Welcome to the forums, gezley!
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Originally Posted by gezley
1) I tend to stick with released or soon-to-be-released versions of NetBSD and the latest quarterly release of pkgsrc.tar.xz. Can I assume this combination will work? Or is it expected that recent quarterly pkgsrc releases work best with NetBSD -current and older quarterly releases should be preferred when using 6 or 7?
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I pretty sure using -current on both just means that you are more likely to find things developers might want to know about (bugs). I doubt that you should expect to see many added issues, if any, in most cases.
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2) Regarding modular X, what benefit does this provide that is not in the X shipped with base? Again, I usually have nothing but trouble trying to compile modular xorg and friends and I really do wonder if it provides some benefit that makes it worth the hassle. Nowhere is there a simple explanation of what modular X actually is, and why NetBSD has these two different versions.
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One thing to keep in mind, is that Pkgsrc is not meant for use strictly on NetBSD. Since you haven't had much luck with modular-xorg, I was wondering if you have tried the meta-pkgs install for it? I think modular-xorg will build the whole lot.
Edit:Some non NetBSD systems may not have xorg binaries available from their maintainers or pkgsrc. If you were to use pkgsrc on a bare install of Slackware or Debian, you might prefer using the modular-xorg over the distributions packaged xorg. Modular-xorg could be useful for someone putting together a hybrid L.F.S. system.
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3) What does it mean to bootstrap pkgsrc? Again, in the pkgsrc guide it is assumed we just know what this is. There is no explanation whatsoever what it is and whether or not it is needed. After extracting pkgsrc.tar.xz do we need to run the bootstrap script - yes or no?
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On non NetBSD systems this is required prior to pkgsrc use.
[QOUTE]4) As a completely new user some years ago it took me a long time to find the default mk.conf. Once again, in the pkgsrc guide it is assumed we know where this file is and where it should go. To quote chapter 5: "In which directory pkgsrc looks for that file depends on the installation. On NetBSD, when you use make(1) from the base system, it is in the directory /etc/." Except that it's not in /etc, at least on a newly-installed system. Why on earth can they not simply say "Copy mk.conf from ~/pkgsrc/mk/defaults/ to /etc/ and adjust it according to the following guidelines" and follow up with a set of 10 simple steps to customise your mk.conf? Specifying local Gnu, Perl and Sourceforge mirrors would be a good start. Again, things are taken for granted. I do understand that the BSDs are not meant to be Ubuntu; having said that, many of us who want to use the BSDs are not developers and would rather use the systems than have to jump through these hoops before we can start.[/QUOTE]
I don't know your complete background. You did mention that you prefer application installation from source files. If you have ever used or looked into Gentoo or Arch Linux, you'll find lots of user inspired documentation. I can agree that some of the NetBSD documentation is not clear enough for every possible user. I also don't mean to say that it has nothing to do with negligence. Volunteering your input is what has helped make a lot of the really good system documentation for many systems. The people required to utilize your input are likely not members of this forum.
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5) Is it possible to mix unprivileged pkgsrc in $HOME/pkg with privileged pkgsrc in /usr/pkg? I recall reading somewhere that pkgsrc allows you to have multiple parallel installs but it seems from my reading elsewhere that this is not recommended.
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Are you asking if an unprivileged user, having built and installed their own packages, can still execute globally built and installed packages? I'm pretty sure you are okay. It may just depend on the situation you are deploying all of this into. How many users are on this system? I could see a dependency being called for globally, and if a user disable certain configuration flags for their unprivileged install of that dependency, the target application may fail to execute. By parallel installations you mean a global pkg directory and a user/home/pkg directory, right?
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These are just some of the questions I have as I try to make my way through pkgsrc. I am subscribed to the NetBSD mailing lists but I would prefer not to trouble the pkgsrc developers with such basic questions. They have enough on their plate. I am sure other questions will pop up as I knuckle down to learn how to use pkgsrc properly. It would be great if an experienced NetBSD user here would take some time to answer at least some of them, or better still, to post their own workflow with pkgsrc - how they get it, how and where they extract it, how they set up mk.conf, and how they use it. Thank you.
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Please ask at both. I won't beg, but in repayment for the possible help you might get, make your plight available for all who way walk the same road one day.
The following isn't targeted at you, gezley. Some industry mature, professional, and time served users may come at you with a sharp object if you sound noob. I'm not gonna come out and say that they've earned the right, but people should consider the pressure a professional can be under from time to time. You could understand a typical response like, "This system is for advanced users, go get Slax on a pendrive if your VLC player won't load!". Be persistent and respectful regardless. There are other users willing to answer with less vinegar. Maybe even one who has burnt you at the stake might give you the required guidance, eventually. There is one thing to keep in mind.... never ask a noob question dress up like it isn't a noob question. I think people have died for this.