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FreeBSD GNOME Project: GNOME 2.32 Upgrading FAQ

Contents

1. What is new in GNOME 2.32?
2. How do I upgrade to GNOME 2.32?
3. The upgrade failed; what do I do?
4. List of known GNOME 2.32 problems and their solutions
5. I have found a bug; whom should I alert?
6. I want the fame and glory of the FreeBSD GNOME team! What can I do to participate?

Full Text

1. What is new in GNOME 2.32?

   Although the canonical summary of new features can be found at http://www.gnome.org/start/2.16/notes/en/, some of the most exciting new features of GNOME 2.32 are:

   • HAL support for FreeBSD!
   • MUCH better performance in large applications like Evolution
   • Better power management and media/volume integration
   • Solid menu editing support

2. How do I upgrade to GNOME 2.32?

   The answer is much simpler than it has been in the past:

   1. To build GNOME 2.32, you need to obtain the latest ports tree skeleton. This is most easily accomplished with portsnap(8) or CVSup. Simply obtain the latest ports tree, and you are ready to go. Then do the following:

      # pkgdb -Ff
      # portupgrade -rf pkg-config\*
      	  

      Then you can run portupgrade(8) as you normally would. NOTE: it is recommended to run portupgrade -a to make sure you get all the necessary ports.

      If you are a portmaster(8) user, make sure you have least 1.9 version. Then do the following:

      # portmaster -r pkg-config\*
      	  

      Then run portmaster normally.

3. The upgrade failed; what do I do?

   Unfortunately, this is not only possible, it is highly probable. There are many possible valid GNOME configurations, and even more invalid starting points. If the script fails, follow the instructions in the error message to let the FreeBSD GNOME team know about the failure.

   The majority of build failures will be dependency-related issues. One simple way to resolve the problem is to remove the offending port, re-run portupgrade or portmaster, and then reinstall the port when the upgrade process is complete.

4. List of GNOME 2.32 problems and their solutions

   Although GNOME 2.32 is certainly the best release to date (of course), there are a couple regressions that slipped in, both in the GNOME code and in its implementation within FreeBSD. Some of the more visible issues are:

   • hald-addon-storage consumes file descriptors until it crashes. This is a known bug in FreeBSD, and only affects 6.0 and earlier and 5.5 and earlier. Users on those releases are encouraged to upgrade to FreeBSD 6.1 or later.
   • HAL can not unmount and reset the da[0-9] devices associated with USB disks when you manually detach them from the system. Manually removing a USB umass device while it is mounted can result in a panic. This is a known bug in FreeBSD. See kern/103258 and kern/89102 for more details.

5. I have found a bug; whom should I alert?

   Please read the FreeBSD GNOME Project's documentation on reporting bugs.

6. I want the fame and glory of being part of the FreeBSD GNOME team! What can I do to participate?

   Please read our list of ways to get involved!