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

[jdong]

To answer the question about backporting entire desktop environments (GNOME, XFCE), I will lean on the pessimistic side and say that it likely won't work. XFCE has a better chance of working... you can try it .. but if you try to backport GNOME, following the dependency stack will more or less you resulting with a 75% "edgy", 25% dapper system, in which case you might as well upgrade to Edgy

[foxy123]

To answer the question about backporting entire desktop environments (GNOME, XFCE), I will lean on the pessimistic side and say that it likely won't work. XFCE has a better chance of working... you can try it .. but if you try to backport GNOME, following the dependency stack will more or less you resulting with a 75% "edgy", 25% dapper system, in which case you might as well upgrade to Edgy

thanks for that. I also think that xfce won't be a problem, though I guess it may be faster to upgrade to Edgy rather than compile all xfce packages

I am trying to backport banshee and run into this problem. The compiling stops with this:

//usr/lib -Wl,--rpath -Wl,//usr/lib
cc: //usr/lib/libsgutils.so: No such file or directory
make[3]: *** [hal-ipod-info] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory `/tmp/buildd/libipoddevice-0.5.0/src'
make[2]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/buildd/libipoddevice-0.5.0'
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/buildd/libipoddevice-0.5.0'
make: *** [debian/stamp-makefile-build] Error 2

I've got libsgutils installed and I did prevu-update after that. However since this is a make error and as I understand the compiling happens in a separate clean environment I guess libsgutils are not present there. Ids there any way to get them into it? BTW, I am compiling libipoddevice-dev, which is a dependency for libipod-cil, which is a dependency for banshee

[jdong]

thanks for that. I also think that xfce won't be a problem, though I guess it may be faster to upgrade to Edgy rather than compile all xfce packages

I am trying to backport banshee and run into this problem. The compiling stops with this:

//usr/lib -Wl,--rpath -Wl,//usr/lib
cc: //usr/lib/libsgutils.so: No such file or directory
make[3]: *** [hal-ipod-info] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory `/tmp/buildd/libipoddevice-0.5.0/src'
make[2]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/buildd/libipoddevice-0.5.0'
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/buildd/libipoddevice-0.5.0'
make: *** [debian/stamp-makefile-build] Error 2

I've got libsgutils installed and I did prevu-update after that. However since this is a make error and as I understand the compiling happens in a separate clean environment I guess libsgutils are not present there. Ids there any way to get them into it? BTW, I am compiling libipoddevice-dev, which is a dependency for libipod-cil, which is a dependency for banshee

This is bug 62323 (https://launchpad.net/products/dappe...rts/+bug/62323) in Dapper. A backport is in progress to fix this. You can do the backport using prevu yourself to speed up the process

P.S. "deb http://apebox.org/badgerexplosion ./" is a dapper repository with Edgy's mono stack, along with up-to-date versions of most mono apps. You can save some time by using that repository

[jdong]

Readahead

Friendly reminder that after backporting readahead to do a profile boot, because readahead in Edgy is shipped with an Edgy list, which won't do you much good on Dapper!

[StickyStyle]

I need to make prevu use our local apt-proxy repo to get around our slow internet pipe, what would be the proper way to get prevu setup this way?
Just looking at the way its working i would think i could un-tgz the base.tgz and edit the sources.list file in there and zip it back up. But I am getting "tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors" when i try to un tgz the file ($tar zxvf base.tgz) and If i just ignore the error, make my change and zip it back up i get dependency errors that i was not getting before.

Any hints?

[jdong]

My best recommendation is to edit the prevu-update script (/usr/bin/prevu-update), the line

pbuilder update --basetgz /var/cache/prevu/base.tgz --buildplace /var/cache/prevu/builds --distribution dapper --override-config --othermirror "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper main restricted universe multiverse | deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-backports main restricted universe multiverse | deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted universe multiverse | deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-updates main restricted universe multiverse | deb file:/var/cache/prevu/debs ./" --bindmounts /var/cache/prevu/debs --distribution dapper

Replace the archive.ubuntu.com instances with your repository. Save this and remember to do this every time you install a new prevu update.

[StickyStyle]

Worked perfectly, thank you.
Just for the people who miss the obvious (like myself ), you need to run prevue-update after making the changes and before trying to run prevue. Akin to doing an apt-get update after modifing your sources.list.

[Hawkwind]

Very nice work on this app. I can see where it will make life easier for a lot of people, especially myself.

I currently run the largest 3rd party rpm repo for Mandriva and have been using Kubuntu since June 1st. I have started adding stuff to my repo for Ubuntu, especially a big E17 repo. I also have a contrib repo as well that I want to fill up.

My main thing with the Mandriva stuff was just this, backporting from Cooker(their unstable/beta tree) to the latest stable version of the OS. The site gets over 2 million hits a month and is very popular indeed. I really want to increase the size of the Ubuntu stuff and this looks like a perfect way to do it. A nice 3rd party backports repo that can be trusted My repo can be found here: http://seerofsouls.com It will hopefully be listed on easyubuntu or source-o-matic very soon if all goes as planned.

Now, my question is with the name tag of the final .deb package. Here is an example of what it looks like when you finish building a package. I've used xchat in this example:

xchat_2.6.6-0ubuntu3~6.06prevu1_i386.deb

Is there anyway of shortening that ? I understand that the 0ubuntu3~6.06 needs to be there due to the fact it needs to show as a backport and that's fine. What I'm wondering is, is the 'prevu1' part something that can be customized ? For example, when I build Mandriva rpm's for my SoS repo, the look something like this:

xchat-2.6.6-1.SoS.2006.0.i586.rpm

Is there a way I could replace the prevu1 part with .SoS or something of my own ?

Also, is there a chance of getting that as an option to pass immediately after you run prevu xchat in this case ? When it asks you to hit Y/N if everything is ok. Would be kewl for the user to provide a label of their own.

Matthew - I think it was you who said you had built some stuff that you would like to have hosted somewhere. Would you mind sending me all the stuff on a regular basis that you build ? I'd love to put that stuff onto SoS as long as they are tested to work properly. I of course would need the .deb files, the .dsc, .changes file and the .orig.tar.gz files for each app since I host both source and binary on my repo. Maybe we could setup an rsync between us or something. Feel free to email what you have now or just an email to discuss what we can do to get the files from you to me. Email me at: hawkwind AT gmail DOT com

[jdong]

The "~" tag is required for noting that the new version number is LESS than the original. This is required for successful future dist-upgrades.

The 6.06 is necessary so that in the even that a package is not updated from Edgy to Edgy+1, the backport still upgrades.


So unless you have a good reason for shortening the versions, I wouldn't recommend doing so.

Remember that the prevu script is done in Python. If you want it to use a different version tag, just load up the script in a text editor and do a replace-all


A more elaborate command-line parser with support for command-line arguments is certainly possible. I'll take a look at writing it.

[foxy123]

Very nice work on this app. I can see where it will make life easier for a lot of people, especially myself.

I currently run the largest 3rd party rpm repo for Mandriva and have been using Kubuntu since June 1st. I have started adding stuff to my repo for Ubuntu, especially a big E17 repo. I also have a contrib repo as well that I want to fill up.

My main thing with the Mandriva stuff was just this, backporting from Cooker(their unstable/beta tree) to the latest stable version of the OS. The site gets over 2 million hits a month and is very popular indeed. I really want to increase the size of the Ubuntu stuff and this looks like a perfect way to do it. A nice 3rd party backports repo that can be trusted My repo can be found here: http://seerofsouls.com It will hopefully be listed on easyubuntu or source-o-matic very soon if all goes as planned.

Now, my question is with the name tag of the final .deb package. Here is an example of what it looks like when you finish building a package. I've used xchat in this example:

xchat_2.6.6-0ubuntu3~6.06prevu1_i386.deb

Is there anyway of shortening that ? I understand that the 0ubuntu3~6.06 needs to be there due to the fact it needs to show as a backport and that's fine. What I'm wondering is, is the 'prevu1' part something that can be customized ? For example, when I build Mandriva rpm's for my SoS repo, the look something like this:

xchat-2.6.6-1.SoS.2006.0.i586.rpm

Is there a way I could replace the prevu1 part with .SoS or something of my own ?

Also, is there a chance of getting that as an option to pass immediately after you run prevu xchat in this case ? When it asks you to hit Y/N if everything is ok. Would be kewl for the user to provide a label of their own.

Matthew - I think it was you who said you had built some stuff that you would like to have hosted somewhere. Would you mind sending me all the stuff on a regular basis that you build ? I'd love to put that stuff onto SoS as long as they are tested to work properly. I of course would need the .deb files, the .dsc, .changes file and the .orig.tar.gz files for each app since I host both source and binary on my repo. Maybe we could setup an rsync between us or something. Feel free to email what you have now or just an email to discuss what we can do to get the files from you to me. Email me at: hawkwind AT gmail DOT com

a community backport repo is what we need. Ubuntu security team is focused on security backports and Ubuntu backporting team on other critical backports, then a community backport repo could provide other less essential packages, which would be nice to have for many people.

I am going to backport xfce as it is a RC version in Edgy and I am not sure if xubuntu team has time to do it, they are pretty busy preparing the Edgy release. So I could put xfce debs in your repo if you do not mind. Though I am not sure when I will finish it. Maybe by the end of this week...