How do you managae updates for a FreeBSD desktop?

L

lungten

I've used FreeBSD as a desktop for home and work for about a year. I used to run Fluxbox with XDM.

The biggest problem I faced was updating as desktop usually has a large number of software installed. Some ports are broken sometimes and some needs constant interaction (I know I can do a BATCH update but sometimes you don't want to go by the defaults). This takes up a big amount of time.

So, I moved to Ubuntu for home and work use but still run FreeBSD on servers. I would like to go back to using FreeBSD and would like to get some tips from the veterans here about how you manage those stuff on FreeBSD.

Happy new year!
 
It is much smarter to use portupgrade/portmaster to do the binary upgrade. Just specify the -PP flag. These tools are designed to follow dependencies, package name changes etc.

Trouble is, there are no precompiled packages for the latest ports.
 
vermaden said:
Welcome mate, I also used Fluxbox some time ago: http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=fluxbox+by:vermaden
Click to expand...

Those are some of the coolest Fluxbox themes and I still have some in my backup disk. Mind sharing what you've moved to now and why?
 
danbi said:
It is much smarter to use portupgrade/portmaster to do the binary upgrade. Just specify the -PP flag. These tools are designed to follow dependencies, package name changes etc.
Click to expand...

Yes, I use those tools. The trouble is when you have to walk along with the update/upgrade process looking for warning/error messages. I've faced errors trying to update all ports together on many occasions.
 
vermaden said:
In what way? It updates packages as its needed? Any links on that topic?
Click to expand...

I use portsnap and portupgrade for all my servers. However, I recently started using PC-BSD as my desktop machine at home and I've been very impressed. To answer your PC-BSD software upgrade question check out: http://wiki.pcbsd.org/index.php/Using_Software_Manager

I would highly recommend giving PC-BSD a shot as a desktop OS and you'll be right at home from the shell.
 
lungten said:
Those are some of the coolest Fluxbox themes and I still have some in my backup disk. Mind sharing what you've moved to now and why?
Click to expand...
I have moved to Openbox mate,the workspace menu is just great, that great that I did not used taskbar for about a year, its compilance with EWMH and other open desktop standarts allows You to make Openbox into TILING window manager (like dwm/awesome) with python scripts like PyTYLE/PyWO, which I do at least.

I felt Fluxbox was just bunch of happen to work hacks, check the ~/.fluxbox/init file for example, or all the hacks I needed to do to make themes look right ;)

I also wanted to try something new, I also tried PekWM, but its too limited for me, although PekWM also has some nice features.

phospher said:
I use portsnap and portupgrade for all my servers. However, I recently started using PC-BSD as my desktop machine at home and I've been very impressed. To answer your PC-BSD software upgrade question check out: http://wiki.pcbsd.org/index.php/Using_Software_Manager

I would highly recommend giving PC-BSD a shot as a desktop OS and you'll be right at home from the shell.
Click to expand...
Thanks mate, I will take a look into that.
 
Mostly by:

Code: 
#!/bin/sh

portsnap fetch update && rm -rf /usr/obj && \
portmaster --packages-build --delete-build-only \
-a -d -x office && \
pkg_cleanup && portmaster --check-port-dbdir && \
portmaster --check-depends && echo removed distfiles: && \
rm -vrf /usr/ports/distfiles/* && echo removing objects... && \
rm -rf /usr/obj && rm -rf /usr/ports/packages/* && portmaster -l | grep installed

and

Code: 
#!/bin/sh

cd /usr/src
rm -rf /usr/obj && make cleandir && \
make cleandir && svn update && \
make -j4 buildworld && make -j4 buildkernel KERNCONF=STRIPPED && \
make installkernel KERNCONF=STRIPPED && rm -r /usr/share/man && \
make installworld && \
make cleandir && make cleandir && \
rm -rf /usr/obj && make delete-old -DBATCH_DELETE_OLD_FILES && \
make delete-old-libs -DBATCH_DELETE_OLD_FILES && \
mergemaster

YMMV, recommended upgrading procedure requires reboots, this is
real life example and it's tuned according to my (mis)judgement.

( http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/makeworld.html )

P.S. WRKDIRPREFIX= /usr/obj obviously.
 
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