Can't update to latest evince in Centos 6

rootaccess · 10-29-2012, 03:32 PM

Why is it that you can never download the latest version of anything in Centos? Are they really paranoid about security? Come on, its evince, I doubt someone is going to throw a buffer overflow exploit on something like evince that isn't even a service. Maybe if it was the latest apache I could understand.

The reason I want the latest version is so that I can invert the colors on the screen to save me from that blinding white screen there is.

I see that on the debian side, things aren't as problematic. I am using centos because I am studying to be a RH administrator (not even sure If I want to do that anymore if I have to spend hours on something as simple as being able to invert colors on my screen). How are centos/RH administrators supposed to make their lives easier when you can't have some of the latest software with the latest bugs fixed?

Shawn

snowday · 10-29-2012, 03:36 PM

what steps have you taken so far, and what were the exact error messages? (copy & paste)

rootaccess · 10-29-2012, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowpine

what steps have you taken so far, and what were the exact error messages? (copy & paste)

I just simply want to install the latest evince. For me, that wont work as centos won't update past 'evince-2.28.2-14.el6_0.1.i686'

I looked up the inverted colors that was fixed and updated for version 2.29 available for Debian.

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=423119

And here is an image reflecting that
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjmarin/4115400873/

Why can't I get this latest version on my centos? I went as far as downloading the .deb file and even 'yum installed dpkg' and am strongly considering running 'dpkg-deb -x evince-2.29*.deb' at this point.

rootaccess · 10-29-2012, 03:47 PM

Basically, Centos does not install the latest version
I queried the repos with 'yum list evince' and just returns version 2.28 and I know there is even a 3.2 out there now.

snowday · 10-29-2012, 03:58 PM

You can always get the latest Evince from the Gnome website: https://live.gnome.org/Evince/GettingEvince

But you must satisfy dependencies and I think this is where you might run into problems.

CentOS is built on Red Hat, and Red Hat doesn't want to give their high-paying customers problems; they want their expensive product to be stable and hassle-free. So this is why they don't automatically upgrade their repositories to an application that will cause problems for users. Hope that helps you to understand the CentOS philosophy and the reason why they have older software that lacks a newer feature (but is very well tested and does not cause problems for the majority of paying Red Hat customers).

rootaccess · 10-29-2012, 05:38 PM

i tried to download the packages, the tar packages and those failed too. its costing me too much of my time, and not worth me investigating it anymore. i tried to ./configure, had issues, so i installed gcc, next thing you know this comes up:

Code:

checking for SHELL_CORE... configure: error: Package requirements (libxml-2.0 >= 2.5.0 gtk+-2.0 >= 2.14.0 gio-2.0 >= 2.18.0 gthread-2.0 gnome-icon-theme >= 2.17.1) were not met:

No package 'libxml-2.0' found

Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
installed software in a non-standard prefix.

Alternatively, you may set the environment variables SHELL_CORE_CFLAGS
and SHELL_CORE_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
See the pkg-config man page for more details.

makes me wonder why i have centos installed. i wish there werent all these different distros of linux. linux would have been alot better if it was just a solid hardcore debian, and for unix, maybe just straight freeBSD. such a headache. these are the kinds of things that piss me off and give me a headache.

people take stability too serious. it isnt like the evince that debian released has problems or anything. i can see how it would make sense for apache or whatever. good lord, its EVINCE for crying out loud!

snowday · 10-29-2012, 06:19 PM

This underscores my earlier point. If the update causes "issues" then that is why Red Hat (and by extension CentOS) does not force the issue-causing update on their paying customers. They do not want to give their customers a headache now do they?

rootaccess · 10-29-2012, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowpine

This underscores my earlier point. If the update causes "issues" then that is why Red Hat (and by extension CentOS) does not force the issue-causing update on their paying customers. They do not want to give their customers a headache now do they?

That isn't exactly true. You see, if they made the 2.29.3 available with the updated features in the yum repos, then there would never be a headache, now would there?

snowday · 10-29-2012, 07:11 PM

Are you their paying customer, and if so, have you called them and asked for help?

rootaccess · 10-29-2012, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowpine

Are you their paying customer, and if so, have you called them and asked for help?

I'm using Centos 6, I guess I mentioned I was learning RH to be a RHCE but no this isn't redhat that I am actually using. I am however a student at one of their Red Hat Academies so I have full access to it but I don't think I'm going to bother with wasting my time for something like evince. I'll just let it go, I have a zillion other things to work on. Guess Ill just have to do with a white background. Xpdf does invert but its slow and white letters on black is just as bad. I use gray letters on black or dark gray preferably.

John VV · 10-29-2012, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Why is it that you can never download the latest version of anything in Centos?

because that is NOT how RedHat RHEL and CentOS operate

it is a VERY VERY VERY Conservative operating system
and one that is VERY VERY STABLE
and THAT is why one uses RHEL
It is NOT for " the NEWEST " software

for that use the research and Development - testing OS Fedora 17 ( soon to be 18)
or
ArchLinux

you also DO NOT put fedora and normally do not put arch on a WORKING server
they are WAY TOO UNSTABLE

sense i installed CentOS 5.2 ( i am now at ScientificLinux6.3 ) way back when i have ONLY had "1" "ONE" and "ONLY ONE" crash
and that was 100% MY fault
so in 7 versions of cent/SL one crash

in fedora -- i lost count on the FIRST of the 7 versions i installed

on OpenSUSE 11.4 i lost count of the times Gnome crashed ( 12.1 is better but now it is a hardware mount bug )

THAT is WHY one uses RHEL
it is VERY stable !!!

rootaccess · 10-30-2012, 12:50 AM

I understand that RHEL should definitely be stable and their admins shouldnt have to worry about petty things like inverting colors, but this is CentOS, which, although identical to RHEL, doesn't have to act exactly like RHEL. If people want stability, RHEL is there, but CentOS should be close to RHEL, not exactly identical. Whats the deal with not releasing the latest evince, a security issue? Come on, really. That's what RHEL is for.

chrism01 · 10-30-2012, 01:31 AM

Centos is a free rebuild of RHEL; that's why....

rootaccess · 10-30-2012, 01:36 AM

That doesnt really make sense because RH doesnt use EPEL, ATRPMs, or Centos Base for their repos. They have their own. These 3rd part repos for CentOS can have a mind of their own, too.

John VV · 10-30-2012, 01:46 AM

different operating systems are targeted at particular uses and users
Fedora is targeted at " the tinkerer "
the suse group ( opensuse,SELS & SELD) more at the office
BUT also in some labs ( the Stanford Univ.particle accelerator computer lab ADMINISTRATOR uses opensuse in the office )

RHEL the server and office

then the Debian camp
Ubuntu - the new'ish linux user to the long time user
Debian stable
- the SERVER and is NOT as conservative as red hat is
As i recall the new york stock ex replaced a IBM mainframe with a Debian cluster ( or slack - one of the two )
and so on

different NEEDS
there is a different distro for that