7.0 installation, and Xorg in particular

[Freminlins]

On 29/11/2007, Dominic Fandrey <LoN_Kamikaze at gmx.de> wrote:
>
> > So I do a pkg_add -r xorg. After about 70 packages I give up. I only
> used to
> > have about 65 packages in total on my old desktop, now I need more than
> 70
> > and I haven't even got x windows up yet. So I go off and have a look and
> > discover that x.org 7.x is modular - "
>
> Which is a blessing for maintenance.


But not for an end user. Who really can keep track of 300 packages? Who has
some ports installed, changes one of them which is a dependency and finds
something else breaks? Now this will happen to X.org.

It's not like there's more stuff being installed. Only you can be more
> selective about which parts you need and don't need. And you don't have to
> rebuild all of xorg for a little update.


But it is FAR more complicated. I stopped installing it after about 70
packages. I noticed it installed Cyrillic and Ethopic (didn't even know
there was one) fonts. I didn't want either of them. In the "old days" I
simply ensured that Cyrillic fonts were unchecked. Now I am supposed to go
through 300 packages. It might be more selective but it is not easier.

That's what the x11/xorg meta-port is for.


Well the reasoning behind it is broken, and so is its implementation (see
above about the unwanted fonts).


> I suggest you take a look at what depends on them (pkg_info). You will
> have
> the answer, then. None of them is required to run FreeBSD.


Err, yeah. Look through hundreds of packages to see which dependencies they
have. Helpful. Not.

This way of doing X11 is seriously unhelpful to end users. If having
individual packages for everything is so good, please tell me why everything
in /bin, /usr/bin and so on is not an individual package. It's because the
idea of doing so is dumb.

Frem.