[kde-linux] IA64 KDEGRAPHICS Upgrade??

[Duncan]

Robert Garron posted on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:10:05 +0000 as excerpted:

> I think this is the right mailing list for this question, if not, pardon
> my mistake and simply delete the post -- if correct, any guidance would
> be greatly appreciated.

It's not quite the right one, but close enough for /some/ information.  
As Kevin said, you'd ask on the Debian lists (or forums) for the Debian 
specific info.  More detail inline, below...

> Background:  I am running Debian Etch on a 64 bit Itanium processor
> (IA64) with KDE as the main windowing software/Desktop.  I am also
> running Debian Etch and Debian Lenny on several 32 bit pentium/xeon
> processors, 64 bit Alpha Servers, and yet another IA64 Itanium processor
> and I see "kdegraphics" (according to Update Manager and Synaptic) has
> been upgraded for all types of chips and OS systems, except Itanium -
> IA64?
> 
> Question: Is there a current IA64 Itanium kdegraphics update out there
> in KDE land, Debian land, and/or Linux land that I can utilize to
> update/upgrade a IA64 bit based systems?  As I see many other files
> and/or fixes are required as opposed to simply one file/package such as
> kdegraphics to allow kdegrphics to update properly -- So I am curious if
> the Debian Linux IA64 processors/servers are being supported by KDE
> anymore or ever supported?
> 
> If a package for the updates that kdegrphics promisses does not exit, my
> second question is this -- can I take the sources from Debian Lenny
> and/or another set of sources and recompile in order that the ia64 bit
> graphics system can be upgraded to continue to operate?

KDE is "upstream" of Debian, and provides the sources for its packages.  
The distributions take those sources and package them, usually as pre-
compiled binaries, for the various computer archs they support, including 
x86 (32-bit, aka i386 or i686 or similar), amd64 (aka x86_64), ia64 (aka 
itanic aka itanium), ppc32, ppc64, sparc, mips (el/bl), arm, etc.

As such, when KDE links to binary downloads for for a particular 
distribution, it's those that the distribution has provided.  KDE itself 
normally only provides the sources.  Thus, if you're looking for the 
binaries for a particular distribution and arch, you'd ask the 
distribution, not KDE.

OTOH, if you're looking for the sources, then yes, KDE provides those.  
Do note that as they come from kde, however, they might not fit quite as 
well with the way your distribution normally packages them.  For 
instance, I believe the default install location from upstream is /opt/
kde (it used to be, at least, I've not checked recently), tho it's easy 
enough to change that with a configure option.  Most distributions 
install it under /usr/ however, while a few install it under /usr/local/ 
or under /usr/kde/ or some such.

Getting the sources as pre-patched and configured by your distribution, 
you'd get them there, /from/ your distribution.  Getting them as kde 
ships them, that's what you get.  Now some people like it as close to 
what upstream ships as possible, perhaps only changing the install 
location and adding patches already applied to upstream trunk.  If that's 
not what their distribution provides, they may find it easiest to get 
their sources direct from upstream, possibly setting up a script to 
install them to the appropriate location, etc.  Basically, that's what 
Gentoo (my distribution of choice) does, as it does try to keep as close 
to upstream as possible, only changing install location, etc, and making 
the minimal changes necessary to fit in and work smoothly with the rest 
of the distribution.  Others may prefer the "cooked" sources their 
distribution supplies, even when they /do/ compile from source.  (Maybe 
Gentoo could be called "lightly cooked.  Of course, one of Gentoo's 
defining characteristics is that it's compiled from source. =:^).  It's 
their choice, of course, and you can get your sources direct from kde, or 
from your distribution, Debian it would appear to be, in your case.

Hopefully that sets up the background well enough for you to at least 
decide whether you want to grab the kde "upstream" sources, or Debian's 
distribution sources, or wait for the Debian binaries.  In any case, it 
remains your choice. =:^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman