On Fri, 12 Mar 2021 01:54:36 -0500
Rod Pemberton <nomailings@trgzxcqvbe.cpm> wrote:

> The only Linux software that's been giving me a serious problem lately
> are newer versions of the Mesa video drivers (post 19.0.8 version). I
> can't get them to compile with meson and ninja. The older configure
> script based versions compile cleanly, and with fewer package
> requirements. Meson and ninja seem to be working correctly for all
> of the projects that use them, except for Mesa. Meson and ninja
> required numerous additional software packages, like a couple dozen,
> to be compiled, when they were installed, e.g., dependency hell,
> circular-dependency hell, incorrect package requirements, ... And,
> meson and ninja required a few more additional packages to compile
> Mesa, which weren't required by the configure script versions of Mesa.
> At this point, I don't know if I mis-compiled something, incorrectly
> or incompletely installed something, or if something is simply
> missing. When using Linux From Scratch, I frequently have to adjust
> old links, manually remove older versions installed in different
> directories etc from where VLocity64 originally expected them.
> Maybe, once I become more familiar with meson and ninja, and their
> error messages and output logs, I'll be able to track down the issues
> more readily. At this point, I'd tried to get a half-dozen versions
> of Mesa, some older, some newer, to compile using meson and ninja,
> and it's a no-go. The trick of installing over an older version to
> pick up the missing configure scripts, didn't work either.
>

Well, I finally managed to get MESA updated a few weeks ago. I'm now
on Mesa 19.2.8. I found a bunch more libraries were missing, but
weren't flagged as such in the Meson/Ninja configure. Some code was
broken, i.e., coded for GTK2 not GTK3. One library version was up to
date according to Meson/Ninja configure, but was out-of-date. Etc.

It looks like I'll need to upgrade GCC to compile newer versions of LLVM
to compile more recent versions of MESA, unless I can convince recent
LLVM versions to compile with a just slightly out-of-date GCC version.

What I find to be absolutely amazing is that the last version of MESA
to support 'configure', which was also the first version to support
Meson/Ninja, compiled cleanly without the dozens of upgraded and
missing libraries needed by Meson/Ninja.

I also compiled my Linux kernel (3.18.16) for the first time to add
IPv6 support. I had already updated many IPv6 utilities, but missed a
few, and needed a few tweaks to config files. IPv6 is working except
for external IPv6 addresses. I suspect my router may be IPv4 only ...
I know the cable-modem is IPv6. It seems the Windows 10 machines here
also don't have external IPv6. I may have to direct connect one day to
test, or switch over the router to DHCP address instead of static for
this computer.

Since the kernel compiled cleanly and easily, I may attempt to compile
a newer kernel (4.4.76), before I migrate to a new SSD for Linux. This
is the last pre-packaged kernel for my Linux distro. I've found that
Slackware packages seem to work with VLocity (VectorLinux), which was
based upon Slackware. So, I may have another upgrade path now, besides
compiling from scratch with LFS and BLFS instructions.

--
The SALT deduction is a kickback of taxes to wealthy people in wealthy
states.