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Re: Build Error with GLIBC-2.11.1


Am Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:58:00 -0400
schrieb Matt Turner <mattst88@gmail.com>: 

> Sure, it's possible, but why would you want to?

<personal "me">

(For the list: No, I am not the one who tried to build glibc last
week... my attempts were back in last year.)

A good question, of course. Perhaps I'm idealistic, but years ago I
went through Linux From Scratch, and I think such should be the basic
way to get Linux on a box. If one wants less work and aid in package
management, one uses a distribution.
Distributions are there to make it easy, not to make it possible at all.
I want things to be reproducible and documented, at best.

> <impersonal "you">
> 
> If you want a supported Linux distribution to use on your Alpha, use
> Gentoo. Problem solved.

Actually, it is good that the last distro prevailing is a source-based
one. Basically, you have the build manual and patches needed in the
processes gathered in the ebuild. If you are literate in gentoo
ebuilds, you have a way to reproduce the build (of course you can
reproduce the build with emerge, too;-)

> If you don't want to use Gentoo, then have fun dealing with all the
> broken things like glibc. It's all right there in Gentoo, so there's
> just no point whatsoever for anyone to help you figure it out.

I agree that for you as gentoo maintainer it is tiresome ot guide
others to problems you have solved for the distribution. I can fully
understand your position. I guess, lack of time forces me to abandon
the project I had proclaimed years ago: Create a port of Source Mage
GNU/Linux for the Alpha.

Back then, I actually used a gentoo install CD to get a first modern
Linux onto the box (there was some old SuSE, Redhat or so preinstalled)
and then created a Source Mage system out of it. There wasn't much
patching needed, I had to filter CFLAGS to prevent buggy glibc, I had
to figure out the booting process (boot from IDE flash disk to support
the system on a SCSI controller the SRM doesn't see). Alpha specific
hacks were rare.

Even the then-fresh modular Xorg worked fine on the box. I played
openttd on it, heck, even ran Mortal Kombat in dosbox (albeit too
slow;-). And, in all seriousness, I actually worked on the box
(scientific programming, data visualization) for 1, 2 years.
It always amazed me how well it compared with modern Opteron systems
(at least relative to MHz).

Well, back then, I promised to create a bootable ISO to install Source
Mage onto an alpha box. Was just a matter of spare time, back then.
Now, when revisiting that plan, facing all the hackup that's needed in
glibc (which is just _one_ piece of the system  -- there are
thousands of software packages without issues!), I guess I'll have to
face reality and let the machine go, put the original
OS on it, install some BSD... or just install gentoo ... or some
historic Linux. Depends on what the box will actually be used for.
I planned it to be at least a testbed for portability, performance
comparisons agains modern CPUs...

> Beyond that, at this point no matter what distribution you use, you're
> going to be compiling your software updates. So why not use Gentoo
> where they've already got the kinks worked out of the process?

I used gentoo already, after getting tired of LFS on daily use, but
well, I hope you forgive me that I had my reasons to like Source Mage
better. We all have preferences and do choices. So... let me ponder a
bit before dropping my preferred distro on the machine.
We have huge agreement on the point of source based distros being the
way to go;-)

> </impersonal "you">

</personal "me">

In any case, keep up the good work -- and I'll try to remember not
bugging you about build problems in case I try to continue with my
personal port of Source Mage.


Alrighty then,

Thomas.

PS: Apart from glibc, I do realize that one needs to patch aboot to be
able to work with current kernels... alpha specific stuff is lacking
upstream all along (or is grub2 aiming for alpha support??). But then,
even packages at the core of GNU/Linux lack active upstream (the shadow
utilities sort-of got taken over by debian... though, the
responsiveness there could also be better:-/).


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