[SOLVED] Upgrade from source

PerisH · 2011-05-26 15:25:34

Hi all! I'm interesting on speed up my system, and I can try to update my system from sources. Is there any way to do this?, using yaourt for example. I know that we can install a package from source with "yaourt -Sb <package>" but i want upgrade my system from source.

Can anyone help me? Thankyou anyway.

Sorry for my english.!!

Last edited by PerisH (2011-05-26 16:23:22)

ewaller · 2011-05-26 15:40:30

read the wiki on abs

In summary, install abs. It lets you pull down the PKGBUILDs used to build the things in pacman. You can thn build them just like they came from the AUR

PerisH · 2011-05-26 16:16:03

I already have installed "abs" but the tree isn't up to date like the pacman mirrors. I was just trying to update the system but the PKGBUILD on abs are more old than the mirrors. Maybe i have to wait the update of "abs". Thankyou for the fast answering!!

karol · 2011-05-26 16:18:06

PerisH wrote:

I already have installed "abs" but the tree isn't up to date like the pacman mirrors. I was just trying to update the system but the PKGBUILD on abs are more old than the mirrors. Maybe i have to wait the update of "abs". Thankyou for the fast answering!!

abs gets updated once a day.

PerisH · 2011-05-26 16:21:49

ok, then, I supose that i have to wait!!

Thankyou very much. I edit this post as solved.

sitquietly · 2011-05-26 16:43:44

PerisH wrote:

I'm interesting on speed up my system, and I can try to update my system from sources. Is there any way to do this?, using yaourt for example. I know that we can install a package from source with "yaourt -Sb <package>" but i want upgrade my system from source.

I update from source. Essentially all of my kde/xmonad DE has been compiled from source to optimize for the Atom cpu. I probably made every possible mistake during the year that I've been doing this so I can give some advice:

1. You can check out pkgbuilds one at a time from the Arch subversion repository. See http://www.archlinux.org/svn/

2. Don't use scripts that automate the update and do bulk builds of many packages at once. You need to look at the PKGBUILD for every package you build and take time to learn about building that package. Arch is a binary distribution; it is not Gentoo in disguise. If you build from source you are taking advantage of the vast amounts of work already done for you by the Arch devs, but your "from source" distribution will become your own slightly different custom distro. It is yours. The problems are yours too. It's a good learning experience.

3. Your distro will differ mainly because each package built in your running environment may detect libraries that you have installed that are not installed in the controlled (chroot) development environment. The Arch devs use a lot of discipline to control dependencies. You may get dependencies that are not explicit and therefore no longer tracked by pacman. For example, I recently removed the libirman package because I'm not using it; my mplayer broke. As far as pacman was concerned my mplayer2 package did not depend on libirman --- but in fact, it DID because when I compiled mplayer2 its configure script detected that libirman was installed in my environment and it automatically used it.

When breakage like that happens it is very little problem for me. I checked the mplayer binary with ldd, saw the broken dependency, and recompiled mplayer2. If you don't want to be responsible for fixing the occasional breakage of your custom distro then don't start down the "built from source" road using Archlinux; use Gentoo.

4. You will run into trouble if you thrash packages in and out, always changing your mind about what should be installed. Building an Arch system from source works fairly smoothly if you decide on an installed set and stick with it. I actually maintain a document where I write down my notes on alternative programs for every need and document my decision on which to install.

5. When you update you can use "pacman -Syu" to show you what needs recompiling but answer "no" to its "Proceed with installation?" prompt. Now get the update pkgbuilds and build and install each package with "makepkg --install --noconfirm --log".

6. It will help to accumulate your custom built packages in a repository (read about makepkg and repo-add). I build up a repository on my master system and when all is well I transfer the entire repository to my other atom-based machines.

7. It will often be helpful to learn about the options for a package and think about what optional packages are being used. If the package uses a "configure" script take a look at "./configure --help" and if it uses cmake take a look at "cmake-gui". You may then find that you should edit the PKGBUILD to add or remove packages from the depends array and add or remove lines from the configure or cmake command.

I hope that this helps.

PerisH · 2011-05-26 23:27:48

Awesome explanation, it's great.
Well, you are right when you said that I want to take advantage of the work made
by the "arch dev's", I thought that with building the PKGBUILD I don't have to
"fight" with the depencies and the system keep's at same way but a little bit fast.

I knew a bit, when I build firefox, i saw that a few dependencies were
necesary but i thought that it was only for the build. This things happen
for thinking instead of read!!!!!

I think that I continue with the binary version, for now.

Sorry for my englis again. Thankyou all for your time.

sitquietly · 2011-05-27 17:05:14

PerisH wrote:

I thought that with building the PKGBUILD I don't have to
"fight" with the dependencies and the system keeps it same way but a little bit faster.
..... I think that I continue with the binary version, for now.

It almost works like magic, like you thought. You can get some trouble once in a while, like I said. But the beauty of using Arch linux as a framework for a source-based installation is that it is very easy to recover from the trouble by using "pacman -Rc" to rip out part of your source-built "tree" and replace it with the Arch binaries. The official binaries are always there and it only takes a few minutes to install a lot of software with pacman. The pactree command helps a lot at those times.

Don't be afraid to experiment. Arch linux is resilient.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-05-26 15:25:34

[SOLVED] Upgrade from source

#2 2011-05-26 15:40:30

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrade from source

#3 2011-05-26 16:16:03

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrade from source

#4 2011-05-26 16:18:06

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrade from source

#5 2011-05-26 16:21:49

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrade from source

#6 2011-05-26 16:43:44

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrade from source

#7 2011-05-26 23:27:48

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrade from source

#8 2011-05-27 17:05:14

Re: [SOLVED] Upgrade from source

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