On Thu, Nov 06, 2003 at 12:24:27PM -0000, wrote:
> Hello again,
>
> Ok If I am understanding the handbook correctly, you use Rock to build a distro from sources into binaries, which can be used to install on another machine via nfs or whatever or burn cds from the packages to install on other computers.
>
> I can not see anywhere, where you can install the distro you just built onto the machine you built it on apart from creating iso's and using these to install the new distro ????

After building you have a directory with the complete root where all the
packages are installed in in the build directory of your config.
I mean rock-src/build/<yourconfig>/root/
you could move this and use it as your new root. Or you burn a cd with
all the packages in it (and a bootloader), boot it ad install it on the
pc where you built it.

> Once the distro is built and installed on the machine how are updates made ??? are they built from sources ?
Binarys are always built from source ;)
It just depends how you get them. You can either download them from some
public source, build packages of the new version and install them or
just build it on the system in question directly.

>
> When it says binary packages, is this in the sense of a package like .deb or .rpm ..tgz or whatever they use, and if so does this not defeat the object of building from sources to avoid dependency hell ?
You cannot avoid dependency hell. some packages do not build if others
are not installed. Some packages check if a certain lib is installed,
and eventually activate features. But you then need to install that lib
or the package that links to that lib would fail.

The .gem's (the standard package format in ROCKLinux) contain the
.tar.bz2'ed binaries as well as meta information about the package,
where files are installed and so on.

>
> if neither of the above how are the binaries installed from the burned iso's. ( not wishing to copy them to the relevant directories by hand )
you need to build your target, and a bootdisk target. Then, when you
create the ISO, specify the bootdisk and you get a bootable cd with nice
installation interface.

>
> I am really wanting to try this distro as an alternative to Gentoo, as I believe looking at the dates Rock was possibly the first sources based distro before Gentoo or SMGL or SGL or Lunar ?
>
> Thanks for the help in advance

np.

Ciao

Andreas
'netrunner'