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Package management guide     Last Update: April 14th 2005

Onebase Linux supports both binary and source packages.

Optimization

If you have not already set the optimization settings, then first set it using command:

  • olm -o : For setting optimization

Installation

Now inorder to install binary or source packages from OL-apps. Note: Requires Internet Connection.

  • olm -h : For available install options

All the options are clearly listed with the specified information. What you need to do is just Type: olm and give the required option example -s and then the packname

packname can be kde, gnome, icewm, mozilla etc.. It should always be in lowercase letters.

  • olm -s packname : For source installation
  • olm -b packname : For binary installation

Searching

You can use the olm command for searching available applications. It includes category based searching for software.

  • olm -search category query : For searching software

Where category can be replaced by desktool develop games graphics network office security server sound system utils video x11. And query is your search keyword. Examples:

  • olm -search video xine : For searching xine in category video
  • olm -search video "" : For searching all apps in category video
  • olm -search all php : For searching php app in the whole OL-apps

Dependency tree terminology

This describes the notations present in the dependency tree which is generated before an olm installation.

  • (N) - Application already installed
  • (I) - Application to be newly installed
  • (U) - Application to be updated to a new version
  • (M) - Application that has been masked
  • [src] - Denotes source package, [bin] - Denotes binary package

Note: The dependency tree display is turned off by default, you can turn it on using Onebase Portal or by /OL-manage/settings/ol-var file - > oltrdisp variable.

Download mirror selection

There are mirrors enlisted for various websites in /OL-manage/settings/mirrors file. You can select your favourite mirror (close to your geographical location) for each website by entering it in the top of the list.
More information is available in the file itself.

Update gallery

It is highly recommended to perform regular updates to your gallery database using this command.

  • ol-apps -update : For updating your OL-apps gallery

Switch between Stable & Unstable repositories

You can switch between stable and unstable repos depending upon your choice. The stable repository is the recommended gallery for production and desktop use. While the unstable repo is useful for testing and experiancing the latest bleeding edge software fresh out in the server at your own risk.

Unstable repo is a pseudo gallery which means it can seemlessly depend upon its stable counterparts if it doesnt have its dependency in its repo.

  • ol-apps -repo : For switching between stable and unstable repos

Detailed information on these repos is provided by this command itself.

Log information

These are installation logs and are used only for information purposes. They are turned off by default so you can turn them 'on' using Onebase Portal or /OL-manage/settings/ol-var -> ollog variable.

/tmp/apps-query - Gives information about what are the packages that will be updated/installed for that .olm and their sizes. It can be generated seperatly as given in the olm -h command

/tmp/apps-down - Gives information on all the packages that were downloaded for this installation.

/tmp/apps-install - Gives information on all the packages that were installed for this application.

/tmp/apps-error - This log is created when a package fails to install. It will contain only 1 entry since the whole installation process will stop when such a problem occurs.

Source package masking

If you perform source installation often and want to avoid un-neccessary updates, then you can make use of this feature called source package masking.

For example: You have installed alsa-driver-1.0 in your system and later the alsa-driver in the OL-apps gallery updates to version 1.1. When you are installing a sound based software or library like xmms then along with it alsa-driver-1.1 gets installed. But you feel this alsa-driver-1.1 installation un-neccessary since you are satisfied with alsa-driver 1.0.

If you don't want to perform any alsa-driver updates upto verion 1.5, then in /OL-manage/settings/source.mask file enter: l-alsa-driver-l-1.5   Where 'l- -l' are delimiters of that packname.

Now if you install any sound application, alsa-driver does not update until it becomes version 1.5. Likewise more applications can be masked in the source.mask file. But be sure that you don't set very large version limiters and avoid masking major versions.

More examples:
l-hdparm-l-1.7
l-expat-l-1.2

Onebase Portal provides an easy interface for setting and managing source masks.

Interruption

If any interruption occurs during download or installation like a sudden power shutdown or a network failure do not worry as OLM can robustly resume from such problems. All you need to do is simply retype the installation command. That's it.

Pending commands

Regularly clean your workbox by making sure that you have no pending commands left. Pending commands are installations or downloads that you have stopped and did'nt continue the process to complete it.

  • olm -erase : For checking & erasing pending commands

Only if all such pending processes are erased or completed the /OL-manage/workbox/pkgfiles will be recreated, which is essential to save space and avoid problems.

Parallel downloads and installations

This means for example you open two consoles and in one console you type: olm -b kde and in other console you give: olm -b gimp then this is called parallel downloads or installations.

OLM has inbuilt support for such parallel processes as this is a multithread package manager. So you don't have to worry about clashing dependencies or any trouble for that matter.

Any number of parallel processes is supported. Some of its uses are, During compilation of one installation, you can start the download of the other. And it is quite helpful when a large system upgrade is being performed. Apart from these it can take full advantage of high-end processors and high-speed internet.

System update

You can perform whole system upgrades using the olm command itself. Simply replace the packname with system.

  • olm -b system : Binary system upgrade
  • olm -s system : Source system upgrade

Remember it may take a lot of time especially for source and it depends upon the number of packages to be updated

If you dont want certain packages to be updated when performing a System upgrade, then enter restricted for those applications in /OL-manage/pkgbase/group folder.

Failure notification

When a dependency or package has failed to download or install then you can generate a bug report inorder to report the problem to the Onebase Forums.

  • ol-apps -bugmode : For generating bug reports

You can also copy the failed application folder to any directory switching the /OL-manage/settings/ol-var file -> olbugcopy variable and set the directory to which should be copied using variable olbugdir and try issuing the make commands manually to check the error.

On such occurances you may need to wait for an unstipulated time until the gallery is rectified of this problem. And you have to update the gallery to have the fixes.

Application re-installation

If you are not satisfied with the performance or working of an application then you can re-install it using command:

  • olm -r [option] packname : For reinstalling an application

Where [option] can be -b or -s. Reinstallation is neccessary for certain plugins and kernel modules when their dependant software dir changes or for kernel update.

Application uninstallation

  • olm-ui : For uninstalling an application

This program has the capability to calculate reverse dependencies automatically and resolve it for you. Also a safe method option for uninstalling is present.

Global variables

These are evironment variables for OLM that can be tweaked to alter the settings. It is found in the /OL-manage/settings/ol-var file.

For example, if you dont want to strip packages off debug symbols then turn the value of sstrip from 1 to 0.

There is support for ccache and distcc in this ol-var file. Carefully read the instructions given for utilizing it.

Flat package install

This option is to install standalone Onebase binary packages that do not have .olm script associated with it. This situation arises only for commercial packages. For example, a company B, releases a Onebase binary package for its software. You can download that software (appname.x86.ol.pkg) and save it in any directory and execute this command in the directory of the package.

  • olm -flat packname.x86.ol.pkg : For installing a flat binary package (commercial)

Status of your install

If you want to know the status of one or many download or installation that you are performing the use this command.

  • olm -status : Know the status of your install

This command will report the progress of your installation or download and on how much more to go. This report will include about all olm processes that you are currently running.

Re-generate Symlinks

If you find an application corrupted for some reason, before reinstalling, you can try regenerating its system symlinks as this might solve the problem.

  • ol-apps -gensymlink : Re-generate symlinks of an application installed in /OL-apps folder

If you want to uninstall a application for reasons other than space, then you perform a fake uninstall using the following command

  • ol-apps -unsymlink : Remove symlinks of an application installed in /OL-apps folder

Choice of X server

Unlike other distributions there is a choice of your preferred X server. Though Xorg is our default X server, the latest version of Xfree86 is available. This comes as a result of the flexibleness of the OLM.

For those who need Xfree86 specifically, they can install it using this command:
olm -s | -b xfree86

However there is one clause, that if you want to avoid Xorg overriding xfree86 then you must always perform source installation. If you prefer source installations then it is no problem for you.

For the enterprise

Onebase Linux is also meant to serve as a powerful enterprise system. Hence OLM has been extended to support and satisfy the corporate needs.

ol-link

Say in a local network, you have 50 systems connected and administered by a single server. The first step in making use of this network OLM is to execute the ol-link command. By which you will setup all the clients to share their filesystem with the server temporarily.

  • ol-link : For NFS connection b/w OL machines

olm-share

This is a wrapper around the olm master program inorder to serve the enterprise. Using this, you can install a package in all the clients connected to the server (by ol-link) in a single command. This would save time and bandwidth by using a cental cache and distutils program.

You can perform an entire network upgrade of updating all the clients by replacing packname with network

  • olm-share -s | -b packname : To install software for all clients
  • olm-share -s | -b network : For updating an entire network

Automatic security updates

Security is a major criteria in any organization or company. So Onebase provides a seperate olm wrapper tool called olm-su for notifying the user or admin on the applications that require a security update as per his system.

  • olm-su : For checking & installing security updates

Conclusion

OLM also provides a suite of configuration tools to assist you on various purposes. For more information on them, Learn Configuration guide

Note: This guide is regularly updated.

  • olm -l : For complete command list of Onebase

Copyright © 2003-2005 Onebase Linux Project. All rights reserved.
This is an opensource project licensed under GPL and Onebase Agreement