Skip to main content

Step Outline For Rebuilding AUR Packages In Arch

Once again Arch updates for webkitgtk breaks gnucash. Gnucash is an accounting / cash application i depend on for keeping track of my expenses. It's been moved from the official repos to the Arch User Repo or AUR. What this means for users is that responsibility for updates (including dependencies) passes solely to users. Any dependencies that gets updates must be rebuilt. The only problem with webkitgtk rebuilt is that it takes ages to build it. In my case it is 4 hours.

First, check if your system has the tools.
# sudo pacman -S base-devel git dev-tools --needed

Prepare the filesystem on which you will build the package.
# sudo mount -o remount,exec,suid /tmp
# sudo mkdir /tmp/source/chroot -p
# cd /tmp/source

Create the chroot.
# sudo mkarchroot chroot/root base-devel

It's time to get the package sources.
# cd package_name_directory
# makechrootpkg -T -r ../chroot/
The -T flag creates a temporary chroot directory while the -r flag points to the original chroot directory.

You will have to repeat the steps above for all the packages that needed to be built and copy the *.pkg.tar.xz to the /var/cache/pacman/pkg diirectory. Copying the built package to the pacman cache directory means you don't have to build all the packages again unnecessarily every time updates happen. You only build those packages affected.

Copy the *.pkg.tar.xz to /var/cache/pacman/pkg/.
# sudo cp *.pkg.tar.xz /var/cache/pacman/pkg/

Build the main package.
# makechrootpkg -T -r ../chroot/ -I /path-to-package/package_name.pkg.tar.xz

Install the package.
# sudo pacman -U /path-to-package/package_name.pkg.tar.xz


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Password Issues On Ubuntu Login

I found myself unable to enter my login credentials when prompted to do so in Ubuntu. I think I might have changed it then forget about it. I've been running the current session for more days than I should have. I forget. So what's the solution to my problem. How do I get in to my system now? It involved getting into the grub menu somehow. I am uncertain as to how to do that exactly in your system. So there's a couple of ways to do it (finger's crossed). When booting at system start, use the esc key or the shift key. The first one worked for me. The timing is key. Wait until the bios banner shows then hit the esc key once. I am using Ubuntu 22.04.4 here. I have a current version of grub. The grub menu will give you options and the one you want is: root. Yes you want root privileges to set the root password. It should give you a terminal access where you can issue commands. Type: #mount -rw -o -s remount / ==> this command mounts the filesyste...

Pacman Has to Get Better

I finally got my printers working. I got cups (and cupsd in the /etc/rc.conf) I installed hpoj and a group of printer drivers. So to get my Arch linux to recognize there's a usb printer connected to my system I have to run a daemon (ptal-init setup) and include it in /etc/rc.conf. That finally enabled (after a reboot) my GNOME control center to acknowledge that there is indeed an HP-3900 at the end of my usb port. The real personal story behind my saga with a printer is pacman. It is now throwing 'network not reachable' everytime I start it. Every download and sync. I ran --debug and ping ip addresses and so far I will conclude that it's a really really slow ftp server. The server is so slow pacman is timing out connections. It's unusable guys. My first rolling release distro and I've decided that Arch rises and falls with the performance of their package manager. Great distro for the DIY community. But sorry I can't recommend Arch linux to my mother who jus...

Webapps in Unity

So it has been 4 months since Ubuntu 14.04 came out. This is LTS and supported for 6 years by Canonical. The first mobile device with Ubuntu pre-installed is promised to come out later this year, 2014. It's time to check out how the apps perform so far. It is a good idea. I use Gmail and Twitter and Facebook. Why not a webapp in a desktop? So I start the Twitter and Gmail webapp. So far it has crashed my computer 6 times. Not a very good sign. On the other hand it does work but not as stable as opening them in Firefox. -- Use my PGP key if you want to encrypt your replies/messages to me. You are invited to also send me your PGP keys so we can communicate in private.