Subject: which version compiles fairly complete system?
To: port-sparc@NetBSD.org <port-sparc@NetBSD.org>
From: Heitzso <heitzso@growthmodels.com>
List: port-sparc
Date: 11/18/2006 09:33:29
I have a friend who minimally uses the internet (dialup) and I'm trying
to compile netbsd on my sparcstation 20 (dual hypersparc, 512M) to give
to her.  (I tell her it will last forever and the odds are viruses will
never touch it)

My core system is current from last spring.  I have not managed to
update the core system w/o failed compiles since then.  But the core
system from last spring seems quite stable so I'm tempted to leave it
be.

The pkgsrc tree has been a pain.  I've tried a few flavors (current that
was on the box from a couple months ago, 2006 3rd Q, current-current).
Most recently I removed the whole /usr/pkgsrc tree and pulled down via
cvs the current tree but that still failed.  I end up with maybe one
package out of 100 failing to compile.  Most recently tried to compile
epiphany, both by itself and as part of the meta pkg gnome.  That fails
w/:
  checking whether we can compile and run XPCOM programs... no
Googling on that I find that error tagged to epiphany recently but w/o a
fix.  But, that particular program aside, it is still hard for me to
compile a complete desktop w/o hitting bugs in the compiles along the
way.

Two questions:

  1) which stable snapshot for pkgsrc should I use for this box?  

  2) should I upgrade or downgrade the core system to a known stable
release that is geared for the recommended pkgsrc release? and, if so,
which is recommended for my sparcstation?


THANKS,
Heitzso