sabayon firefox emerge SLOW

pixellany · 11-25-2007, 07:28 PM

I have just been playing "looky-loo" with Sabayon 3.4e

After "syncing up" the package manager, I entered "emerge mozilla-firefox" and went to get a cup of coffee.

OK, so maybe it won't be done in 5 minutes......check in to LQ on the laptop, play a few games--all the while watching the install process with one eye.

It finally finishes AFTER ~ 1 HOUR My first reaction is "you've got to be kidding!!!!!", but then I know someone here will have more sober and rational words...........

Seriously, anyone know what's going on?

pixellany · 11-26-2007, 12:49 AM

"emerge scribus" also took a very long time---maybe ~1/2 hour.

Does anyone know of a package that installs quickly?---to help me get a handle on what is happening.

dguitar · 11-26-2007, 04:39 PM

I'm assuming you've never used Gentoo or one of it's offspring...

Emerge can take a really long time...

I'm not a Gentoo/Sabayon user but basically emerge takes a long time, so it can be customized for your system, thus it will run faster.

Firefox is a HUGE program, so it would make sense to take a long time. You aren't installing it from a package, you are building it from source.

pixellany · 11-26-2007, 05:45 PM

Quote:

I'm assuming you've never used Gentoo or one of it's offspring..

Once--briefly. But no memory of this issue.

What I hear you saying is:
IF one's system is fully optimized, then by taking 30-60 minutes to install (compile) something, one can shave ((a few seconds??)) off the time taken for certain routine tasks.

My hunch is that--for most people--the time to break even is somewhat beyond their attention span.....

I would also conclude that a user of a Gentoo or similar system will benefit from a REALLY FAST computer.

dguitar · 11-26-2007, 09:50 PM

It may seem like not much, but based on what I've always heard from Gentoo users, it's worth it. Esp for apps like Firefox or OOo.

To each their own I always say.

BlueJayofEvil · 12-05-2007, 03:53 PM

As others have stated, it's slow because it's compiling from source. The larger the program, the longer it will take. Luckily, there are some binaries of certain programs you can install that work just as well and take less time to install.
For Firefox, you can emerge the package mozilla-firefox-bin. As the "bin" indicates, it is a binary package (meaning pre-compiled). OpenOffice.org similarly has a binary you can emerge.

Portage is a powerful tool, but patience is often required.