Fedora Extras is extra
William M. Quarles
quarlewm at jmu.edu
Tue Nov 30 04:48:06 UTC 2004
Shawn wrote:
>>>Mandag 29 november 2004 03:05 skrev Dag Wieers:
>>>For me there's no reason to be incompatible. In fact, by being
>>>incompatible my users are indirectly harmed as they are inable t use
>>>fedora.us or livna.org. (Mind you, if you stay away from these
>>>incompatible packages, you won't notice this).
>
>>This really makes me happy. I am using kde-redhat, dag and freshrpms,
>>and it seems to work wondefully, there was a tiny issue with redhat-
>>menus recently but that was solved very quickly. The only problem is
>>that you have to repeat this on this list every so often so that people
>>will know what kind of mixing to avoid
>
> (Non power user here)
>
> Having no reliable way to know what "kind of mixing to avoid", I fret a
> little doing updates -- a mix of ATRPMS, DAG and fedora.us
>
> Have gotten stuck in the past where I had to force things or remove
> packages to get updates to go, I view this as a daunting issue to using
> linux especially with the uncertainty involved -- maybe I will always be
> able to get out of the problems I create but...
>
> There seems to be a lack of clear information on how to handle the
> current situation. Ok don't mix but if that is necessary how to best
> handle it?
>
Hi Shawn,
Use APT and use it wisely: pay close attention to its output. It will
usually avoid installing a new package if it explicitly breaks
compatibility, but it also give you the option (when you specify the
appropriate commandline) of overriding that.
>>From this thread I gleaned (correct me if I am wrong please) that mixing
> with fedora.us is potentially more problematic as they do things a bit
> differently sometimes.
>
> Not only that but ATRPMS seems to have better support for running mythtv
> and if in the future other repositories spring up to especially support
> a certain area, it would be nice if they could play with fedora.us.
Apparently you're missed the point. These other repositories have been
around a lot longer and have many more dedicated users than Fedora
Extras currently has. They also have better reputations for
compatibility and interoperability. If you go to my original message on
the thread, you will see this URL:
<http://www.fedora.us/wiki/RepositoryMixingProblems>
How can one play nicely with someone who has one of their primary
purposes being to end one's existence? Seriously, the Fedora Extras
subproject's aim is to be one big superrepositoty, and attempt to
deprecate all other repositories. Read thi Wiki page and the rest of
this enormous thread and you will have a better idea of what is going
on. It is also very ironic that they claim that they want better
interoperability between packages and have tried to do so by explicitly
making their packages incompatible with other repositories, sometimes
even with Fedora Core itself. The other major Fedora Core-based
repositories are working together to improve their interoperability.
> Also, I am not in the US and don't want to rely a on repository that is
> restricted by US laws.
Our laws are there for good reasons. Otherwise, what kind restrictions
are you afraid of?
> Still I've used mirrors of fedora.redhat.com which is/has(?) merged with
> fedora.us Extras, to get packages I absolutely needed which I couldn't
> find elsewhere (ex. evolution2 on FC2 -- needed as Japanese support on
> 1.4.6 was garbage -- not able to go up to FC3).
>
> I guess I feel stuck with a risky strategy to try and update my system.
> Well thanks everyone for your work anyway. If only it weren't so
> confusing and easier to do though... Maybe it's not such a problem and
> I will keep getting by.
The only advice that I can give is that you should see what other
repositories people are combining and use that as your basis. Perhaps
it would also be good to contact the repositories' mailing lists or
maintainers and ask them specifically which other repositories are they
cooperating with to try to maintain interoperability. I use FreshRPMs
(the most popular repository for Fedora Core) and Planet CCRMA, and
those two are working together. I'm sure that some others are, you
might find some answers elsewhere on this thread.
----
Good luck,
William
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