From Debian, a few question about pacman and other...

Caranthir · 2007-10-04 18:01:32

Hi all,
i'm going to install Arch so i spent the last few hours reading wiki and forums but i've still some questions:

1) Debian in structured with stable/testing/unstable trees, i've seen that there's something similar here with the core/extras/unstable repos that should work together without having multiple packages with different version, right?
Now, considering i've alwais used debian unstable i need more info about testing tree ^^
I read that it's possibile to have a mixed system with packages both from core and testing but for example if i enable the testing repo and than give this command:

pacman -Syu

this will update *all* my system to testing? (i guess so)
If i want jut to install gnome from testing a simple

pacman -S testing/gnome

should work?

Another doubt: if i have a system with testing and core giving

pacman -Syu

how will handle upgrading of the packages? I mean, testing packages will be updating checking the testing repo and the other checking core/extras/unstable? or it will simply update all my system to testing?

2) A question about kernel: in Debian i as used to compile kernel with

make-kpgk kernel-image

and then installing it like a normal package, is there something similar in Arch or you compile the kernel the standard way?

make && make modules_install

I hope that i've been clear enough about pacman, i was used to install software from the unstable tree and eventually mixing testing/unstable using APT pinning so i'm a little confused now ^^

Thanks for the help anyway
Caranthir

lucke · 2007-10-04 18:25:28

It generally depends whether you have testing placed before other repos in pacman.conf. If testing is first, packages from testing will take precedence over core/extra packages; if it's put behind those, you will normally grab packages from core/extra, but will be able to grab packages from testing by running "pacman -S testing/package".

Read about ABS in the wiki. It allows one to build his own packages.

Last edited by lucke (2007-10-04 18:26:22)

dolby · 2007-10-04 18:25:53

1) i dont recommend using testing right after u install for the first time. if u finally decide to install stuff from testing use em all with pacman -Syu not just gnome. its the only way you're supposed to use the repo
pacman -Syu with both testing and core will grab from testing ofc cause of newer pkg versions

2) its recommended to use a PKGBUILD for that as well as all other pieces of software u install. many related pages in the wiki

ise · 2007-10-04 19:37:23

Just a small note, you don't have to enable testing and/or unstable unless you want to help bugfixing. In core/extra/community there are usually the latest and greatest versions.

The testing repo isn't for picking one piece of software, usually you have to use the whole testing repo. Example: at the moment there is a new db version in testing and all the testing stuff is build against this new db version. If you just install one or more packages from testing, but not all that are necessary, it will not run.

For building packages there are PKGBUILDs and makepkg, but look in the wiki for building packages, there are good articles.

Caranthir · 2007-10-04 21:36:23

thank you all guys, i've just read the wiki pages about kernel compilation e ABS, tomorrow i'll go for my install i hope (and i will probably try to installa testing )

Caranthir

Misfit138 · 2007-10-04 21:42:02

Take the recommendations and don't use [testing] unless you want to track for bugs. [core], [extra] and [community] already have the most bleeding edge stable software. If you are coming from Debian, this may be hard to accept, but Arch is typically much more bleeding edge than Debian testing.

mutlu_inek · 2007-10-04 22:39:10

Testing is not the newer version of what is in core, extra, unstable and community. It contains only a very limited amount of packages run by very few members to prepare for more complicated updates of packages in the other repositories. You will not gain anything but instability by using testing.

Caranthir · 2007-10-05 06:59:36

ok, i'll follow your recommendations
thanks for the clarifications anyway (the wiki is very useful)

Caranthir

ise · 2007-10-05 07:02:26

Another note, the actual iso is broken if you want to do a ftp install. Instead you can use the newest RCs iso from here: http://www.archlinux.org/~tpowa/rc-iso/
They are working, several people had a successful installtion with them.

Last edited by ise (2007-10-05 07:03:09)

Caranthir · 2007-10-05 07:27:17

ise wrote:

Another note, the actual iso is broken if you want to do a ftp install. Instead you can use the newest RCs iso from here: http://www.archlinux.org/~tpowa/rc-iso/
They are working, several people had a successful installtion with them.

thanks, i was downloading the ftp iso from the website right now...

Caranthir

Arch Linux

#1 2007-10-04 18:01:32

From Debian, a few question about pacman and other...

#2 2007-10-04 18:25:28

Re: From Debian, a few question about pacman and other...

#3 2007-10-04 18:25:53

Re: From Debian, a few question about pacman and other...

#4 2007-10-04 19:37:23

Re: From Debian, a few question about pacman and other...

#5 2007-10-04 21:36:23

Re: From Debian, a few question about pacman and other...

#6 2007-10-04 21:42:02

Re: From Debian, a few question about pacman and other...

#7 2007-10-04 22:39:10

Re: From Debian, a few question about pacman and other...

#8 2007-10-05 06:59:36

Re: From Debian, a few question about pacman and other...

#9 2007-10-05 07:02:26

Re: From Debian, a few question about pacman and other...

#10 2007-10-05 07:27:17

Re: From Debian, a few question about pacman and other...

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