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(re)Building X on Debian 9

Posted: 2020-05-18 11:00
by k829king
any guidance on how I would go about rebuilding X on Debian 9 ?

At moment I am just trying to build, once I can do that I have some patches to apply and want to rebuild.

I've tried following instructions from including some alleged Debian specific steps
https://www.x.org/wiki/Development/BuildingX/
but it fails complaining about not finding ./autogen.sh in the git cloned folder.

Re: (re)Building X on Debian 9

Posted: 2020-05-18 19:51
by Head_on_a_Stick
k829king wrote:I have some patches to apply
What are the patches for? Why do you think you need to rebuild X? This sounds like an XY problem.

To patch a Debian package download the source, apply the patch and run

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dpkg-source --commit # needs the dpkg-dev package
debuild -us -uc # needs the devscripts package
Then install the modified .deb package. No need to compile stuff from scratch.
k829king wrote:it fails complaining about not finding ./autogen.sh in the git cloned folder
You should post the full error message rather than a vague description, it's easier for you and less confusing for us. Also post the exact command(s) that you used so that we can spot any mistakes.

Re: (re)Building X on Debian 9

Posted: 2020-05-19 01:08
by cuckooflew
Also maybe use 'pwd' and show what directory you are in when you run the command,...Is the ./autogen.sh file in the directory it should be in ?

Re: (re)Building X on Debian 9

Posted: 2020-05-19 09:42
by k829king
What are the patches for?
To support (older) USB to VGA adapters
Why do you think you need to rebuild X?
Because that was an answer from an XOrg mailing list contributor
This sounds like an XY problem
What does that mean?
You should post the full error message rather than a vague description
bash: ./autogen.sh: No such file or directory

But you can forget this now as another Xorg mailing list contributor has volunteered
Both Mesa and libdrm have dropped autotools support in favour of meson.
obviously the doco on the XOrg site is out of date, and I have no idea how to use meson.....

But if I can rebuild from "Debian" source the Debian way as per link you have provided, I can hopefully achieve my aim. thankyou.

Re: (re)Building X on Debian 9

Posted: 2020-05-19 13:39
by cuckooflew

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bash: ./autogen.sh: No such file or directory
Usually this means what it says. either the file or directory is not there, or where it should be. Since you still do not show us the path you are using, and what directory you are running the command from, etc. not much I cans say.
k829king »But you can forget this now as another Xorg mailing list contributor has volunteered
Are you saying you don't need our help ? That is fine as well, good luck.
Oh, and :
H_O_A-S> This sounds like an XY problem</quote>


k829king »>>>What does that mean?
What is a xy problem ?
First hit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem
=====
second hit: http://xyproblem.info/

Re: (re)Building X on Debian 9

Posted: 2020-05-19 15:19
by k829king
What is a xy problem ?
First hit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem
Thankyou, not sure if I should be a little offended or not, but at least I am now a little more educated!
Are you saying you don't need our help ? That is fine as well, good luck.
Thankyou. As I said I had been following the instructions from the Xorg build documentation link, which subsequently proved to be inaccurate and or out of date.
As H_O_A-S has provided suggestion of how to achieve via using debian source, I will being trying that next.

Re: (re)Building X on Debian 9

Posted: 2020-05-19 17:08
by cuckooflew
Thankyou, not sure if I should be a little offended or not,
Your welcome, no, I don't think you should be offended, any way not intended to offend, but it should give you a better understanding of the term "xy" problem, and I don't think H_O_A_S intended to offend either, as he said " it looks like it MIGHT be a xy problem", maybe it is , maybe it isn't....
As H_O_A-S has provided suggestion of how to achieve via using debian source, I will being trying that next.
In any event, he can help you better then I can, I am really lousy at explaining something. .But I do agree, that is probably your best option, (using the Debian source).
=============================
Even though you no longer plan to use the github file/script, this may help you still , or also be of use in the future... Use code boxes, when showing the commands, and out put, it is hard for us to understand and see exactly what is happening when we can not see your terminal / console,...code boxes help: EG:

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bash: ./autogen.sh: No such file or directory
Is this:

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bash-5.0$ ./autogen.sh
bash: ./autogen.sh: No such file or directory
bash-5.0$ 
how you run the comand ?
(I get the same error)
So next , try this:

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bash-5.0$ ls -a autogen.sh
ls: autogen.sh: No such file or directory
bash-5.0$ pwd
/home/cuckoo
bash-5.0$  
As you can see, the file is not in this directory, so where is it ?
There are various ways to locate a file, I use the 'locate' command, others will perhaps suggest other commands that might be better...I am no expert with Linux and bash.
Anyway:

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ash-5.0$ locate autogen.sh
/home/cuckoo/github/autogen.sh
/usr/local/share/help/C/gnome-devel-demos/samples/hello-in-C/autogen.sh
/usr/local/share/help/C/gnome-devel-demos/samples/hello-in-js/autogen.sh
/usr/local/share/help/C/gnome-devel-demos/samples/hello-in-python/autogen.sh
/usr/local/share/help/C/gnome-devel-demos/samples/hello-in-vala/autogen.sh
---- snip -----
 
So I go to:

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bash-5.0$ cd /home/cuckoo/github/          
bash-5.0$ ls -a
.          ..         autogen.sh
bash-5.0$  
Ahh, great, it is here:

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bash-5.0$ ./autogen.sh
this is a example 

And it works. But if it did not work, we need to see the actual script, (not the one in the tutorial, but the one you tried to run and did not work)
So any way, here is is :
my "autogen.sh"

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echo this is a example
~
~
~
Hope this helps you or others, with understanding better how to show the details we need, and use code boxes.

Hope it works out