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One of the things I love about Arch is the ABS. You can run a binary-based distro for as long as you want, then just stop, drop, and compile any package that you want.
I've been looking to optimize my system for snappiness, so I'm trying to decide on which frequently-used programs are worth compiling from source. (All packages being i686-optimized from the start cuts down the need to recompile most programs.) I really don't care about small fraction-second lags in programs I use a few times a week, but for apps like Firefox that I use all the time I feel it's worth compiling. I'm still trying to decide which programs to keep manually compiled and which to not bother with. Recompiling all of gnome-desktop, IMO, is pretty pointless, but I'd consider manually compiling metacity.
So I'm curious: Which packages do you guys like to manually compile?
Last edited by B-Con (2008-02-18 22:46:37)
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Firefox -- to enable official branding and xinerama support (no idea why Firefox is compiled with disable-xinerama by default)
Mplayer -- to let it pick the best optimizations for my processor automatically
rtorrent/libtorrent -- the latest svn versions have dht support
I used to compile a custom kernel as well but decided that there is no really compelling reason to do it anymore.
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Firefox -- to enable official branding
Add thunderbird to that too... I don't add any extra optimization though. The icons are important to me for some reason....
Mplayer -- to let it pick the best optimizations for my processor automatically
Does that work if you have the default C{XX}FLAGS in makepkg.conf or have you adjusted those?
Last edited by Allan (2008-02-18 22:57:50)
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Does that work if you have the default C{XX}FLAGS in makepkg.conf or have you adjusted those?
You know what... now that you have asked me this question I did a little investigation and realized that mplayer has automatic runtime (not compile-time) cpu detection... so I guess I don't have to compile mplayer manually after all (using custom compile flags is possible, apparently, but discouraged from what I was able to find out by googling some info about it).
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Firefox -- to enable official branding and xinerama support (no idea why Firefox is compiled with disable-xinerama by default)
I recompile Firefox but still see it labeled Bon Echo. Which patch needs to be excluded to get the branding back?
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B-Con: Have a look at this script... http://allan.mcrae.googlepages.com/rebuild-firefox
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There used to be a package in aur called firefox-branded, but I can't find it anymore.
1) First of all you need add this to the mozconfig file:
ac_add_options --enable-official-branding
2) Then you also have to change the PKGBUILD, basically what you need to do is change every instance of "/src/mozilla/browser/app/default.xpm" to "/src/mozilla/other-licenses/branding/firefox/default.xpm". There should be three changes total.
3) You'll also have to update the md5sums, of course, since the mozconfig file was changed. That should do it, I think...
EDIT: Or just use Allan's script
EDIT: I just checked again and firefox-branded is available in AUR (http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=10599), so if all you want is branding you should be able to just install that package from AUR.
Last edited by fwojciec (2008-02-19 06:24:11)
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mostly for fun:
kernel
firefox (cvs)
deluge
openbox
thunar + its dep.
vlc
ffmpeg
xorg
changed -march=native and added -fomit-frame-pointer
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Nice script, by the way, Allan -- you just gave me a new idea and you've reminded me that any repetitive activity that I do on a computer deserves a script (I'm only learning bash scripting at the moment so my instincts tend to be all wrong). Anyways -- I've adopted your script for my purposes (only slight changes were necessary) and made a version for thunderbird... Using this method I should be able to get rid of my local repo and just rebuild the selected packages using scripts when necessary -- so thanks for a good idea!
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in the past, I remember having to build gcc mysqlf (for objc support), but Arch fixed it.
Oh, I build my own kernels on all machines. Everything else is fit to go as it comes from Arch.
Last edited by anykey (2008-02-19 11:00:41)
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Mostly fvwm because I just can't live without the patches
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urxvt - for libafterimage support
xf86-video-ati - for mach64 support
rtorrent/libtorrent -- the latest svn versions have dht support
http://rakshasa.no/pipermail/libtorrent … 01470.html - still needs a Community update though. codemac?
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kernel, conky, codecs, mplayer, vim + all modules (like virtualbox, ndiswrapper, nvidia etc...) that need to be rebuilt against my custom kernel.
customizepkg help me to rebuild automatically these package with yaourt -Su
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kernel (highmem support >= 4GB)
kismet (only svn sees my card)
kphotoalbum
ksquirrel
truecrypt (because of custom kernel)
virtualbox-modules (because of custom kernel)
claws-mail (cvs)
kmymoney2 (cvs)
Zygfryd Homonto
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dwm - just to configure it
mplayer-svn - custom build flags
There are many svn/cvs/git packages I build, but I dosen't change anything in PKGBUILD, so why post them...
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autocutsel/
cksfv/
cmus/
dmenu/
dwm/
elinks/
firefox3/
gimp/
git/
gtk-engine-murrine/
libtorrent/
mercurial/
mktorrent/
mplayer/
mutt/
nicotine/
nopaste/
offlineimap/
psyco/
rtorrent/
ruby-gettext/
rubyripper/
rxvt-unicode/
snownews/
terminus-font/
xcursor-neutral/
xterm/
zsh-lovers/
and i am in the process of building all base and all other packages i have installed (which are 291) stripping out locale, .desktop files pixmaps etc. dont know if i actually go through this though. it requires too much time to maintain.
There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums. That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)
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urxvt - for libafterimage support
xf86-video-ati - for mach64 supportfwojciec wrote:rtorrent/libtorrent -- the latest svn versions have dht support
http://rakshasa.no/pipermail/libtorrent … 01470.html - still needs a Community update though. codemac?
rtorrent 0.8 is still marked as unstable on the site
There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums. That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)
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Yeah, I've since been informed about the difference between rtorrent ML and website announcements.
Building it anyway...
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Kernel -- because it gives me nice warm feeling to have a custom-configured kernel.
NVidia kernel module -- needs to be because of the custom kernel
Firefox -- to get official branding
And then packages from AUR that are not in binary repositories -- no other option than building from source (unfortunately).
Before I came to Arch I was using Gentoo and I couldn't notice any difference in speed between the two -- Arch already is i686/x86_64 optimised.
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Recently I built kaffeine, because of the "setRecord" patch.
Album reviews (in german): http://schallwelle.filzo.de
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I do not have a defined list of packages I build myself, but I have 2 frequent use cases :
- Getting a new version of a package when it is not already there in core/extra/community
- Patching an anoying bug before a new release is out.
I would say that I have approximatively 5 or 6 packages rebuilt by myself on my system, which is a very small amount thanks to the rolling release way of life. I guess I would have much more packages rebuilt by myself on other distros (I won't give name )
To be completly honest I have to add some packages from AUR/Unsupported : thus I must have a dozen of home built packages.
About optimization stuff : As a previous Gentoo user I assure you that you will be very disapointed by custom CFLAGS and other gcc tricks. Also be carefull : some optimization may lead to instability of some packages. Some other optimization may lead to higher memory consumption ...
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no AUR/ABS
- kernel
- nvidia (though binary installation is hardly custom compilation) - reason -> only way to get all installed kernels to load nvidia driver Plus offline installation so each time I am booting new kernel nvidia is installed already.
- software not available for Arch
AUR/ABS
stuff that is here while can't installed as Arch binary.
otherwise too lazy
Last edited by broch (2008-02-19 20:31:06)
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xf86-video-intel: This driver likes to cause trouble which is often solved in more recent versions.
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B-Con: Have a look at this script... http://allan.mcrae.googlepages.com/rebuild-firefox
Very nice. Kudos.
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Kernel - I'm just used to doing it from my Slackware days. I'm also a control freak, and a good amount of the patches on the Arch kernel I don't need.
Modules for my kernel via ABS: madwifi, vboxdrv, and some others.
Deluge - They have a PKGBUILD on the website! Also 0.5.8.4 came out almost a week ago, and the repos still have 0.5.8.3. For an application that notifies you during runtime if there is a new version, you'd think it would be quickly upgraded. Oh well.
Last edited by cry0x (2008-02-20 23:28:11)
Who is this doin' this synthetic type of alpha beta psychedelic funkin'?
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