Re: Did Squeeze ever make it to HPPA?

[John David Anglin <dave.anglin@bell.net>]

On 4/8/2013 7:54 AM, Kurt Fitzner wrote:
> On 23/03/2013 7:53 PM, John David Anglin wrote:
>> I would really recommend going with the packages at
>> ftp://ftp.parisc-linux.org/debian-ports/unstable
>> instead of the squeeze packages on debian-ports.org.  The dependencies
>> are somewhat broken for
>> the stuff on debian-ports.org and great care is needed in installing
>> these packages.  For example,
>> the udev package on debian-ports is a bootstrap breaker.  It might be
>> that we could fill in the squeeze
>> port but it would be a fair bit of work.
> I've spent some time over the last couple weeks trying to work out an
> upgrade path to the the unstable packages on parisc-linux.org, but am
> having a very hard time.  Trying to go from Debian 5 directly to a
> mostly (but not totally) complete post-6 Wheezy without having through
> intermediary steps seems to be beyond aptitude (or me) to resolve.  I
> can handle missing packages, but the number of broken packages aptitude
> says there will be at the end of an upgrade is daunting.  And I've only
> got one HPPA box which leaves me a little on the chicken side with
> respects to playing.
>
> I must admit to being less than an expert on Debian's packaging system,
> mostly because it has always "just worked", but I am wondering if my
> problems are stemming from the current unstable packages being set as
> superceding packages that no longer exist in between what I have and them.
>
> What I think I really need is a snapshot of what was unstable the day
> Lenny was officially dropped.  Does this exist anywhere?
I don't think that exists.  What exists is the snapshot when the 
unstable hppa packages were
copied from debian.org to debian-ports.org.  Unfortunately, at that 
time, there were various
missing packages.  So, updating would result in many important packages 
being deleted.
Further, many packages have common portions that are architecture 
independent.  However,
they often are still version dependent.  So, as things evolved, the 
common parts needed
for the hppa stuff has disappeared.

Thus, the only option is to use the packages on 
ftp://ftp.parisc-linux.org/debian-ports/unstable
together with what's on debian-ports.org.  In what I upload, I include 
the common parts from
debian-ports.org.  So, hopefully, things will not get as inconsistent.

Last week I uploaded many new packages, so the archive is much closer to 
the unstable for
other ports (particularly, for packages starting with [a-l]).  I install 
all packages that I use before
uploading so I know that at least on my system there are no broken 
packages (it started as
a server system).  However, there's likely still a bunch of stuff that 
needs updating for desktop
systems.

I haven't tried to do an upgrade directly using 
ftp://ftp.parisc-linux.org/debian-ports/unstable.  Helge
Deller has done it.  So, maybe he can comment.  In general, I would do 
the update as follows:

1) Build and install 3.9-rc5 or later from kernel.org.
2) Update packages from eglibc source.
3) Update packages from binutils source.
4) Install packages from GCC 4.6 and 4.7.
5) Update packages from perl source.
6) Update packages from python2.7 source.

This puts you in the position of being able to build missing packages if 
necessary.

 From there, update selectively.  If any update wants to remove packages 
that are largely
unrelated to the update, stop and try to find out why.  Possibly, the 
packages to be removed
need updating first.

Would you be willing to post what's missing and broken?  I can try and 
fill in what's missing.

Dave

-- 
John David Anglin    dave.anglin@bell.net