jamtat wrote:Thanks for the explanation and tip. The process has now been initiated. I guess my thinking in not setting that flag globally when I set up this system was that I feared setting it might cause a lot of extraneous desktop stuff to get dragged in, whereas I wanted this to be a lean, mean MythTV runnin' machine. I was, as with a lot of other things regarding this installation, probably mistaken about the implications of setting the X flag globally.
The X flag compiles optional support for packages to use/communicate with the X server. In this case it makes total sense that opengl requires X support. The various desktops have their own USE-flags (like the kde and gnome USE-flags, to name two) that will pull in a lot of extra "desktop crap" that you're thinking of.
jamtat wrote:Finally, success. I set the X flag globally and ran emerge - auDN world. Everything compiled without errors. After rebooting I tested MythTV and I can now select and use the vaapi playback profile which, up to now, has never worked right for me. Thanks so much for all the help!
That's great news! All it took was a bit of patience and the time it took for someone to notice he forgot responding to a thread (ahem, me
)...
jamtat wrote:
Just a couple of further questions. I keep pulling in kernel sources when I do these updates/upgrades. While I may well need these at some future point, my aim at this point is to defer compiling any new kernel for as long as possible--like maybe only when/if some major security flaw in my existing kernel (3.18.7) gets exposed. So, what I'd rather do instead of pulling in new kernel sources when I do my monthly update/upgrade, is to only pull in those sources when I might actually be intending to use them. Sort of on-demand, rather than automatic. How can I configure the system to do that?
As wankykootiepooper suggested, you can mask these updates. This will prevent portage from pulling them in. However, it's only installing the sources - it won't build a new kernel until you tell it to.
There's really no right or wrong way to deal with this - just be aware that running `emerge --depclean` can remove kernel sources,
including the sources for the kernel in use. As I mentioned earlier, I have a bunch of mythtv "appliances" which I only update periodically, and here's how I deal with it (I use sys-kernel/gentoo-sources, you can swap the examples for whatever you're using):
1. I let portage pull in new kernel sources all the time. I don't bother to mask them, as --depclean removes them eventually. If you have a slow speed connection, you may want to mask them as mentioned earlier. I'm currently on sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-4.1.12, so you could mask newer versions by doing
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$ echo ">sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-4.1.12" >> /etc/portage/package.mask
for package.mask as a file, OR
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$ echo ">sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-4.1.12" >> /etc/portage/package.mask/gentoo-sources
for package.mask as a directory.
2. You need to protect the sources for the kernel in use. The reason for this is that some versions can get pulled from the tree, and if you `emerge --depclean` and remove them you won't be able to reinstall the sources to make changes to your kernel. Now, the kernel sources are all SLOT-ed. If you look at what I have installed:
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$ equery list gentoo-sources
* Searching for gentoo-sources ...
[IP-] [ ] sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-4.1.12:4.1.12
See after the full colon, the 4.1.12? That's the SLOT that the package has been assigned. By using package 'slots' you can install different versions of the same package at the same time. Which makes sense for things like kernel sources.
Anyway, to protect the sources for my currently running kernel, all you have to do is this:
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$ emerge --noreplace sys-kernel/gentoo-sources:4.1.12
Portage will keep that version around, and if you run `emerge --depclean` that version will show as "protected" and it won't be removed.
3. At some point you'll want to roll a new kernel version. So portage will pull in a new version, you'll build and boot from that version. So now what? You have to protect that new version (step 2, above) then you'll want to tell portage you don't need to keep the old version around anymore. All you have to do is tell portage:
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$ emerge --deselect sys-kernel/gentoo-sources:4.1.12
Portage will remove its protection, and the next time you do `emerge --depclean` the sources for 4.1.12 will be removed. Note: This only removes the sources, it won't remove the actual compiled kernel.
So that's the way I deal with it. I'm sure there are other ways, but this one works for me, as when you once protect something, it stays put until you tell it otherwise.
jamtat wrote:
Finally, is it merely coincidence that the version of MythTV that went stable for the no-multilib profile in the last few weeks is the very same version we've been discussing in this thread over the last few weeks as having compilation issues with the new stable version of gcc? I mean, like, did some higher-up note this discussion and say "hey, we really should stabilize a version of mythtv that compiles with this newly-stabilized gcc we've got now"? Or are these seemingly-related developments just coincidence?
Well, it could be coincidence, or not.
There are a lot of gentoo devs that peruse the forums, and some even post here. So it's not outside the realm of possibility that one of the devs noticed. Or maybe someone filed a bug? As I said in an earlier post it's not always necessarily automatic. In this case, it looks like
a bug was filed.
