Hello Gentoo forum,

Is there a way to make Portage skip over the kde-base/kde-l10n language packs when installing or upgrading KDE (emerge kde-meta)? I speak only English so I do not need them. These language packs are 280 MB in size and it takes me 28 hours to download them since I only have a dial-up Internet connection.

Furthermore, why does Portage download them when the use flags for each individual language pack are turned off (below)?

kde-base/kde-l10n-4.3.3 [4.3.1] USE="handbook (-aqua) (-kdeprefix)" LINGUAS="-ar -bg -bn_IN -ca -cs -csb -da -de -el -en_GB -es -et -eu -fi -fr -ga -gl -gu -he -hi -hne -hr -hu -is -it -ja -kk -km -kn -ko -ku -lt -lv -mai -mk -ml -mr -nb -nds -nl -nn -pa -pl -pt -pt_BR -ro -ru -sk -sl -sr -sv -tg -th -tr -uk -wa -zh_CN -zh_TW" 0 kB

I do not knowingly have these use flags set anywhere on my system.

The problem *may* be because I am using "emerge kde-meta" which might explain why masking "kde-l10n" in package.mask will cause the operation to abort, saying it is a required package.

Using the LANGUAS= option in /etc/make.conf does not effect what is downloaded. It only effects what is installed.

Thank you in advance,
Roy

Why do you need to install them in the first place?
And afaik adding LINGUAS="en" in /etc/make.conf is enough, no need to additionally install any language pack if you don't need.
Try to mask the kde-base/kde-l10n-4.3.3 in package.mask and see what happens.

Hello rrrssssss,

as far as I can see it portage doesn't download any of this language-files since they all have a "-" sign and are therefore excluded. The "0kB" at the end of the language-listing in you post tells you that there will be nothing downloaded.

Another question is why you want to emerge the l10n-package if you don't need it. As far as I know this package makes only sense for poeple in not-english-speaking countries.

Markus

Thanks for the replies,

I put kde-base/kde-l10n in the package.mask file but got the message below when I ran "emerge kde-meta":

!!! All ebuilds that could satisfy ">=kde-base/kde-l10n-4.3.3[-kdeprefix]" have been masked.
!!! One of the following masked packages is required to complete your request:
- kde-base/kde-l10n-4.3.3 (masked by: package.mask)


Also, even though kde-base/kde-l10n says "0kb", it will still download each and every language pack because that is what happened when I installed KDE 4.3.1. As a matter of fact, there were dozens of packages that said "0kb" and it still downloaded the packages anyway.

I put LINGUAS="en_GB" in /etc/make.conf but portage is still downloading each and every language pack. I'm assuming "en_GB is English because I could not see anything for "en".

Anyone?

Thanks in advance,
Roy

UPDATE -----------
UPDATE --------------

Sorry, I spoke too soon when I said the packages with "0kb will download. If a package says "0kb, it will not download because it is part of one of the meta packages that have already downloaded. The only exception to the rule would be the kde-l10n language pack package and the only reason it downloads is because the nls use flag is enabled. See my last post where I corrected the problem.

I solved my problem.

A guy named VoidMage helped me in the official Gentoo forum.

I turned off the nls use flag (native language support) for the kde-meta package in /etc/portage/package.use (kde-base/kde-meta -nls)

Now I am just using the default en_US local. Now I don't have to wait 28 hours for all of the language packs to download using my dial-up connection.

All the best,
Roy