On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 5:16 PM, Nikos Chantziaras<rea...@arcor.de> wrote: > On 06/24/2009 03:06 AM, Mark Knecht wrote: >> >> [...] >> Am I hosed again? Did updating portage break my machine by removing >> what I was just using: >> [...] >> >> Is xorg-server-1.1.1 completely gone and I'm hosed? I'm not finding it >> on my my machine. The only variations on that theme seem to be in >> /var/db/pkg. No tar files, just other programming junk. >> >> I absolutely HATE this about portage. Update your machine just >> thinking about trying a new piece of software and then find you cannot >> immediately go back. Gentoo was supposed to be about choice. Seems >> it's not about my choice anymore. Bummer. > > I hate to say this, but if you have a machine that you don't keep up to date > by doing full updates at least each month or two, then Gentoo is *not* for > you because Gentoo simply lacks the notion of "stable". "Stable" refers to > package versions, not system stability. Gentoo is never "stable" in that > sense like other distros that offer "stable" releases. Something like > Debian stable should be more appropriate and far more easier to keep > operational for machines like that.
Gentoo is for me. Gentoo is the only distro I run and the only one I've run for at least 6 years. Gentoo has run on THIS VERY MACHINE for over 4 years and it is the ONLY distro that has EVER run on this machine. Today I run eix-sync and emerge xorg-x11 and the machine breaks and I cannot go back. It is not my choice that Gentoo maintainers decided to drop something from portage required to make this machine run and not give me a way to get it back. Portage chose to erase files on MY machine - files that are required to make the machine work. Gentoo package maintainers decided to obsolete my machine, not me. I'm sure there's some way to get things back working again but I don't know what they are. I've got two identical machines but looking around on the other machine it doesn't seem much happier, even though it's currently functional. Well, I guess you can chuckle at my problems and say tough luck. Better if you can offer some guidance about what to read to go find these files. Again, I'd LOVE to keep the machine COMPLETELY up to date. It's not my fault the folks who run portage decided to remove what this machine requires to work. It's not my fault that ATI stopped supporting the hardware. It's not my fault that the only driver that works with the hardware only works with an old kernel. And there is probably NO distro that would support this box anymore off the install CD. - Mark
