Build (backport) an newer Ubuntu package to run on an older Ubuntu version

[ubuntubrian]

thanks for the very quick reply. I get:

 sudo prevu-init
I: Building against currently running distro: hardy
W: /home/brianokeefe/.pbuilderrc does not exist
Distribution is hardy.
Building the build environment
 -> running debootstrap
/usr/sbin/debootstrap
I: Retrieving Release
I: Retrieving Packages
I: Retrieving Packages
I: Retrieving Packages
I: Resolving dependencies of required packages...
I: Resolving dependencies of base packages...
W: Failure trying to run: chroot /var/cache/prevu/builds/8201/. mount -t proc proc /proc
pbuilder: debootstrap failed
 -> Aborting with an error
 -> cleaning the build env 
    -> removing directory /var/cache/prevu/builds/8201 and its subdirectories
pbuilder sub-process failed!

[jdong]

W: Failure trying to run: chroot /var/cache/prevu/builds/8201/. mount -t proc proc /proc
pbuilder: debootstrap failed


That's a pbuilder error, not prevu's fault. Pointless blame-punting aside, are you running a grsec kernel or other hardened kernel with chroot restrictions?

[ubuntubrian]

I'm running a vanilla 2.6.24-19 kernel. The newer kernel has problems. I don't know what a grsec kernel is....
I'll boot into 24-21 and see what happens and report back.

[ubuntubrian]

As I'm running a powerpc kernel I wonder if that's the problem. PowerPc is no longer supported and is now a ported distro.
I booted into the newest kernel for Hardy for PowerPc, 2.6.24-21 and ran prevu-init:

sudo prevu-init
[sudo] password for brianokeefe: 
I: Building against currently running distro: hardy
W: /home/brianokeefe/.pbuilderrc does not exist
Distribution is hardy.
Building the build environment
 -> running debootstrap
/usr/sbin/debootstrap
I: Retrieving Release
E: Failed getting release file http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy/Release
pbuilder: debootstrap failed
 -> Aborting with an error
 -> cleaning the build env 
    -> removing directory /var/cache/prevu/builds/7235 and its subdirectories
pbuilder sub-process failed!

How do I get Prevu to use the release for PowerPC? I think that it is here:
http://ports.ubuntu.com/dists/hardy/Release

[jdong]

Ah, I think you found the problem then! I don't know of a cleaner way than to manually edit prevu, prevu-init, and prevu-update in /usr/bin with a search-and-replace. It's all legible (pretty well written) Python, so it should be self-explanatory which lines need a bit of mirror mangling

[ubuntubrian]

Hmmm...
I edited the appropriate files as you suggested Jdong (Thanks for the quick reply once again!). I wasn't exactly sure about the correct mirror. I tried to follow the site to the same point that would get to the /dist subdirectory as you had originally written the code. In my case that was:

deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/

as opposed to your:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

In each case they both have the same subdirectories so I'm assuming that this should work. Unfortunately I got:

~$ sudo prevu-init
I: Building against currently running distro: hardy
W: /home/brianokeefe/.pbuilderrc does not exist
Distribution is hardy.
Building the build environment
 -> running debootstrap
/usr/sbin/debootstrap
I: Retrieving Release
I: Retrieving Packages
I: Retrieving Packages
I: Retrieving Packages
I: Resolving dependencies of required packages...
I: Resolving dependencies of base packages...
W: Failure trying to run: chroot /var/cache/prevu/builds/8074/. mount -t proc proc /proc
pbuilder: debootstrap failed
 -> Aborting with an error
 -> cleaning the build env 
    -> removing directory /var/cache/prevu/builds/8074 and its subdirectories
pbuilder sub-process failed!

this is when booted into the 24-21 kernel too. I'm baffled.

[martinistudio]

Hi,

Is there a way to backport with using pbuilder but not prevu? It seems prevu changes the changelog itself and adds the extension ~prevu1 or something close to that. Can I set my own extension with prevu? ~martinistudio1 for example?

Thanks in advance,

[jdong]

Editing prevu's source code, it's fairly obvious where prevu keeps track of what version suffix to append. But prevu uses pbuilder internally.

The python code should be fairly readable; prevu is a convenience tool, it doesn't do anything mysteriously magical.

[martinistudio]

I'll look into that, thanks

Is it possible to backport a kernel?

[jdong]

I'll look into that, thanks

Is it possible to backport a kernel?

I would not recommend the use of prevu to do so, as kernel source packages in Ubuntu don't quite get version information from the debian/changelog directly.