Applying custom patches to packages

sawanv · Apprentice Joined: 05 Dec 2002 Posts: 238

Hello All.

I want to apply a patch to a package before its installed by portage (these patches http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~dchest/xfthack/ , to freetype).

By the way, the patch gives unbeliveable fonts on KDE. Its simply brilliant.

How do I go about this?

Thanks
_________________
Eir kahen "chalo ghar jayen",
Bir kahen "chalo ghar jayen",
Phatte kahen "chalo ghar jayen",
Cartman kahen....."Screw you guys, I am going home !!! "

tomchuk · Guru Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Posts: 317 Location: Brooklyn, NY

sawanv,

Those patches are against freetype 2.1.5, the current freetype in portage is 2.1.4. So you'd have to download freetype 2.1.5, unpack it, apply the patch, and configure, make, and make install.

But being interesting in having a bit softer fonts in kde as well, I did all the work for you. Here is a tarball with a modified freetype-2.1.4-r1 ebuild, the modified patches and the portage directory structure (media-libs/freetype).

Make sure that PORTDIR_OVERLAY is set in /etc/make.conf and cd into PORTDIR_OVERLAY (I use /usr/local/portage) untar the archive (tar -xjvf /path/to/freetype-2.1.4-r1.tar.bz2) and then cd media-libs/freetype. Just type emerge freetype-2.1.4-r1.ebuild and the new freetype will be installed.

You'll have to stop X, restart /etc/init.d/xfs (I think) and restart X. And you'll have nice soft fonts.

And thanks for pointing me to this patch, I've been dieing for nice smooth fonts in KDE (more like the smoothing available in gnome).

sawanv · Apprentice Joined: 05 Dec 2002 Posts: 238

Hello tomchuk.

Thanks for all your work. Will try out your stuff and let you know how it turns out, and if the result is as better as the previous patch.

Will post later...

Sawan
_________________
Eir kahen "chalo ghar jayen",
Bir kahen "chalo ghar jayen",
Phatte kahen "chalo ghar jayen",
Cartman kahen....."Screw you guys, I am going home !!! "

TheCoop · Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2003 9:19 pm Post subject:

well you can manually patch programs by typing

BitJam · Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2003 11:56 pm Post subject:

I tried the new ebuild and it worked as advertised. I particularly liked the effect on my semi-transparent pulldown menus.

But pehaps due to the LCD display on my laptop, the softer edges caused some minor but annoying color fringing which induced me to revert back to the lastest stable version of freetype. YMMVG.

tomchuk · Guru Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Posts: 317 Location: Brooklyn, NY

Very true, I've got one LCD and 2 CRTs (one of which is very fuzzy). I can't decide if I like being able to easily read an 8 point font on a 17" CRT @ 1280x1024, or having crisp, readable fonts on my LCD. Oh well, I'll stick with it for now.

Definately give this a shot with a CRT though.

sawanv · Apprentice Joined: 05 Dec 2002 Posts: 238

Hello Guys.

I tried the patch and it works brilliantly!! :lol:

Very nice fonts....I think these are the best fonts I have seen anywhere (maybe beats even OSX Jaguar, dont know about Panther)

.

What is the mechanism by which we can make this the standard part of the freetype distribution on Gentoo? I thought we could propose an enhancement on Bugzilla or somewhere, or is it possible to contact the developer directly?

Any ideas?

Sawan
_________________
Eir kahen "chalo ghar jayen",
Bir kahen "chalo ghar jayen",
Phatte kahen "chalo ghar jayen",
Cartman kahen....."Screw you guys, I am going home !!! "

BitJam · Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2003 3:10 pm Post subject: Re: Brilliant

tomchuk · Guru Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Posts: 317 Location: Brooklyn, NY

I've gone back to the unpatched freetype, as I couldn't justify dealing with crappy fonts on my $1000 LCD, but having nice fonts on each of my $300 CRTs. When freetype 2.1.5 becomes available (which will contain most of these patches), I'll post back here with an updated ebuild.

sawanv · Apprentice Joined: 05 Dec 2002 Posts: 238

tomchuk · Guru Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Posts: 317 Location: Brooklyn, NY

Well a screenshot won't do anything

When I get a chance I'll reinstall the patched version and take a couple macro shots with my digicam comparing some text on both my CRT and LCD with the patch and without.

nordic bro · Guru Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 585

Genone · Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2003 12:20 am Post subject:

the ebuilds are in subdirectories in /usr/portage. The latest gentoolkit has a new tool ewhich that can be used to get the ebuild filename for a given package name.