Unable to upgrade packages on FreeBSD

[David Jackson]

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 3:58 PM, Bas Smeelen <b.smeelen at ose.nl> wrote:

> On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:52:07 -0500
> David Jackson <djackson452 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I have tried endlessly to no avail to upgrade binary the packages on
> > Freebsd to the latest version. I have tried:
> >
> > *portupgrade -PP -a
> > *portmaster -PP -a
> > *pkg_update
> >
> > All fail miserably and totally and have left the system in an
> > unuseable state.
>
> What's unusable? For instance, servers are perfectly usable without
> graphical tools. If you have tried `endlessly` why didn't you
> consult /usr/ports/UPDATING and just recompile the ports without
> using binary packages?
> Or you might want to try PCBSD, it's FreeBSD with some fancy stuff
> taken care of which might solve the problem you complain about.
> >
>


I wish to use binary packages and I specifically do not want to compile
anything, it tends to take far too long to compile programs and would
rather install some packages and have it all work right away. Binary
packages are a big time saver and are more efficient. It should be easy for
FreeBSD to make it easy to install the most recent versions of all binary
packages, its beyond belief they cannot pull off such a simple ans straight
forward, and basic part of any OS.


> > Why can't FreeBSD just make the package system "just work". Right
> > after installing FreeBSD I should be able to type a single command
> > such as update_packages and it should update all packages on the
> > system, with no errors and without requiring any configurations to be
> > troubleshooted, it should work out of the box.
> >
> > Why not? Why is something so simple so difficult and impossible?
> > Ubuntu can do it, why not FreeBSD?
>
> FreeBSD unlike Ubuntu is an entirely volunteer project. Ubuntu has
> a dedicated corporation working on it and I guess a larger user base.
>

The reason that FreeBSD has a smaller user base is because it has a
dysfunctional package system and it is hard to upgrade package to the most
recent version, making FreeBSD more difficult to use/

But doing a workable package system is not difficult, it something that
FreeBSD should be easily able to make it easy to have a way to upgrade
packages to most recent versions out of box anbd in an error free and
reliable way.


> >
> > Why cant FreeBSD  Just make the package upgrades work.
>
> Because uh well it's not up to FreeBSD since the ports work perfectly
> with the documentation that comes with it or it might depend on the user
> base also, but _you_ can help to make binary package upgrades work
> better.
>
>
> A working package system is a part of any good operating system and saves
time from having to compile programs. It is more convenient for most users
to use packages so having a package system will make FreeBSD more popular.
the reason freebsd is not used by as many people as Ubuntu is because of
the extreme difficulty and unreliability of using FreeBSD.

FreeBSD does not HAVE to make the system reasonably easy to use for common
users who want to install packages, but it would be the right thing to do,
especially if FreeBSD wants more users.



>
> Disclaimer: http://www.ose.nl/email
>
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "
> freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>