Can I Use Binaries?

[iraubergeek]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if I can use binary packages with portage.
I ask because I have very crappy hardware and compiling the essentials (OpenOffice.org, KDE, Firefox) can take several days.

I am using VidaLinux 1.1 BTW.

Thanks

[Cabhan]

Yup!

emerge --usepkg <PACKAGE NAME>

Make sure to add this line to the make.conf file, though:

PKGDIR=<DIRECTORY OF PACKAGES>

Hope that helps!

[jaboua]

Another way which works with some big packages like openoffice + firefox is:

emerge mozilla-firefox-bin openoffice-bin

[iraubergeek]

Yup!

emerge --usepkg <PACKAGE NAME>

Make sure to add this line to the make.conf file, though:

PKGDIR=<DIRECTORY OF PACKAGES>

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the quick reply.

I still need to know:
What packages do I need to put in the PKGDIR? And where is the make.conf file?

Thanks

[jaboua]

The make.conf file is in /etc along with most other config-files (/etc/make.conf), and make.conf should bge experimented with since all the options like USE-flags and gcc-options lies there. Flags and options can be found by typing "man make.conf" in a terminal.

EDIT: In the man-file, here's whats on PKGDIR:

PKGDIR = [path]
Defines the location where created .tbz2 binary packages will be
stored.
Defaults to ${PORTDIR}/package

That means that someone else must have created a binary-package before you can use it. The openoffice-bin and mozilla-firefox-bin are examples of binary ebuilds.

[genesus]

also, you dont have to go through portage, you can just download the install binary from their site and install it yourself by running the binary...I think it would be better to just wait while portage emerges everything, but if you are stressed for time you can just do it yourself.

[iraubergeek]

So can I tell portage to get the ebuilds and install them for me like in apt? Or do I just have to get them myself?

I also wondered if portage can use cvs or subversion instead of the prepackaged source tarballs. That'd be cool.

[jaboua]

The ebuild is simply a file containing the dependencies and a link to the tarball, while some ebuilds instead contain a link to a .bin binary file. I dunno how to make portage use CVS, but I've heard about it and would really like to try it myself...

[uchihasasuke]

I would like to correct a common misconception that was confirmed by another poster. Emerging a package is NOT like installing a binary! When you type in this:

emerge gaim

Emerge looks through a collection of "ebuilds" known as "Portage," which is located on every Gentoo system. This ebuild references to the gaim source code (and it's dependencies), which are then downloaded from the gentoo servers, compiled, and installed on your system automatically.
"Then what in the world is the PKGDIR?" Good question, I'll give an example. Let's say you downloaded the Gentoo packages cd for use with a computer without an internet connection. In order to emerge packages that are on the cd, you need to make /mnt/cdrom/packages or /mnt/cdrom your "PKGDIR." This is done so that an ebuild can reference source code that is on your packages cd before or instead of downloading the online package by using the command:

emerge --usepkg gaim

Although is entirely possible to emerge a binary ebuild, alomost nobody has one. Gentoo is known as the "from source" distribution for a reason.

[loft306]

also with the --usepkg or -k argument it will only use a pkg if there is one available ....if none is available then it will use it from source