A install.pkg.tar.gz

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http://phraktured.net

Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

Website

Re: installing from unstable

I may be wrong. But I assume the package for open office in unstable is named openoffice2, and not openoffice.
Dusty

That's correct.

Didn't realize you had outposted me, sorry.  8)

Dusty

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** Arch Linux Apparel and more ** Arch Linux stickers, laptop bags, jewelery ** I wrote a book on Python 3 ** and one on mental health **

jerrym

Member

From: Kannapolis, NC

Registered: 2005-07-08

Posts: 60

Re: installing from unstable

thanks all, i got it installed. had to download the file and then install it but hey, whatever works.

---

He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot.
- - - Groucho Marx

Registered Linux User #319935
Registered Linux Machine #204881

koyi

Member

From: Osaka, Japan

Registered: 2005-08-15

Posts: 37

Re: installing from unstable

The packages in unstable and current/extra don't have the same names so they won't interfere with each other.  You can leave them uncommented.  The "tricky" repo is testing since it contains packages that will eventually be moved to current/extra..

Does this mean that Testing and Current will interfere with each other?

Snowman

Developer/Forum Fellow

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2004-08-20

Posts: 5,212

Re: installing from unstable

Does this mean that Testing and Current will interfere with each other?

Maybe interfere isn't the right word...  If you uncomment the testing repo in pacman.conf, its packages will replace the stable ones from the current/extra repos.  That's because the packages in the testing repo have the same name as their counterpart from the current/extra repos except they have a higher version number. 

The testing repo replaces stable packages with packages that could be problematic while the unstable repo only contains unstable packages such as development versions.