A sample journey when trying to install software:

  • Try your distros repos, it’s either not there or an older version
  • Oh wait, you need to add their repo to your list and try again
  • Actually, they don’t have a repo, but you can install this deb/rpm from their site
  • Nevermind, it actually needs to be installed with pip to get the latest version
  • Or wait, it was actually a rust package and needs cargo
  • Well, this package is available as a snap
  • Screw it, I’ll just build it from source…. Except the dependencies I need take me through the entire journey again

It’s crazy with a large package like mesa. It uses meson, which requires it be installed via pip, and also needs rust which is best installed via a snap, but then there are dependencies it needs that require multiple paths…

On Windows: find the msi or exe and be done with it.

  • one_knight_scripting@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    I recommend learning about Arch… Hear me out…

    Arch is rolling release, I get it, it’s a little more unstable than what sounds very much like Debian. I solve this using btrfs and snapper. Makes it take a snapshots every hour automatically, and also takes a snapshot before and after package updates. I had to use it once, but that was an issue with QT updates which required me to rebuild some software(end-4 hyprland/quickshell). Which leads me into the next part.

    The Arch user repository. Ultimately this is just a git instant for users sharing code. But there is also a command line till for it to make it even easier. That tool is yay. Yay will automatically handle all build dependencies and removing them if needed once the build is complete. I primarily use the AUR for building things in to last to do myself, like linux-cachyos. Such a tool would be quite beneficial to you on any distribution and while I’ve heard of it being used on something like Fedora, I haven’t heard of it on Debian.

    • Shayeta@feddit.orgEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      My setup is similar. Unfortunately the docs on how to set up partitions in an opensuse-style layout that will work with snapper are really lackluster. Had to piece together a number of different tutorials and blogposts.

      Wish the install guide under partitioning had a section on common use-cases and their implementation.