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Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Hi Forum :-)

I just successfully migrated my Notebook from Gentoo to Artix/OpenRC. This was surprinigly easy, and Artix looks really great! Thanks for your work, Artix devs, it's really cool that there are some sane people other than Gentoo's who use a decent init system ;-)

However, I noticed one really important package to be missing in Artix's official repository: Rdiff-backup. This is such an important and convenient backup program, and I was surprised to not find it here … I was able to install it after adding Arch's Community repo however, but I think this really should be in the official repo.

So here's my question: Is it possible to request the addition of such a package? Or to make a contribution to help Artix grow? How can I do it?

I also had to add some pieces of software manually: Brother's genml1 printer driver (including the CUPS wrapper) and the brscan3 driver. I created a package based on what Gentoo's ebuilds for those do (which also was surprisingly easy ;-) and they work fine. Now those two are probably a bit more special; even Gentoo does not provide them via Portage (Gentoo's official package repo), but via an overlay.

What about such packages? Is there a way to do a contribution?

Another package I missed (I didn't do anything about this yet) is xsane – it's old and looks like 90's stuff, but I think it's still some kind of standard program for scanning. Is there some convenient way to get it (apart from creating an own package or compiling it manually)?

Thanks for all help, and thanks again for Artix :-)

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #1 –
xsane will eventually make it as it is their stated intent to bring packages from arch repos to artix.  for now read this and add arch repos to the end of /etc/pacman.conf.  You may want to add some of the other artix repos also but maybe not gremlins... 

https://wiki.artixlinux.org/Main/Repositories

xsane is in the arch extra repo and is a great little program that i have used previously a lot but not currently. 

Welcome to Artix!

Cat Herders of Linux

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: l3u – on
Hi Forum :-)

I just successfully migrated my Notebook from Gentoo to Artix/OpenRC. This was surprinigly easy, and Artix looks really great! Thanks for your work, Artix devs, it's really cool that there are some sane people other than Gentoo's who use a decent init system ;-)

However, I noticed one really important package to be missing in Artix's official repository: Rdiff-backup. This is such an important and convenient backup program, and I was surprised to not find it here … I was able to install it after adding Arch's Community repo however, but I think this really should be in the official repo.

So here's my question: Is it possible to request the addition of such a package? Or to make a contribution to help Artix grow? How can I do it?

I also had to add some pieces of software manually: Brother's genml1 printer driver (including the CUPS wrapper) and the brscan3 driver. I created a package based on what Gentoo's ebuilds for those do (which also was surprisingly easy ;-) and they work fine. Now those two are probably a bit more special; even Gentoo does not provide them via Portage (Gentoo's official package repo), but via an overlay.

What about such packages? Is there a way to do a contribution?

Another package I missed (I didn't do anything about this yet) is xsane – it's old and looks like 90's stuff, but I think it's still some kind of standard program for scanning. Is there some convenient way to get it (apart from creating an own package or compiling it manually)?

Thanks for all help, and thanks again for Artix :-)
>>I was able to install it after adding Arch's Community repo however, but I think this really should be in the official repo.

It doesn't have to.

Pkgs in the Artix repos really should be the base software and the essential ones, the gaps are filled with Arch repos.

There's simply too many software in the Arch repos to be added to Artix repos, not to mention each of these packages needs a maintainer.

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #3 –
Quote from: l3u – on
What about such packages? Is there a way to do a contribution?
Only if you join the team. However, most packages not present in our repos should work just fine straight from Arch.

Quote from: l3u – on
Another package I missed (I didn't do anything about this yet) is xsane – it's old and looks like 90's stuff
gscan2pdf is quite a good and modern alternative.

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Lancia – on
Pkgs in the Artix repos really should be the base software and the essential ones, the gaps are filled with Arch repos.

Ah okay, so actually, it's the common/wanted approach to use the Arch packages? Okay, I got that wrong. Then I'll read through the "Repositories" wiki page and see how far I can get.

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: l3u – on
Ah okay, so actually, it's the common/wanted approach to use the Arch packages? Okay, I got that wrong.
I don't think you did get it wrong ?
The Arch repo's used to be available by default in Artix. This was changed to the current situation where you have to add them if needed. But I don't think this is either 'wanted' nor 'expected'. But the fact is for many users it remains necessary if said users need a package which hasn't made it across to Artix yet.

skanlite is another scanner program, QT based. Looks nicer than xsane but not as many features. I use both.


  
 

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: gripped – on
I don't think you did get it wrong ?
The Arch repo's used to be available by default in Artix. This was changed to the current situation where you have to add them if needed. But I don't think this is either 'wanted' nor 'expected'. But the fact is for many users it remains necessary if said users need a package which hasn't made it across to Artix yet.

skanlite is another scanner program, QT based. Looks nicer than xsane but not as many features. I use both.
  

>>The Arch repo's used to be available by default in Artix. This was changed to the current situation where you have to add them if needed.

Why did it change?

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #8 –
Those packages are all available, with an AUR helper and the Arch repos enabled:
Code: [Select]
$ pakku -Ss genml1
aur/brother-brgenml1 3.1.0_1-3 [31 / 0.000082]
    LPR and CUPS driver for various Brother DCP, HL and MFC models.
$ pakku -Ss brscan3
aur/brscan3 0.2.13_1-9 [70 / 0.003632]
    Brother SANE drivers for brscan3-compatible models
$ pakku -Ss xsane
extra/xsane 0.999-5
    A GTK-based X11 frontend for SANE and plugin for Gimp.
extra/xsane-gimp 0.999-5
    XSane Gimp plugin
aur/xsane-gimp-git 0.999.r89.gfee5f42-1 [1 / 0.000000]
    XSane Gimp plugin. Git version.
aur/xsane-git 0.999.r89.gfee5f42-1 [1 / 0.000000]
    A GTK-based X11 frontend for SANE and plugin for Gimp. Git version.
aur/xsane-xrandr 1.0-0 [0 / 0.000000]
    Utility script to create and manage user defined monitors
aur/xsane2tess 1.0-12 [1 / 0.000000]
    Script for OCR with tesseract and xsane
$ pakku -Ss rdiff-backup
community/rdiff-backup 2.0.5-3
    A utility for local/remote mirroring and incremental backups.
aur/rdiff-backup-devel 1.3.3-2 [9 / 0.000000]
    A utility for local/remote mirroring and incremental backups
aur/rdiff-backup-fs 1.0.0-2 [0 / 0.000000]
    A FUSE filesystem for accessing rdiff-backup archives.
aur/rdiffweb 0.10.4-1 [3 / 0.000000]
    Web interface for browsing and restoring from rdiff-backup repositories.
aur/safekeep 1.5.1-1 [14 / 0.000000]
    A client/server backup system which enhances the power of rdiff-backup

There are also numerous other community repos you can enable - hundreds of them or something like that! But every time you update, you have to get the latest package list, you might notice, which causes a delay, so you won't want repos you don't use, same thing with multilib / lib32 repos.

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #9 –
The delay you get for syncing 50 repositories here happens in the twinkling of an eye if you come from Gentoo :-P ;-)

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #10 –
Quote from: Lancia – on
Why did it change?

Because they aren't necessary to run your system so they have been made optional.

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #11 –
Most probably, as a Gentoo user, you're a bit spoiled because Portage does contain a lot of packages. However, I was surprised how easy it was to add custom packages, without having to setup a local repository or such.

Regardless of that I think that rdiff-backup and xsane should be there using the default installation. But that's only my opinion …

The Brother stuff is too special, that doesn't need to be in a default repository. Esp. when it's so easy to install it manually using a custom package.

I'll have a look at AUR tough.

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #12 –
Quote from: l3u – on
Most probably, as a Gentoo user, you're a bit spoiled because Portage does contain a lot of packages. However, I was surprised how easy it was to add custom packages, without having to setup a local repository or such.

Regardless of that I think that rdiff-backup and xsane should be there using the default installation. But that's only my opinion …

The Brother stuff is too special, that doesn't need to be in a default repository. Esp. when it's so easy to install it manually using a custom package.

I'll have a look at AUR tough.

Maybe one day.  Artix hasn't been around as long as gentoo...
Cat Herders of Linux

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #13 –
Quote from: l3u – on

Regardless of that I think that rdiff-backup and xsane should be there using the default installation. But that's only my opinion …


I haven't tried the two proposed alternatives to xsane yet, but so far I haven't found anything more practical.
And its vintage look pleases me a lot.  8)

Re: Missing packages – can a request to add them be filed?

Reply #14 –
Maybe one day these packages will appear in the supported repos, but I have added skanlite, xsane and rdiff-backup to omniverse for now.
artist