fifo wrote:
I'd like to have a way where I can update and test patches without affecting my online server. Is there any way I can do this on linode? If so what are my alternatives?
When I previously used Gentoo/Linode I kept a i686 chroot'ed Gentoo environment on my home machine that I was fairly well synchronised with the state of my Linode.
I was then performed emerge {sync,update}; tweaked the package files; built all the required binary packages; uploaded them; and then upgraded the Linode with the uploaded binary packages.
You could I suppose, if you have a 1Gb to spare, set up a Gentoo chroot on your Linode (unpack a stage 3 tarball, then mount a shared portage tree from your primary Gentoo). Update the chrooted Gentoo (while building tarballs) and watch for stuff that breaks.
When everything has upgraded satisfactorily in the chroot, do an
emerge -uv world in your primary Gentoo and hopefully everything will install smoothly from the binary packages in the shared portage tree.
A third alternative (I used this as a workaround for hanging emerge syncs, blocking packages and things): I moved my Linode to Debian. There are plenty of other binary-based distros to choose from if you prefer others. Regular updates will then take minutes, not hours or days -- and as rule: upgrades won't break things.
HTH,
Cliff
PS. A dhcp client (you referred to this in a separate post) is required to create eth0. See:
https://www.linode.com/members/netinfo.cfm
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