Time to compile kde?

[pwaring]

I started emerge kde this morning to get the latest version on my system. I already have xfree so it's not downloading that huge dependancy. However, the script seems to have been running for over 4 hours now on a 1.8Ghz Athlon XP processor with 256Mb and plenty of free disk space (not sure how much but there must be at least 10Gb free). I also have a broadband internet connection so download times haven't contributed a major part to the time taken.

Has anyone else experienced similar long compile times for KDE? I know it's a big package but 4 hours on a modern computer is a bit long - especially when kernel compiles take only a few minutes (or at least they did under slackware) and even xfree only took a couple of hours. How long do you think it will be before it finishes compiling?

[andrea.giusto]

I cant tell the exact amount of time but remember that it was very long...perhaps 5-6 hours....I did it on a Centrino 1400 512 RAM. If you dont want to wait such a long time try the --usepackage option on portage. And if you're going to compile OpenOffice, be prepared waiting even longer...I counsel to do all the compiling stuff during nighttime

[pwaring]

OpenOffice took ages to install as a binary on Fedora, so I certainly won't be compiling it from source. In fact, I don't think I need it at all - it's got bloated IMO in attempts to emulate MS office and LaTeX can be made to do all my word processing with much less effort and better results.

I don't want to use the --usepackage option because it's a bit pointless having a source-based distribution if I'm not going to compile from source - the whole reason that I chose Gentoo was to try and learn more about Linux rather than having Red Hat or another big commercial distro holding my hand every step of the way.

[andrea.giusto]

I agree, basically I moved to gentoo for this same reason coupled with excellent documentation, but, you know, learning is costly ...you wont be despised by kde performance. I compiled it too on my laptop and after a month of massive usage i havent yet experienced an appication crash.

[mattjgalloway]

KDE for me took about 8 hours to compile. That was on an Athlon 2000+ with 512mb DDR400 Ram.

Things just take a long time to compile - and as most people do, it's best to do it overnight.

Be prepared for a loooong compile
_________________
AMD64 3200+, 1024MB RAM, Gentoo Linux
MacBook Core Duo, 1024MB RAM, Leopard

[pwaring]

8 hours?!? I don't know whether KDE is worth that amount of effort. I'm beginning to wish I hadn't started the thing in the first place.

Not everyone can compile overnight - my PC happens to be in my bedroom and I wouldn't be able to get to sleep with it on (apart from anything else the heat it generates is stifling if left for a long time).

[mattjgalloway]

Cool cool.

Mine's in my bedroom too, but i've got silent fans and stuff which make it a lot less noisy.

Yeh, you just have to stick out the compilation - it just takes time. Amuse yourself with reading or something in the meantime!
_________________
AMD64 3200+, 1024MB RAM, Gentoo Linux
MacBook Core Duo, 1024MB RAM, Leopard

[jkt]

btw, kde is stripped into several "suppackages" - if you `emerge -pv kde`, you'll see list of kdelibs, kdebase, kdenetwork, kdepim,... - kdebase and kdelibs (3.2.1) took each about 2 hours (don't know exactly) on athlon/1.2 with 256MB RAM. I think openoffice is worse

[pwaring]

I should have known about the other packages - emerge -p kde gave me a list but no approximation of their sizes/compile times but I've seen the list before on Slackware and Red Hat installs. Hopefully the whole process will finish in the next few hours because I don't want to keep it going much longer.

[zerojay]

Um.. exactly how are you putting any effort into a compilation? You're just leaving the machine alone. Hell, you don't have to wait for the compile to get done to do things. I always leave my compilations going and keep doing what I was doing, listening to music, browsing the web, whatever. I'm on a much slower machine than you so you should be fine.

KDE 3.2.1 took 46 hours to compile on my PII 400 (not doing anything else). KDE 3.1.5 took 65 hours. Even with such long compile times, it's indeed worth it.

[pwaring]

I'm leaving the machine to compile because I want it to complete the job ASAP - if I start running more processes I presume that will slow the job down. I don't want it to run overnight because, as I have already said, the machine is in my bedroom and I don't want to try and get to sleep whilst it is making noise and pumping out heat. I can browse the web etc. on my laptop so that's not a problem.

Personally, I don't think KDE is worth 65 hours of compilation time - and if that's how long it will take then I won't bother.

Out of interest, what would happen if I *did* stop the compilation before it had finished, and what would be the best way to do so (Ctrl+C)? I don't want to be left with bits of KDE all over the place now that I've finally managed to get Gentoo semi-working.

[zerojay]

It won't take anywhere near 65 hours on your box. Not even 8.

[pwaring]

It has already taken about 10 hours...

[zerojay]

What package is it on?

[pwaring]

I have no idea, it's compiling a load of C files at the moment and that's all I can see on the screen. It has definitely done kde-base and kde-libs and I think it has done kde-pim (that's the last one I saw it downloading).

Edit: It has just started downloading pango (I think), package 46 out of 77 or something.

How can I stop this if it doesn't finish in the next hour or so? And why is it taking such a ridiculous amount of time on a fairly modern computer?

[zerojay]

47 out of 77 - You answered your question right there. There's about 12 or 13 packages in KDE.. you're getting all the dependancies. Don't expect it to not be the same thing with Gnome either.

[pwaring]

Well how do I stop it then? It's never going to finish in time at this rate.

And I still think it is a stupidly long amount of time - packages shouldn't take longer than 10 hours to compile on modern machines, even with dependancies.

[zerojay]

Heh.. you've got no patience.

[pwaring]

I do have patience - but it doesn't usually extend to staring at a black and white console for over 10 hours waiting for a program to compile. I also want the job to finish before I turn in for the night.

[Athas]

[shm]

this thread gets posted every five days.. perhaps we should just have a kde-bin ebuild like the openoffice-bin ebuild

[pwaring]

[shm]

[pwaring]

Slow enough to add 10 hours to the compile time?! If that's the case then someone needs to optimise g++,

[shm]