[SOLVED] Rebuilding from the Pieces of on Old Install

ferreirafm · Last edited by ferreirafm on Wed Oct 15, 2014 11:45 am; edited 2 times in total

Hi there,
I had a HD failure and as soon as the system started to mount read only, I backed up my rootfs (I usually backup /home only). Luck me, I have all /etc, /usr/portage, /var/lib/portage and world. However, I have installed Gentoo from scratch in the systemd mode and now I'm not sure how to proceed the system recovery so as I could have a new installation as much similar as possible to the old one.
I supposed I can't proceed a simple stage-4 install, do I??
Any comments are appreciated.
Best.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 10:00 am Post subject:

ferreirafm,

This post is worthy of its own thread. Feel free to edit the title if you don't like it.

You can put your salvaged /etc/portage into your new install an your /var/lib/portage/world into the new install.
world is a list of all the packages you have told portage you want.

ferreirafm · Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 12:12 pm Post subject:

Hi Neddy,
The title's thread it just fine. Hope it is useful for somebody else.
Do I really need /etc/portage? I've seem some old stage-4 howtos saying that such directory is not strictly necessary.
Also, there are some issues regarding to the new profile bearing the systemd USE. Lots of blocks and incompatible packages will be risen upon --empty-tree. In addition, If one wants to have a new install as much similar as possible to the old one. Probably he/she might want to copy the /etc also. And that's going to break the profile link. Do these concerns make sense? I'd appreciate your comments.
Best,
ferreirafm

steveL · Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 2:10 pm Post subject:

Cheers Neddy :-) Added under Installation Tips

@ferreirafm It's up to you; there should be a path to build everything, except possibly with circular dependencies.

However I normally use: USE=-X emerge system first during an install, and then emerge world.

So you could try something like: USE='-X -systemd' emerge system if the flag is causing you problems, and then do an USE=-X -emerge -e system hopefully with the base in place. (YMMV)

Alternatively, just redo the install, adding parts in; with the experience of what you've already done, it should be a lot easier.

If you've done the kernel, make sure to cp /usr/src/linux/.config (if still around.)

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:03 pm Post subject:

ferreirafm,

/etc/portage contains make.conf - you certainly need that.
If you have created any of the per package level control files, you will need them too or you won't get the same install as you had before.

You can break some of the circular dependancies by not adding the world file until after you have updated @system.
That won't fix them all though so you will still need to resort to unsetting some USE flags on the command line, building things, then rebuilding withount the command line USE.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.