Re: Package system vs. source vs. both
Radek Zajkowski <r_zajkowski@finalbanana.com> writes:
> As a result I downloaded the binaries of Xfree and it runs as a charm. I
> compiled Emacs and my crappy pentium200 is now a bit more friendly, or at
> least it offers the alternative to terminal.
> The problem I have created here is rather obvious, the package manager
> doesn't know I have X libraries on my system and therefore, anything
> requiring Xlibs will not install, since it forces the dependecies to be
> configured as well. You probably get the rest of the story.
So when you're doing this sort of thing what you almost always care
about is having a newer X server than Debian provides. You can
install all of the X client stuff (libraries, xterm, twm, and so on)
using the Debian infrastructure. You can install the Debian X server,
too, if it makes the packaging system happy, but it shouldn't be
necessary. Meanwhile, put the XFree86 binary server tarball somewhere
like /usr/local, and repoint the /etc/X11/X symlink to point at
/usr/local/bin/XFree86. Now as far as dpkg/APT are concerned, you
have X libraries (and those change very rarely), but you're using the
newer server that supports your hardware, which is what you really
want.
--
David Maze dmaze@debian.org http://people.debian.org/~dmaze/
"Theoretical politics is interesting. Politicking should be illegal."
-- Abra Mitchell
Reply to: