[kern]

no matter what cvsup mirror I choose it'll time out cvs'ing,

it'll time out during pkg_add -r kde too

or anything half large for that matter

do you guys use a local mirror on your lan or something? that cvsup's constantly?

I don't understand why it just times out or doesnt find mirrors most of the time, although I've tried a variety of different ones

thanks a lot to anyone who can help

[darkprince]

i have cvsup run from cron, daily (3am)

i think you are getting confused with ports and packages.

pkg_add is a command that goes and grabs the binary from a specified location (i do believe it uses the variable PKG_SITE).

CVSUP updates the ports skeleton so when you are compiling ports you get the latest src code.

It's probably best you compile as much as possible as your system will run a lot smoother and more up to date. (binary packages are never updated as much as ports)

[darkprince]

I don't know why you are getting timeout issues but i can tell you it has nothing to do with CVSUP.

Try compiling KDE and see if you have any luck.

There may be a problem with your connection (or the site you are getting KDE from)

[kern]

ok I know that cvsup method and ports arent the same, but I can't see why it times out on both operations, I've tried a variety of mirrors in the cvsupfile and its not my connection I dont believe.

is there a place to specify a different mirror for pkg_add/etc

and also, compiling everything is cool, but takes a while on my celeron 566 test box

thanks for the answers everyone, seems this box will be compiling a lot,

surely on a server though you wouldn't want it to compile once a month for updates or whatever - imagine the huge spike in resource usage for that day/days

if I successfully upgraded from my 5.3 CD's to 5.4 - can I now take out the 'src-all' (isnt that kernel too) from my SUPFILE? so that it just gets the ports

*digs out handbook* its unfair asking you guys that I guess, its probably in the handbook like much else.

[sether]

Are you getting any errors on ttyv0 when trying to cvsup the ports tree? At what point does it error out? What do you mean by "time out"? If possible, include the entire output you are getting from cvsup.

An alternative to cvsup is portsnap, which downloads and installs a ports tree snapshot. It uses much less bandwidth than cvsup and may be a better alternative if your connection is timing out.

Originally Posted by kern

surely on a server though you wouldn't want it to compile once a month for updates or whatever - imagine the huge spike in resource usage for that day/days

On a server, it's best to stick with a -RELEASE and use the tested, precompiled packages instead of compiling. A nice utility is freebsd-update, which downloads and installs binary security updates for the base system.

Originally Posted by kern

if I successfully upgraded from my 5.3 CD's to 5.4 - can I now take out the 'src-all' (isnt that kernel too) from my SUPFILE? so that it just gets the ports

Only keep the sources if you plan on rebuilding the system. If you're tracking -STABLE, you'll need to use cvsup to get the sources -- otherwise, you'll just have the 5.4-RELEASE sources.

If you only want the ports tree, use /usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile. Copy it to a different location and read through the entire file.

[kern]

thanks for your help - I will take these points in mind