Has gentoo given up on clean update paths?

[admax88]

I'm currently trying to update an out of date system. But I can't update portage to a version that supports EAPI 2 because my current portage doesn't support EAPI 2.

What's the point of having a rolling release distro if you have to re-install to update?

Sure the portage situation is just one example and my portage version is out of date, but I have hit many other odd blocker situations that required some trickery to get to update in the past which I didn't bother to record. It feels like gentoo is less and less offering clean update paths.

[na85]

The system in question features a version of portage which is something like 8 months old. Pretty sad when 8 months can completely break the system.

[devilheart]

which version of portage do you have?

[phajdan.jr]

[gentoo-dev]

[baaann]

[gerard27]

Reminds me of Windows.
Gerard.
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[admax88]

[dol-sen]

There is portage versions in the tree that provide an upgrade path for you.

portage-2.1.6x is still in the tree for the upgrade path. Then upgrade python, possibly bash, followed by portage-2.17 or 2.18. Then if you want the newest python-2.6.6 you will need to upgrade portage to >=portage-2.1.9*.

There has been a lot of portage development in the last year which has made backward compatibility a lot more difficult or not possible.

For a more detailed list of upgrade instructions, then look at some of the recent upgrade forum threads that people have done for systems several years behind. The shortest and fastest method includes getting a newer python and portage binpkgs, (possibly bash) from tinderbox and installing them, followed by emerging/upgrading them normally.
_________________
Brian
Porthole, the Portage GUI frontend irc@freenode: #gentoo-guis, #porthole, Blog
layman, gentoolkit, CoreBuilder, esearch...

[admax88]

[Etal]

Because someone has to maintain all the backwards-compatible code. If you want to volunteer to do that, I'm sure Zac would appreciate it

[Shining Arcanine]

[admax88]

[slackline]

Technical issues aside maybe you've learnt that you should update a rolling distro more regularly than once in eight months, there have been quite a few security issues fixed in that time.

Never had any such problems and update at least once a week (under ~amd64 or ~x86).
_________________
"Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer.  Art is everything else we do." - Donald Knuth

[Shining Arcanine]

[Ormaaj]

You could be on buntu where a complete reformat every 6 months is required in order to guarantee a smooth update. Rolling-release FTW!

Also there seems to be less massive overhaul these days. Just the accumulation of a lot of small changes which portage should mostly handle. I have a box that hasn't been updated in over a year and I don't foresee any problems. The hardest part to maintain is keeping the useflags in sync with my main machine - keeping the hardware-specific differences where required. If all else fails do the building on a different system. I would probably grab Portage out of git and switch to it via $PYTHONPATH temporarily.

[Shining Arcanine]

[dol-sen]

libpng is not that bad now. It has been slotted, so unmerge the old 1.2 and re-emerge it, then it can emerge 1.4 as needed, or vice versa.
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Brian
Porthole, the Portage GUI frontend irc@freenode: #gentoo-guis, #porthole, Blog
layman, gentoolkit, CoreBuilder, esearch...

[Ant P.]

[admax88]

[1clue]

If you expect something like commercial support when something goes wrong, perhaps you should be using a commercially supported operating system?

It's your decision how often you update your software, but nobody is under any obligation to take your attitude because you didn't even try to keep current. Gentoo is not exactly the most polished distro out there, and it's basically built around the premise that its users will keep an eye on things and accept that some things will not go smoothly.

I can accept that you didn't update. I can accept that you need help to fix things now. I can't accept the attitude that you're entitled to be indignant that it didn't work for you, or the rudeness you've shown to those trying to help you.

The original premise for sharing software was that by using free software, you somehow contributed to the community. If you can write software and have a worthwhile project, then write software. If you can write documentation, then do that. If you can do tech support, then that's needed too. If all else fails, you could give money to a project. There are dozens or hundreds of ways you could help an OS project. Nobody made any official rule about it, because it often takes a few years for someone to get comfortable with contributing and to find a way that works for them to do so.

Somewhere along the line, somebody decided that the OS community was responsible for making things the way "everyone" wanted it, and too bad about paying for it in some way, or if somebody expects polite behavior.

Most of the folks helping you are just other people doing their thing, without pay. I think you should ease up on the angst. Maybe you could volunteer at a soup kitchen and see what it's like to help people just because you can and they need it. It really changes your outlook on life.

[dol-sen]

+ + +
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Brian
Porthole, the Portage GUI frontend irc@freenode: #gentoo-guis, #porthole, Blog
layman, gentoolkit, CoreBuilder, esearch...

[Etal]

[1clue]

Pardon me for the rant.

I've been using Linux for a lot of years, and I do NOT consider myself to be a guru. I'm more comfortable with Linux than with anything else, more comfortable with UN*X than with non-UN*X. On Gentoo forums, I still ask more than I answer.

I have definitely been a member of forums where the above statements are true, and the frenzy surrounding the unfortunate victim asking a question resembled a pack of dogs fighting over a rabbit than any sort of civilized discussion.

My most recent two distros are Ubuntu and Gentoo. I went from Debian to Gentoo to Ubuntu and back to Gentoo on my main system, although I still maintain boxes with all 3 of those at work.

FWIW, I have rarely found serious rudeness on Gentoo or Ubuntu forums. You get somebody who is frustrated and tired and says something out of line, and you get people who disagree and things briefly flame up, but you don't get that dread for asking questions that characterizes the bad sites. Occasionally you get a smart@$$ who escapes from the off-the-wall areas, but people either ignore them or they put them back in their place.

I find that a little bit of respect goes ten times farther than any amount of disrespect. Acknowledging help and asking questions is often the only compensation the people helping you get.

I think that most Open Source licenses are fairly easy reading. I think they're all extremely educational, and they define the culture surrounding the project. I think people should read two or three random licenses.

Scratch that, they should read Apache, GPL and one other random license.

[admax88]