Need Advice On Selective Updating Of Old System

The Avatar of Time · 2009-08-09 15:39:56

Hello All,

Do to catalyst dropping support for my card I installed an older system using the 2009.02 core Arch installation CD and arm.kh.nu (2009-11-2). That all worked well and the system is running fairly good.

However I have some packages I would like to run newer versions of. KDE4.3, Firefox, Thunderbird (actually the branded versions in AUR, but the dependencies are the same so...), possibly MythTV, broadcom-wl (from AUR), and likely a few others that aren't coming to mind right now.

However I can't let kernel26 or xorg update past a certain point or else catalyst isn't going to work for me.

I originally tried putting kernel26, kernel-headers, kernel26-firmware, catalyst, and catalyst-utils in the IgnorePkg section of pacman.conf and xorg in the IgnoreGroup section. For some reason that didn't stop kernel-headers from updating. I don't know exactly what kernel-headers is/does, but it shouldn't be allowed to update to a version newer than the kernel is should it?

Then I synced to the current official arch repos and installed kde and kde-extragear. However I ran into an issue where udev conflicts with initscripts and have to let it remove initscripts to install KDE. This caused all kinds of problems including all my /etc/rc.* files being gone. There's also the readline/bash issue I run into when changing between the current Arch repos and the 2009-11-2 arm.kh.nu repos.

When I finally got the system where it would boot again KDE4.3 wouldn't start. Admittedly though I don't know if that was because of older packages or because something was still messed up/missing from the udev/initscripts bash/readline issues. KDE4.3 doesn't list a particular version of xorg needed, that I've seen anyway.

I've ended up having to reinstall several times from attempts of partially updating gone wrong. So before completely breaking my system yet again I thought I'd try and get some advice on how to best go about accomplishing my goal.

I'd also like to establish what the BEST versions of xorg and kernel26 that I can run are (not to be confused with the NEWEST).

So to recap I have a system that is installed using all 2009-11-2 versions of packages and am wanting to update to the best/newest versions of packages that I can as well as hopefully installing KDE4.3 and current Firefox, Thunderbird, and MythTV versions.

I know this is likely going to be a bit of a pain but I really have no choice but to run older kernel/xorg/catalyst versions. Now if what I'm wanting to do is completely impossible then that's fine too. I just want some input before trying this again because I'm getting quite tired of reinstalling.

Thank you for an advice on this matter, it's greatly appreciated.

*At the very least I need to get broadcom-wl, firefox-branded, and thunderbird-branded installed. I'm fine with using older versions if that's what must be done, but I haven't had any luck as yet with editing the PKGBUILDS to grab older versions. I thought I had the firefox-branded PKGBUILD good to go dependency wise, but then it wasn't able to download the older version of Firefox.

*I use yaourt to install packages from AUR. I also realize that AUR has it's own subforum where those questions belong, but most of this thread is dealing with repo packages, so I felt this was a better place. If I should remove AUR related questions and post them elsewhere I can do that too, just thought this would save some space. Thanks.

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-09 15:45:10)

ngoonee · 2009-08-09 15:52:41

I don't think Arch in general is quite kind to keeping an old system with selective updates, so I'd vote more towards the 'impossible' side. There will always be newer packages that you need or feel you need. If you really must have an older install, it really is simpler to go the Debian route, or install perhaps Ubuntu Hardy (LTS version), just remember to deal with the Pulseaudio problems there.

flamelab · 2009-08-09 18:16:02

Which card do you have and you still want catalyst ?

The Avatar of Time · 2009-08-09 19:45:50

Thanks for the replies.

My wireless card is a Broadcom BCM4312 802.11a/b/g.

My video card is an "ATI RS690M Radeon X1200 Series" graphics card.

I have tried using both open source drivers (current ones, before I installed an old system) but neither one would detect my S-Video port, which is a must have. Also the xf86-video-ati provided decent resolution, but I couldn't use any desktop effects (though that's ok if I could make work with the S-Video port, unfortunately I couldn't though). The xf86-video-radeon only offered tiny resolutions, so was unusable.

If there was a way to get the S-Video working with the open source drivers I would gladly do that and run an up to date system.

*I installed Kubuntu 8.10 64 (I'm using Arch64 now by the way) a while back and had the catalyst driver and the wireless card working. There were two options there for wireless, in the restricted drivers manager: Broadcom B43 and Broadcom STA. I used the STA, which is what broadcom-wl in AUR is, if I'm not mistaken. However I much prefer Arch to Kubuntu (plus I couldn't get flash to install in Kubuntu, which is another must have).

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-09 19:52:35)

flamelab · 2009-08-09 19:58:21

Ι just don't think that you can use Arch while using catalyst(-old), it's almost impossible. You should use another distro, like Debian stable.

The Avatar of Time · 2009-08-09 20:17:32

I see. That may be the case. If so I guess I don't have any options.

Assuming I could get broadcom-wl installed somehow then everything would be usable.

I would like to have a newer version of Firefox, KDE, and MythTV but the older ones are fine.

I'm assuming that at some point the open source video drivers will work better with my card, so I was hoping to get by till then.

***Well I went the other route and installed b43-firmware from AUR, so my wireless card works now. On that note though does anyone know what the network connection manager in Kubuntu is? My KDE install here in Arch doesn't seem to have one and I liked the one that was in Kubuntu, so if it's available for Arch I'd like to use it. Thanks.

***Also thanks for the advice on other distros. I don't mean to be stuborn but I just like Arch that much!

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2009-08-09 20:57:49)

iphitus · 2009-08-09 23:51:50

For new versions of firefox and things, rebuild them. Use the PKGBUILDs. You'll probably have to rebuild some deps.

It might be easier to file some bugs upstream and try and get your Svideo working.

flamelab · 2009-08-10 04:59:14

@The Avatar of Time: I think that you should try Gentoo, so that you can fully control the package management, since it can be stable distro (using the so called "green" packages) or a rolling one (using the yellow and red).

Αre you really sure that s-video isn't working with xf86-video-ati or at least xf86-video-radeonhd ?

Last edited by flamelab (2009-08-10 05:36:40)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-08-09 15:39:56

Need Advice On Selective Updating Of Old System

#2 2009-08-09 15:52:41

Re: Need Advice On Selective Updating Of Old System

#3 2009-08-09 18:16:02

Re: Need Advice On Selective Updating Of Old System

#4 2009-08-09 19:45:50

Re: Need Advice On Selective Updating Of Old System

#5 2009-08-09 19:58:21

Re: Need Advice On Selective Updating Of Old System

#6 2009-08-09 20:17:32

Re: Need Advice On Selective Updating Of Old System

#7 2009-08-09 23:51:50

Re: Need Advice On Selective Updating Of Old System

#8 2009-08-10 04:59:14

Re: Need Advice On Selective Updating Of Old System

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