pkg cannot find gnome2

magrathea

magrathea

Hello all,

I would appreciate any ideas on how to solve the following problem with the installation of GNOME 2. It is a new installation of FreeBSD 10.0 on two similar computers. Installation is done carefully following the FreeBSD Handbook step by step. GNOME2 installed just fine on the first computer but on second computer pkg is not able to find it; response:
Code: 
pkg could not find 'gnome2' in the repository

pkg search gnome2 returns several results (gnome2-hacker-tools, gnome2-power-tools, gnome2-office, ,...) but no gnome2. From the first computer (connected to the same router) the same command ( pkg search gnome2) returns a similar list but with gnome2. Can there be something wrong with the configuration of pkg? Or something hardware specific which prevents pkg from acknowledging the existence of gnome2 in the remote repository? I already tried something suggested at one of the posts on this forum (to change pkg's PACKAGESITE to http://pkg.freebsd.org/freebsd:10:x86:64/release/0/). This enabled the installation to start but it eventually failed on account of a documentation conflict (error 1). I already tried to re-install FreeBSD on the problematic computer from scratch 5-6 times strictly following the procedure laid out in the Handbook but if fails each time I reach the GNOME2 installation. Both of my computers face the same problem with KDE4 (no kde4 in the remote repository). The only desktop environment I can install without problems seems to be Xfce.

Any thoughts would really be appreciated.
 
Hello,

It is with deepest sorrow that I must inform you that GNOME 2 has passed away.

It is succeeded by the MATE desktop, which should be available in the FreeBSD package repository, and which is almost identical, except in name.

Thanks,
JX8P
 
thanx JX8P & SirDice. I was really running out of options. R.I.P. gnome. Is it similar situation with kde4?
 
I finally managed to install gnome from port using portmaster. It is still possible... Now, let's check out Mate...
 
JX8P said:
Hello,

It is with deepest sorrow that I must inform you that GNOME 2 has passed away.

It is succeeded by the MATE desktop, which should be available in the FreeBSD package repository, and which is almost identical, except in name.

Thanks,
JX8P
Click to expand...

This is a very unfortunate decision. Gnome2 is not the same as Mate. Mate is a miserable likeness of magnificent Gnome2 with missing features and changes that only make me say 'Huh?'.
If it builds, it should be there.

There is gnome lite, from what I can see, but installing it does not actually make FreeBSD 10 a graphical desktop system. It still boots into text console.

But by the way, what happened to KDE4?

Is someone making FreeBSD 'desktop user-proof' by removing desktop managers from repositories?
 
user0 said:
There is gnome lite, from what I can see, but installing it does not actually make FreeBSD 10 a graphical desktop system. It still boots into text console.
Click to expand...
x11/gnome2-lite doesn't contain x11/xorg, x11/gdm or x11/xdm. And even if you install them it still won't boot to a GUI. You have to enable it yourself.
 
SirDice said:
user0 said:
There is gnome lite, from what I can see, but installing it does not actually make FreeBSD 10 a graphical desktop system. It still boots into text console.
Click to expand...
x11/gnome2-lite doesn't contain x11/xorg, x11/gdm or x11/xdm. And even if you install them it still won't boot to a GUI. You have to enable it yourself.
Click to expand...
I know that and installed xorg prior, when I was still under naive impression that gnome2 was awaiting me in the repos.
Back when gnome2 was in the repos, installing xorg then gnome2 actually enabled booting into X with gnome as a window manager.
Can anyone explain what was that changed for? What's the glorious plan?
 
user0 said:
I know that and installed xorg prior, when I was still under naive impression that gnome2 was awaiting me in the repos.
Back when gnome2 was in the repos, installing xorg then gnome2 actually enabled booting into X with gnome as a window manager.
Click to expand...
No, you still had to specifically enable it. As with everything you install on FreeBSD, nothing is enabled when you install it.

Can anyone explain what was that changed for? What's the glorious plan?
Click to expand...
Nothing's changed. I think there are just some issues with the build system that seem to skip certain ports.
 
The new style packages are only built once a week and that is not often enough if there happens to be a problem in the ports tree at the time the packages are built. This will hopefully change when the old style packages are abandoned for good and precious resources can be dedicated to just building the new style PKG packages.

There's also a larger scale problem that is related to how commits are done to the ports tree. Now there's nothing to prevent a committer making a commit to the tree just before the time when the packages are about to be built. If that commit happens to break an important port it could have an effect on very large number of ports and result in half of the package repository missing because none of the dependent ports can be built if building of that important port fails.
 
SirDice said:
user0 said:
I know that and installed xorg prior, when I was still under naive impression that gnome2 was awaiting me in the repos.
Back when gnome2 was in the repos, installing xorg then gnome2 actually enabled booting into X with gnome as a window manager.
Click to expand...
No, you still had to specifically enable it. As with everything you install on FreeBSD, nothing is enabled when you install it.
Click to expand...
You can say no, it's Ok, but as a complete FreeBSD noob that I am, I would have remembered if I had to specifically enable graphic desktop.
The reason being - I have no faintest idea how to do that! :(

Like I said, in 9.2 all I did was install from media, log in as root, run pkg tool to install a) xorg b) gnome2 c) firefox, then rebooted and it started GDM, where I logged in as a user and could browse the web. :)

kpa said:
The new style packages are only built once a week and that is not often enough if there happens to be a problem in the ports tree at the time the packages are built. This will hopefully change when the old style packages are abandoned for good and precious resources can be dedicated to just building the new style PKG packages.

There's also a larger scale problem that is related to how commits are done to the ports tree. Now there's nothing to prevent a committer making a commit to the tree just before the time when the packages are about to be built. If that commit happens to break an important port it could have an effect on very large number of ports and result in half of the package repository missing because none of the dependent ports can be built if building of that important port fails.
Click to expand...
I kind of suspect, that it should not be an issue, as the last update to gnome2 is probably 2 years old or more.
 
user0 said:
This is a very unfortunate decision. Gnome2 is not the same as Mate. Mate is a miserable likeness of magnificent Gnome2 with missing features and changes that only make me say 'Huh?'.
Click to expand...
Such as? What missing features?

user0 said:
Is someone making FreeBSD 'desktop user-proof' by removing desktop managers from repositories?
Click to expand...
It has to be done. No one maintain GNOME 2 for years. The GNOME 2 is too big for us to maintain even to MATE developers too. MATE developers keep get rid of old GNOME 2 libraries and use their new libraries, but still keep same GNOME 2 look and function. Like for example, look at this: http://mate-desktop.org/blog/2014-03-17 ... g-to-mate/
 
user0 said:
I kind of suspect, that it should not be an issue, as the last update to gnome2 is probably 2 years old or more.
Click to expand...

Last updates to the actual Gnome2 ports may be very old but as it happens Gnome2 ports depend on other ports that are under very active development, for example devel/pcre. If building of the devel/pcre port fails in the build cluster there won't be any packages in repo for ports that depend on devel/pcre. And before you try to suggest it, the old packages from the old build runs can not be used because of the way dynamic library linking works under UNIX and UNIX-like OSes.
 
user0 said:
SirDice said:
user0 said:
I know that and installed xorg prior, when I was still under naive impression that gnome2 was awaiting me in the repos.
Back when gnome2 was in the repos, installing xorg then gnome2 actually enabled booting into X with gnome as a window manager.
Click to expand...
No, you still had to specifically enable it. As with everything you install on FreeBSD, nothing is enabled when you install it.
Click to expand...
You can say no, it's Ok, but as a complete FreeBSD noob that I am, I would have remembered if I had to specifically enable graphic desktop.
The reason being - I have no faintest idea how to do that! :(

Like I said, in 9.2 all I did was install from media, log in as root, run pkg tool to install a) xorg b) gnome2 c) firefox, then rebooted and it started GDM, where I logged in as a user and could browse the web. :)
Click to expand...
I'm sure you simply forgot you added gnome_enable to rc.conf. If you didn't GDM really wouldn't have started on it's own ;)
 
mezz@ said:
user0 said:
Is someone making FreeBSD 'desktop user-proof' by removing desktop managers from repositories?
Click to expand...
It has to be done. No one maintain GNOME 2 for years. The GNOME 2 is too big for us to maintain even to MATE developers too. MATE developers keep get rid of old GNOME 2 libraries and use their new libraries, but still keep same GNOME 2 look and function. Like for example, look at this: http://mate-desktop.org/blog/2014-03-17 ... g-to-mate/
Click to expand...
And that means that no maintenance is required. There are no changes going into gnome2 code base anymore and nothing really for the distro maintainers to do.
It compiles from ports, that means there is no justification for removing it from the repos.
 
user0 said:
mezz@ said:
user0 said:
Is someone making FreeBSD 'desktop user-proof' by removing desktop managers from repositories?
Click to expand...
It has to be done. No one maintain GNOME 2 for years. The GNOME 2 is too big for us to maintain even to MATE developers too. MATE developers keep get rid of old GNOME 2 libraries and use their new libraries, but still keep same GNOME 2 look and function. Like for example, look at this: http://mate-desktop.org/blog/2014-03-17 ... g-to-mate/
Click to expand...
And that means that no maintenance is required. There are no changes going into gnome2 code base anymore and nothing really for the distro maintainers to do.
It compiles from ports, that means there is no justification for removing it from the repos.
Click to expand...
You don't understand anything. When the base doesn't change and no maintaince from the upstream then it's bad. I am going to walk away from this topic.
 
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