Arch Linux

jl2

Member

From: 47° 18' N 8° 34' E

Registered: 2022-06-01

Posts: 489

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Compile on PC, install on laptop

Hello, I recently got a new PC that has 24 threads, so much it doesn't even use most of them when compiling, and it is so fast compared to my laptop.

So, my thought was that I could compile it all on my PC, and then somehow normally install it on the laptop with pacman.

For normal pacman stuff I can just use a read-only shared pacman cache, and add the cacheserver line in pacman.conf.
But this doesn't work for AUR packages, so I guess I'm stuck with a pacman repo.

I wasn't even able to find the instructions for making a normal pacman repo anywhere, guess I didn't try hard enough though.
Is there any way to manage this with a AUR helper (preferably paru), or otherwise? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one with this problem.

It doesn't need to be as robust as the shared pacman cache mentioned above, I'm totally fine with updating only when I'm at home.

- J Luke

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Why I run Arch? To "BTW I run Arch" the guy one grade younger.
And to let my siblings and cousins laugh at Arsch Linux...

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,330

Website

Re: Compile on PC, install on laptop

You could make your own repo, and it's not hard, but even that's probably overkill for this.

Just build the packages on the pc, and put the resulting .pkg.tar.xz .pkg.tar.zst files on shared storage (makepkg can be configured with a destination to even automate this part).  Then from the laptop you'd just use pacman -U to install those packages, e.g. `pacman -U /path/to/pkgs/*.zst`

EDIT: yup, zst is the default now, sorry.

Last edited by Trilby (2024-10-31 01:27:01)

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,084

Re: Compile on PC, install on laptop

@Trilby
isn't it .pkg.tar.zstd, is it?

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,182

Re: Compile on PC, install on laptop

it's either (although zst, not zstd), depending on how you set it in makepkg.conf. .zst is default now, .xz is an older default.

jl2

Member

From: 47° 18' N 8° 34' E

Registered: 2022-06-01

Posts: 489

Website

Re: Compile on PC, install on laptop

You could make your own repo, and it's not hard, but even that's probably overkill for this.

Well the advantage would be that I can just "pacman -Syu". Is there even a official guide?

Just build the packages on the pc, and put the resulting .pkg.tar.xz .pkg.tar.zst files on shared storage (makepkg can be configured with a destination to even automate this part).  Then from the laptop you'd just use pacman -U to install those packages, e.g. `pacman -U /path/to/pkgs/*.zst`

I already store files in a single directory. For the pacman command I'd add a "--needed" to ignore already up-to-date files. What Fileserver would be apppropriate? A http one like the cacheserver or will a rsync one have advantages?

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Why I run Arch? To "BTW I run Arch" the guy one grade younger.
And to let my siblings and cousins laugh at Arsch Linux...

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,038

Re: Compile on PC, install on laptop

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … repository

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky