Re: pkgsrc should be more friendly in regards to X11

[Tobias Nygren <tnn%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

On Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:32:58 -0500 (CDT)
"Jeremy C. Reed" <reed%reedmedia.net@localhost> wrote:

> I have a Dell Latitude D610 with NetBSD/i386 4.0 and its native XFree86 
> 4.5.0. I don't want to waste more time with that old X. Its i810 is not 
> usable for me with its default configuration.
> 
> I am assuming that Xorg with its xf86-video-intel will do the right thing.
> 
> So I downloaded pkgsrc.tar.gz from NetBSD ftp site. Extracted and started 
> building x11/xf86-video-intel. (First error was lack of -E option for 
> pkg_info. I reported that in different email.)
> 
> Well I know I didn't have X11_TYPE defined, but many (probably over 15) 
> X.org packages were installed.
> 
> Then xkbcomp failed during its configuration -- couldn't find X. This is a 
> very common error if you see various pkgsrc/NetBSD forums.
> 
> pkgsrc should be more friendly.
> 
> xkbcomp should detect about its dependencies (within reason) before it 
> ever extracts its distfile.
> 
> What is the benefit of pkgsrc being constantly unfriendly related to X 
> builds over past couple years? We have had numerous and ongoing reports of 
> people failing (for example trying to install xpm) simply because they 
> don't know better.

In my opinion, the proper fix to guide users in the right direction is
to have pkgsrc/mk/platform/NetBSD.mk set X11_TYPE=modular by default for
NetBSD>=5.0 on i386 and amd64. Also, sysinst should advise against
installing xbase.tgz.

-Tobias