Installing and using the Gentoo prefix on Debian squeeze

Message

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 1:54 pm

First, hello Gentoo community!

This topic relates to the gentoo prefix, so please excuse me if I'm in the wrong sub-forum and feel free to move this thread to the right one.

I'm a student working on a debian linux without root rights. I was looking for a way of installing packages in my home directory and stumbled on the gentoo prefix. After reading this and this I realized, the prefix is exactly what I am looking for. But I still have a lot of questions open, and I would be grateful if you could clarify them to me:

1) after installing gentoo prefix, is it possible to switch it on and off?

2) I don't have to reinstall existing packages, do I?

3) if I reinstall existing packages (i.e. if I need a newer or an older version) under the prefix, how can I ensure that the package I need will be used?

4) what packages/versions I'll be able to install? Original debian packages or something else?

As I went for the installation of gentoo prefix, here they say, that the solaris-10 howto should be used for other linux distributions. But I don't know what path do I have to export instead of

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export PATH="/usr/sfw/i386-sun-solaris2.10/bin"

best,
linch

chithanh · Post by **chithanh** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 10:15 pm

The prefix is mostly self-contained. Nothing on the system will be changed. You enter the prefix with the startprefix command, and leave it with exit.

The packages which you can install are the ones keyworded ~x86-linux or ~amd64-linux.

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 12:28 pm

Thanks a lot for the reply. I think, it answers the first and the fourth questions. But still:

can I access already installed packages (outside of the prefix) from inside the prefix?

If YES:
3) how can I distinguish between prefix-intern and extern packages, in case of their names are same?

OTHERWISE:
2) do I have to install all the stuff I need inside of the prefix over new?

And the path question remains open.

best,
linch

chithanh · Post by **chithanh** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:07 pm

No external packages will be used. While you are in prefix, the things in /usr/{,s}bin will not be in PATH by default

The prefix is self-contained with very few exceptions (e.g. glibc). So you need to install everything that you want in the prefix.

For the PATH question, you need access to a working compiler and some GNU tools in order to bootstrap the prefix. On Solaris, they are usually located in /usr/sfw. On Linux, they are already in the default system path.

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 3:16 pm

Thanks again!

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 5:41 pm

well, I reached the stage of customizing USE-Flags. What if I don't include some flags, but need them later. Will it be possible to add/install them later?

cwr · Post by **cwr** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 11:43 am

i.linch wrote:well, I reached the stage of customizing USE-Flags. What if I don't include some flags, but need them later. Will it be possible to add/install them later?

Yes, but you'll generally need to recompile the packages whose USE flags have changed. Some USE flags are
set globally in make.conf, and some are set package-by-package in /etc/portage/package.use - which you chose
depends on you.

Will

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:46 am

Could you please comment this line in the list of USE-flags:
"selinux - !!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur"
I mean, what is Security Enhanced Linux support, what it is needed for and what does this must be set by the selinux profile mean. If I don't understand it then I probably don't need it, right?

Edit1:
And another question: the system was updated and restarted before I finished the prefix installation. So I didn't know whether I can just go on with it or do I have to start it over new. So I just started again from the entire beginning. This time it wasn't successful: I get an error message while bootstraping the portage with

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./bootstrap-prefix.sh $EPREFIX portage

ln: failed to create symbolic link `./make.globals': file already exists

I suppose I have to remove the unfinished installation before starting it over new, am I right? Or is it something else?

Edit2:
After deleting everything in the gentoo folder and starting the installation again, bootstraping went fine. But know I can't move on, because emerge command can't be found. Since I had no problems with it last time, the questin is, where does emerge come from?

Edit3:
I repeated the same procedure ones again. This time I proceeded step by step manually, without using a script, and there were no problems with emerge...

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 5:02 pm

Well, once again I did something wrong.

After emerging either binutils "emerge --oneshot --nodeps sys-devel/binutils" or maybe gcc-config: "emerge --oneshot --nodeps sys-devel/gcc-config" (I can't exactly remember) there was a message telling something like "dont forget to execute . etc/profile". I think I shouldn't do it, but I did. After that my concole looked like

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name@pcname ~/gentoo $

so I suppose to have started the gentoo prefix before finishing the installation. Then I went on emerging the packages and astonishingly it seemed to work until I reached the point

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rm -Rf $EPREFIX/tmp/*

At this point it turned out, that I don't have rights to delete the stuff. But also after leaving the prefix I still can not delete the directory. So please help me:

1) shouldn't I execute the ~/gentoo/etc/profile ?

2) what can I do now? Why am I not allowed to delete the tmp/*? I'm not even allowed to look into the ~/gentoo/ folder (i.e. ls). Neither from within the prefix

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~/gentoo $ ls

nor from outside

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$ ls ~/gentoo/

Edit:

2) chmod -R helped

linch

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 1:37 pm

I keep posting.

Now the prefix installation is finished. But there were still complications:

>>> Installing (18 of 28) sys-devel/gcc-4.5.3-r1
* The current gcc config appears valid, so it will not be
* automatically switched for you. If you would like to
* switch to the newly installed gcc version, do the
* following:

* gcc-config x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-4.5.3
* source /etc/profile

sed: can't read ~/gentoo//etc/make.conf: No such file or directory
[31;01m*[0m No profile selected, unable to utilize --use-old

* If you have issues with packages unable to locate libstdc++.la,
* then try running 'fix_libtool_files.sh' on the old gcc versions.

Mind the double slash // in ~/gentoo//etc/make.conf
I think, this time it is a bug and not my mistake (correct me if I'm wrong). Should I report it?. How?

Edit:
Another one I found in the log is:

>>> Installing (17 of 31) app-admin/eselect-python-20100321
* Running `eselect python update` ...
ls: cannot access python2.?: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
!!! Error: 'eselect python set' requires Python interpreter filename
exiting
[ !! ]

"Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden" means "No such file or directory"

best,
linch

truc · Post by **truc** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 1:42 pm

the double slash should not be a problem, does the file actually exists?

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 1:43 pm

Yes, it exists.

You are right, I've just tried to access the folder using // instead of /, it works. So I don't know where the problem comes from.

OK, besides of the mentioned errors installation went fine and now I can start the prefix. But how do I use it properly? How can I install packages? Can I use su, sudo, dpkg, apt-get etc.?

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 1:37 pm

But how do I use it properly? How can I install packages? Can I use su, sudo, dpkg, apt-get etc.?

Please, I'm still waiting for help.

yoshi314 · Post by **yoshi314** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 2:13 pm

i wonder if you can chroot into it, and try some commands.

chithanh · Post by **chithanh** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 2:43 pm

After entering the prefix with "startprefix", you should be able to use emerge.
If you have a .bashrc in your home which messes up things, source ${EPREFIX}/etc/profile

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 8:34 am

yoshi314 wrote:i wonder if you can chroot into it, and try some commands.

Don't I have to be su to chroot?

chithanh wrote:If you have a .bashrc in your home which messes up things, source ${EPREFIX}/etc/profile

Could you please explain a little bit, what the profile script does? I've looked inside, but since I'm not (yet) an experienced linux user, I didn't get it? Does it replace the search path for system progs., search path priority or something else?

And a practical howto-question: I have doxygen 1.7.1 installed on my system, but I need an older one (1.6.3).

Code: Select all

emerge --search doxygen

returns:

Latest version available: 1.7.5.1
Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]
Size of files: 4,579 kB
Homepage: http://www.doxygen.org/
Description: documentation system for C++, C, Java, Objective-C, Python, IDL, and other languages
License: GPL-2

so emerge doxygen would install the latest version. But how do I get the version I need installed?

mark_alec · Post by **mark_alec** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 12:42 pm

`emerge =app-doc/doxygen-1.6.3` will do it. You'll want to mask higher versions to prevent portage from upgrading it.

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:33 pm

Thank you Mark,

first, I can not install it:

Calculating dependencies... done!

The following keyword changes are necessary to proceed:
#required by app-text/texlive-2011[extra], required by app-doc/doxygen-1.6.3[latex], required by =app-doc/doxygen-1.6.3 (argument)
=dev-tex/latexmk-427a **
#required by app-text/texlive-2011[extra], required by app-doc/doxygen-1.6.3[latex], required by =app-doc/doxygen-1.6.3 (argument)
=app-text/dvisvgm-1.0.9-r1 **

The following USE changes are necessary to proceed:
#required by app-doc/doxygen-1.6.3[latex], required by =app-doc/doxygen-1.6.3 (argument)
>=app-text/texlive-2011 extra
#required by app-text/texlive-2011[truetype], required by app-doc/doxygen-1.6.3[latex], required by =app-doc/doxygen-1.6.3 (argument)
>=media-libs/freetype-1.4_pre20080316-r2:1 kpathsea

NOTE: The --autounmask-keep-masks option will prevent emerge
from creating package.unmask or ** keyword changes.

Use --autounmask-write to write changes to config files (honoring CONFIG_PROTECT).

emerge: there are no ebuilds to satisfy "=dev-dotnet/libgdiplus-2.4*".
(dependency required by "dev-lang/mono-2.4.2.3[-minimal]" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "net-dns/libidn-1.19[mono]" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "net-misc/curl-7.22.0[idn]" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "app-text/poppler-0.18.1[curl]" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "dev-tex/luatex-0.70.1" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "dev-texlive/texlive-basic-2011-r1" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "dev-texlive/texlive-fontsrecommended-2011" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "app-text/texlive-2011" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "app-doc/doxygen-1.6.3[latex]" [ebuild])
(dependency required by "=app-doc/doxygen-1.6.3" [argument])

keyword changes:
What keyword changes do I need and what does it mean? This: ?

missing keyword means that the application has not been tested on your architecture yet. Ask the architecture porting team to test the package or test it for them and report your findings on our bugzilla website.

USE changes:
What USE flags do I need? extra and kpathsea?

emerge: there are no ebuilds to satisfy "=dev-dotnet/libgdiplus-2.4*".
Portage introduction says:

The application you are trying to install depends on another package that is not available for your system. Please check bugzilla if the issue is known and if not, please report it. Unless you are mixing branches this should not occur and is therefore a bug.

I did nothing besides of the installation guide, so I don't think I am mixing branches. How can I prove it?

Sorry for a lot of probably silly questions.

i.linch · Post by **i.linch** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 12:55 pm

I get the same error also if I try to emerge the latest version of doxygen. Could somebody please explain me its meaning?

linch