14 months of inactivity. Is it hopeless?

Wesly · n00b Joined: 13 Mar 2005 Posts: 24

Hi Guys,

I have a confession to make; I haven't booted into my Gentoo system for a whole year (probably even longer. Like 14 months).
Some of the reasons are a long vacation away from my home, a windows period etc.

I've been eager to go back to linux for some time now, but to be honest i don't dare to boot into my gentoo installation right now.
Is it still safe (i guess in one year a whole lot of security issues have passed) and is it still salvageable (i can't imagine what would come up if i'd do a deep world update).

What do you guys recommend with a 14 months old installation (i had both KDE and GNOME installed)? Just format and start over again? Or will portage be able to update everything even after such a long lay-off and with a lot of packages installed?

Phenax · l33t Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 972

It's likely that either way you'll be exerting the same amount of effort..

timeBandit · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:41 am Post subject:

If memory serves, in this particular past year, there was a major GCC upgrade, X went modular, KDE ebuilds were split (I think) and a couple of other big changes hit. Upgrading these carelessly or in the wrong order causes a helluva mess.

If you can't afford a couple of days to sort it out, backup your /home, copy your /etc and reinstall. It's probably faster.
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_pF_ · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 5:00 am Post subject:

Yes, the OP would need at least one 'emerge --emptytree world' after the upgrade so a re-install would be the way to go.

arrummzen · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 52

While I have been using my gentoo system constantly, I neglected to upgrade it. I have installed some packages, but overall my system hadn't been upgraded in over a year.

It took me an entire weekend to to the update, and I'm still trying to fix some broken packages. It is possible, but make sure you have a free 72 hour block of free time to work on it. Good luck

Thank you for your time,
Arrummzen

_pF_ · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:57 am Post subject:

With an emerge -e world`s taking me nearly two weeks per shot, I'd go for the re-install.

quag7 · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 7:01 am Post subject:

If you do decide to try to update it from its current state, please do post your experiences; I think it'd be an interesting read.

That being said I think the advice given here is good - it will probably require as much effort as a re-install. This past year, as mentioned, had several major upgrades. Which is a good thing - but it may be worth it to simply start with a fresh install since you'll be recompiling everything anyway if you upgrade gcc.
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d2_racing · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 12:39 pm Post subject:

Maybe it would be a good idea to reinstall, your to use the emerge -e system && emerge -e world

Shadow Skill · Veteran Joined: 04 Dec 2004 Posts: 1023

Just reinstall man its most likely not going to be worth the effort to just try and upgrade after a year and two months.
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jonnevers · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:52 pm Post subject:

Snake · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 21 Jul 2005 Posts: 146

I also did something like you Wesly, didn't upgrade system for more than one year. Few days ago last bits of system were upgraded succesfully, at least I think that they were

. First I tried with update world to see what do I have to do before update world will work. First I migrated to modular x, then for about a month or two didn't do nothing and few days ago I decided to end the update so I uninstalled KDE and reinstalled it. After that there were only few packets that blocked update.
So I suggest you that at least try to update it and if you won't succed you can still reinstall everything. Good luck.

beandog · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:27 pm Post subject:

Ive upgraded old systems before, and it usually goes well. Just emerge portage first, then look at emerge -puv system. I usually go through them one at a time and pick them off manually from there.
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Hypnos · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:49 pm Post subject:

I had an inconsistent (e.g., mish-mash of x86 and ~x86 packages, old deps, etc.) system and hadn't done a world update in four years.

When my hard disk died, upon restoring I upgraded gcc to 4.x, "emerge -e system" with minimal USE flags, then "emerge -e world" with my desired USE flags and stuff in /etc/portage.

The only major hiccup was due to sudo and liblber, and one or two packages didn't build. Other than that, pretty smooth.
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Dieter@be · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:55 pm Post subject:

Dude, this is the perfect way to have some quality time with your computer. Enjoy yourself.
I can't imagine a ride through gentooland more fun then this. (maybe try changing your CHOST too)
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Dralnu · Veteran Joined: 24 May 2006 Posts: 1919

More fun - upgrade

More practicle - Reinstall.
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Jaglover · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 12:04 am Post subject:

Yes indeed, beandog's way could be great fun. I'd forget about reinstall. But that's me, everybody is to decide for themselves. :wink:

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drescherjm · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 4:29 am Post subject:

I would first (emerge --sync) then update your profile to 2006.1 then check out this thread:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-494331-highlight-.html

One other thing. If you decide to install a new kernel make sure you have udev installed.
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drescherjm · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 4:37 am Post subject:

Dralnu · Veteran Joined: 24 May 2006 Posts: 1919

Wesly · n00b Joined: 13 Mar 2005 Posts: 24

Thanks for the tips guys. Since some people seemed to be interested in the result of my long lay-off i'll post some reports about the status.
I updated the portage tree and set a new profile link. Updating portage at first try brings:

loftwyr · Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:39 pm Post subject:

That's not as bad as I expected. Most of that is xorg-7
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Jaglover · Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:47 pm Post subject:

You should start with revising your make.conf. I think you need to set up ALSA and Xorg variables there.
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Dralnu · Veteran Joined: 24 May 2006 Posts: 1919

Thats simple enough. Update Portage, then Xorg (I'd do this from console), then pretty much rebuild the kernel (if you want).

I've seen worse...
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drescherjm · Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:41 pm Post subject:

Dieter@be · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 11:37 am Post subject:

It's not as spectacular as I had hoped it to be

although i'm sure you'll have a good time with it

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