Ipkg-link Why?

[JohnKiniston]

Playing with my Z today I ended up installing a bunch of java ipks that I wanted to try and ended up running low on space in / due to all the linking of packages going on.

This made me stop and ask Why do we have to link everything?

Is this just because thats how it was done with the sharp rom? Is this to make things backwards compatible with QT/Embedded ? Does OPIE just require everything to live in /opt/QtPalmtop/xxx ?

Why cant we have software that lives happily un-linked on our external media? Couldnt we modify the search paths of OPIE or something similar if that's the only reason we do all this linking?

[lardman]

What you propose would be possible, but you'd also need to alter the value of the PATH envvar every time external media was inserted (not a major issue admittedly), so that things installed to /mnt/cf/usr/bin (etc.) would be picked up.

I don't know why it's done this way (though I imagine some apps need to be in /usr/local/whatever and won't accept living elsewhere which might be one reason), perhaps a question for the openzaurus-users/devel mailing list.


Si

[lardman]

After browsing the openzaurus-* mailing lists I see talk of moving to unionfs eventually. I don't know how it works, but kergoth was talking about it removing the need for symlinks all over the place.

Might be worth taking a look at it.


Si

[Cwiiis]

If there are any adventurous OE users out there, try building an image with task-bootstrap-unionroot instead of task-bootstrap - unionfs + the scripts need a little work before this will work properly though...

[systemparadox]

i've started a thread on linuxquestions.org about transparent (or semi-transparent) mounts, mainly for this purpose. Apparently it is possible to use bind mounts. Still checking things out- will get back to you if I find anything.

[talmage]

What you propose would be possible, but you'd also need to alter the value of the PATH envvar every time external media was inserted (not a major issue admittedly), so that things installed to /mnt/cf/usr/bin (etc.) would be picked up.

Why change PATH every time you mount new media?  As long as you follow the convention of installing to ${MEDIAROOT}/packages, you can predict the directories that have to be in PATH.  Just append them to the end of PATH once.  E.g. If you have a bunch of SD cards with apps on them, add /media/card/packages/opt/QtPalmtop/bin to PATH.

I'm guessing, but couldn't you add nearly the same information to /etc/ld.so.conf?  E.g. for the SD cards, add /media/card/packages/opt/QtPalmtop/lib to /etc/ld.so.conf.

Is that enough to make Opie find everything?

[lardman]

Might work, try it.

Opie also looks for files in fixed locations, so pics and other odds & sods though.


Si

[talmage]

Well, I tried it.  The results were mixed.  You can edit LD_LIBRARY_PATH in /etc/init.d/opie.  You can edit PATH in /etc/init.d/opie and /etc/profile.d/opie_defaults.  Reboot OZ and Opie won't find applications on PATH.  You can start those apps in a shell but they don't get any of their icons and other shiny bits.

I see now that lardman is right.  Opie expects pictures and such in one place.  What a shame.

The answer is either to change Opie so it looks in a PATH-like environment variable for pictures and what not or to use that unionfs mentioned above.

[lpotter]

Sounds like Opie needs a port of Qtopia's 'qtopiapaths'.