The Gentoo XD2 port project

link · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 6:44 am Post subject: The Gentoo XD2 port project

Announcing the XD2 port to Gentoo GNU/Linux.

I will be undertaking the daunting task of creating ebuilds for the Ximian GNOME packages in order to provide Gentoo users with the stability and polished DE that comes with XD2.

~Goals~
* To provide XD2 for Gentoo, deviating from Ximian's package decisions as little as possible (exceptions are possible).

This implies:
* Each XD2 package will conflict with its counterpart. (In other words, xd2-extra/gaim and net-im/gaim will not be allowed to co-exist on the same system). This is done to provide the XD2 environment as close to the way Ximian ships it as possible.
* "Vanilla GNOME" will not be installed at the same time as XD2. As a result of the above statement, users will not be able to choose between XD2 and Vanilla GNOME. This decision has not yet been made final, and I am still open to arguments against it. But for simplicities sake (and again, to mimic Ximian's installation onto other systems), I do feel that the user should pick GNOME or XD2.

~Packaging~
The Gentoo XD2 port comes in 3 categories: xd2-base, xd2-extra, and xd2-deps. xd2-base contains the base GNOME packages that a user needs to install in order to start a XD2/GNOME session. xd2-extra contains the extra packages that XD2 ships with that aren't neccessary for daily usage; consider this the 'catch-all' category for the XD2 packages. xd2-deps contains the system packages that are shipped with XD2 but aren't technically part of GNOME. The GTK+ and related packages are an example of this.

Following is a list of packages that will be in the Gentoo XD2 port. This is by no means complete. It is based off of the packages in ftp://ftp.ximian.com/pub/gnome-2-snapshot/redhat-72-i386/ and what currently exists in the gnome-* categories in Portage. An updated list, containing all the packages that XD2 ships with will be available in a few days. I will try to use as many system packages as possible, to keep the amount of packages in the Gentoo XD2 port to a minimum. I don't imagine many more non-GNOME packages will be added, as Gentoo has a very broad package selection, and I will make as extensive use of that as I can.

Vache · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 6:58 am Post subject: I'll help test...

I'll help test... I have another machine with an athlon xp 1800, 1.5G RAM, and little to do at 2am ;D
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Freak_NL · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 7:40 am Post subject:

Sounds like a good plan. I think the main audience for this project are the sysadmins who want to install Linux desktops in a company for normal (non-tweaking, non-developing) users who want stability and a nice desktop, and all that with Gentoo as distribution.

A niche market, but definitely worth the effort. I believe XD2 is excellent for use by the "normal user" in a business environment, and this project may well allow Gentoo to prove itself as very suitable for desktop-use in that situation.

Good luck

I may well give it a try on an as yet unsuspecting Windows XP computer in dire need of a pinguin. Its users only need to browse and manage digicam photo's, so it's a suitable target me thinks.

iwasbiggs · Apprentice Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 203

good to see this! can't wait for that openoffice (like everybody else here).
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liquidx · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 12:06 pm Post subject:

link,

this is pretty interesting with the xd2 ebuilds you are proposing to do. i was wondering if you know what packages they actually changed. if i look at reviews, i believe the only things they would have changed from the vanilla gnome 2.2 desktop would be:

- fonts (agfa they keep on saying)
- icons (they say they have 1000+ icons, i wonder how many are alread in gnome 2.2)
- printer config tool
- auto nfs/smb detection and mounting modules to nautilus
- their gtk2 theme (industrial)
- file selection dialog

and possibly their menu layouts and maybe even jimmac's xfree cursors.

so maybe its isn't as big a task as you might have though. i don't think they would have custom patches against alot of the other apps like gaim. but we'll all know when it comes out next week

with rpm extraction, you could use rpm2targz or rpm2cpio. your eclass idea is not bad actually. it is probably a good idea to suggest that to bugzilla, and an implementation would be even better

it would be useful for a number of packages that have their own custom rpm extraction code.

good luck with the xd2 ebuilds

Lin_Matt · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 1:56 pm Post subject:

Has anyone looked into using the same type of installing scheme that the Gentoo kde devs do? If we could class the gnome install out (i.e. /usr/gnome/2.3.2, /usr/gnome/2.2.1, /usr/gnome/xd2.2) would the different versions co-exist peacefully?

I realize this would take some time and effort, but I'm willing to help out as much as needed...

LiquidX? Your thoughts?

erik_swanson · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 2:15 pm Post subject:

I am extremely interested in helping this port in any way that I can.

However, maintaining seperate packages/categories doesn't make that much sense to me when it might be feasable to add the patches to the ebuilds in the main portage tree (toggled by a "ximian" use-flag). Of course we'd have to rip the patches from the srpms/create them by hand where necessary then distribute them (the patches) ourselves.
I think that a "ximian" use-flag should also make gnome-base/gnome depend on all the stuff that Ximian has "touched" as a part of making XD2, so that the end-user with "ximian" enabled will get a full (sans Red Carpet) Ximian Desktop installation with just "emerge gnome".

Lin_Matt · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 2:23 pm Post subject:

erik_swanson · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 3:23 pm Post subject:

I just think the dependancy issues with having stuff in different categories would cause more problems (how would we do this, have blocks/provides in every ebuild?) than having use-flagged replacements for portage-tree ebuilds in PORTDIR_OVERLAY. Re testing: It's not like this port would be a good idea to unleash on the portage tree before it's tested proper via overlay anyway.

link · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 3:29 pm Post subject:

Right. I'm sure that a lot of these patches will get filtered back upstream into GNOME itself eventually.

I think the USE flag idea is very interesting. But for the time being, I have to agree with Lin_Matt. At least in this early testing period, seperate ebuilds is the way to go. Many of the ebuilds will be based off the existing ebuilds in Vanilla GNOME though. So a process of "backporting" the patches into standard Portage shouldn't be too overwhelming.

As liquidx pointed out, from reviews, they appear to have changed little from the core GNOME stuff. I will be taking a look at the packages they release (come Monday), and playing around with an actual installation of XD2 on my laptop.

If a package is shipped with XD2, but not patched in any way (Gaim for example: Ximian may ship it with XD2 just to update RH9, which still ships with 0.5x), I think it might be possible to not package the Ximian distribution of it, and continue to use the base Portage package. But, all this is speculation until Monday (or more realistically Tuesday or Wednesday because their servers will be flooded).
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link · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 3:36 pm Post subject:

Lin_Matt · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 3:55 pm Post subject:

Instead of blocking, why not a seperate install directory intirely(sp)? Sorry to keep harping on this, but I'd like to be able to have different versions of gnome to play with, and I don't see any reason why we couldn't do it...

erik_swanson · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 4:05 pm Post subject:

Yes, "use ximian && epatch ${FILESDIR}/${P}-ximian-gtk-filesel.patch" is exactly what I had in mind wrt the use flag and patches, what I meant about dependancys was making the gnome-base/gnome (if "ximian" is set) depend on all things that Ximian has modified/included (fx if Ximian patched gaim, "ximian? ( >= net-im/gaim-0.61 )" would be in the gnome-base/gnome ebuild).

Here's a scenario which details what makes apprehensive about putting the XD2 ebuilds in their own categoreies:
XD2 includes a modified GTK2, so we uninstall x11-libs/gtk+ and install xd2-deps/gtk+, which includes "!x11-libs/gtk+-2*" or something. Now we want to merge net-im/gaim, which depends on ">=x11-libs/gtk+-2.0", a dependancy that cannot be satisfied because xd2-deps/gtk+ blocks it. You may wonder why I don't suggest that xd2-deps/gtk+ have PROVIDES="x11-libs/gtk+", and that is because afaik it is against policy to PROVIDE non-virtual packages.

Lin_Matt: AFAIK, KDE being installed in version-specific folders is a KDE thing, just as it is a GNOME thing to be installed all over the FS. That said, if you really want simotaneous GNOME installations you should look at how GARGNOME does it, I think they install into /opt. Because XD2 is modifications to more than just front-end applications (fx gtk+, gnome-vfs, maybe cups, and definately alot more) it may not even be possible to completely segregate it.

snakattak3 · Guru Joined: 11 Dec 2002 Posts: 468 Location: Seattle

Good luck in your efforts. It sounds like a pretty big project, but well worth it for many gentoo users. Thank you for your efforts

dev · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 5:10 pm Post subject:

I also want to wish you good luck. I can help test some ebuilds as well.

liquidx · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 5:24 pm Post subject:

Lin_Matt · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 5:32 pm Post subject:

Uranus · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 5:34 pm Post subject:

yeh, just be sure to announce the ebuilds and I'll test

link · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 6:53 pm Post subject:

erik_swanson · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 7:55 pm Post subject:

PORTDIR_OVERLAY is a convenient way of both adding new (existing) ebuilds to the tree that your portage installation sees, and a way of clobbering ebuilds that are in the official tree (what I'm suggesting).
Assuming your PORTDIR_OVERLAY is /usr/local/portage, a /usr/local/portage/x11-libs/gtk+-2.2.1.ebuild (with the Ximian patches) will take prescedence over /usr/portage/x11-libs/gtk+-2.2.1.ebuild.

As a first step we can just clobber the official ebuilds (same categories, same names) with ones that install the contents of the SRPMs (shouldn't be too hard, there might already be some mechanism or work done to wrap srpms into ebuilds with minimal work), later seperating out the improvements by Ximian into patches and merging them (use-flagged) into the official ebuilds (in our overlay) before testing them and flooding them onto the zilla. If any devs are planning on working on this I'd appreciate it if they speak up; I'd rather not duplicate work but I do want XD2 on Gentoo ASAP.

On another note, the url referenced above doesn't appear to be XD2, rather the presently-inaccessable ftp://ftp.ximian.com/pub/xd2/ seems like it is (or will be) the real deal. Has anyone tried contacting Ximian to see if we could get access to the source early for the purpose of porting it?

sisob · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 7:59 pm Post subject:

We're going to be merging Ximian patches into gnome main as appropriate. Unfortunatly we are very close to the freeze for 2.4 so it will probably be 2.6 before a lot of the stuff makes it in.

And their openoffice stuff will be merged upstream for Openoffice 1.2 AFAIK.
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erik_swanson · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 8:15 pm Post subject:

While I am extremely pleased to hear that the Ximian stuff will be working it's way into GNOME proper, I should have been more specific and stated that it was Gentoo devs I was interested in avoiding work-duplication with.

Lin_Matt · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 8:38 pm Post subject:

liquidx · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 8:44 pm Post subject:

iwasbiggs · Apprentice Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 203

I hope somebody will setup a torrent link when this stuff gets released in a few days *hint hint*
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