Gentoo Questions

[Brett I. Holcomb]

I've been doing that with Caldera and RH - use freshmeat and  get the SRPMs 
and build them for my system.  If the SRPM is not available I use 
checkinstall to make an RPM and install it.  My concern about Gentoo is 
that it uses a "non standard" - note the quotes!!! - system as compared to 
RH and others so if Gentoo doesn't update a package you either fall back to 
RPMs or wait for them.  I like RPM because it lets me track what's on my 
system.


> Brett I. Holcomb wrote:
> 
>>I had some time yesterday and spent it browsing the Gentoo web site and
>>came up with a question about the updates.  Since I usually install a
>>distro and then modify it as needed it sounds like Gentoo might be worth
>>me
>>taking a look at.  I see that  Gentoo uses a modified ports system
>>according to the web site.  Since most of the rest of the Linux world (or
>>the part I inhabit anyway - RH <G>) uses RPM how is the availablity of
>>packages for Gentoo?  I know one of the problems with Caldera was that not
>>many packages were released in RPMs for it.  I guess I could run RPM on a
>>Gentoo system as well as the Ports system but then you have two things to
>>keep up with.  What do you do if a package is not available in the Gentoo
>>ports system?
>>
>>
>>  
>>
> I use freshmeat to locate packages that I want and build it from source.
> This way I make the decission what version goes onto my system.  If
> something breaks, I then have an Idea as to what "I did"  and usually
> can then fix it<G>
> 

-- 
Brett I. Holcomb
bholcomb at R777charter.net
AKA Grunt <><
Registered Linux User #188143
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