3 years since update ... Whats changed b4 i Start

shtumpa

Hi Guys,

It's been years since i have been back here, Gentoo just runs that well, lol ... But it's time for an update...

So.. before i break the system any info i need to know.. I'm still on the init.d , I'm told this has changed now...

Just after info on what i need to change to do the update.. Make.conf i assume needs some changes..

Basically a beginner again, it been that long ! So go easy, lol .. Any info would be appreciated.

Here is my current make.conf.

khayyam · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 12:39 pm Post subject:

shtumpa ...

letting the install go three years without an update will likely make it impossible to upgrade (at least not without some serious breakage and challenges to workaround that breakage). If you are unfamiliar with the nitty-gritty then your best bet is to perform a clean install (the number of package updates would likely be comparible). I'd backup /etc, /var/lib/portage/world, and /home and start over.

best ... khay

shtumpa · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 12:48 pm Post subject:

creaker · l33t Joined: 14 Jul 2012 Posts: 651

I wouldn't suggest to update your system right now because at the moment portage in a horrible state. Just look around at the forums, a lot of problems with update here and there. I would wait for 2 or 3 weeks until portage stabilize.

khayyam · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 1:28 pm Post subject:

depontius · Advocate Joined: 05 May 2004 Posts: 3509

shtumpa · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 5:37 pm Post subject:

hi guys,

Well fresh base systems is up and ...now i gotta read up on what to do next.... it's infact been over 10 years since i have done it...i'm sure a lot has changed....i never setup use flags back then a mate did it so i have a lot of reading to do figure out the next step.... thanks for your advice thus far.

Cyker · Veteran Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 1746

I recently went through exactly the same thing, although for different reasons (I was moving from x86 to amd64).

I know what you mean dude, it's so daunting when you start from scratch. It is like standing at the bottom of a shear cliff and looking up to the top!

The biggest blessing I had was that I thoroughly documented everything I did when I built my original server (2005.2!!!!) and was able to use that as a guide and hand hold while I built my new system.

The Gentoo build docs aren't too bad up to a point but they tend to gloss over stuff that could really do with a hyperlink to a more detailed document (Choosing a bootloader, choosing an init system, *&%$£#@ Xorg, and a buttload of other things I already forgot about).
Luckily I'd done the leg work on those before and documented them (Well, just one line in my log saying Ignore that, DO THIS or, It really means DO THIS etc.).

It's hard to say whether they are up to date as the parts I followed before I went off on my own were more or less the same as when I first installed Gentoo :lol:

Gentoo has changed a lot - Some gotchas are the new device naming system; udev really opposes letting you name your network devices eth-anything and this can cause problems if you are porting scripts and whatever over that assumes that.

There have been some good recommendations here - If you're aiming for an update essentially, copy your world file over as a reference.
I'd also copy /etc so you can use it as a reference and/or copy over some of the individual directories as you configure stuff (e.g. ssh, samba etc.).
Obv don't just copy old /etc into new /etc straight as that will probably end badly :lol:

I had both my old and new server running side by side while I build the new one so I could pull things off the old on as needed (e.g. the SMB password file and tigervnc launcher from /var and /usr/bin).

One caveat is that a lot of packages have become unsupported, moved , renamed or reorganized/split. for the most part this can be worked around, but in the worst case you can DIY!
One of the things that I love about Gentoo, and one reason I didn't go down the FreeBSD route, is that it's much easier to say sod off to the tree and substitute your own: Local Overlays and Roll Your Own (Or, copy the ebuild out of the old ebuild archives and hack it until it works

) is a really awesome ability that would have been much harder to do with FreeBSD.

So I'm now more or less back up and running with a nice mix of updated stuff, and also old obsolete stuff, and it is all running happily together!

(KDE3.5 and Opera 11.64 forevaaaaar! And also Thunderbird 1.5 and Firefox 3.5 because they don't depend on ALSA or trigger a dependency cascade!)

Maffblaster · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:35 pm Post subject:

A good "safety net" idea is to make a backup of your current system partition as a stage4 file. There are scripts that can help you do this. You'll need some kind of external drive to back up your system onto.

Here's a script that will help you make a stage4. It should be pretty easy to use... Let me know if you end up using it! :wink:

https://github.com/DigitalSurvival/mkStage4
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