gnome port confusion

[David Evans]

Bob Katz wrote:
> Hi 
>  I am completely new to this project. This is my problem : I have just
> set up a macports port system on my mac and after issuing the command
> " sudo port install gnome " the only thing that happens is the curser
> just flashes.
> The curser has been flashing now for over 1.5 hours.
>  
> Some background information - 2 days ago I invoked the "sudo port
> install gnome " and after about 10 -15 minutes it started to install
> and ultimately did install. For reasons that seemed good at the time I
> decided to reinstall macports and for about the last 24 hours I have
> tried to install gnome about 5-6 times and all I get is a flashing curser.
>
> I have run " sudo port selfupdate " and completes as it should. In
> addition to test my macports environment I installed gnome desktop
> backgrounds (a much smaller port ) it installed without a hitch. 
>
> Could someone out there possibly give me an idea what's going on here.
>
> Thanks - Bob
>
>
Well, first of all the gnome port more or less installs everything in
the current GNOME stable release (2.26.3 right now) that has been ported
to MacPorts and their dependencies.  For a detailed status of the GNOME
ports installed see

http://trac.macports.org/wiki/GNOMEPackageStatus

With all the dependencies and depending on which variants you selected
this can be upwards of 400 ports so it takes a while to install
from scratch (understatement).

However, from your email it looks like you did this once so the issue
appears possible that you haven't completely removed the first
install before doing the reinstall and that this is causing you some grief.

Without knowing more details, please make sure you have done everything
described here to remove the old installation

http://guide.macports.org/#installing.macports.uninstalling

before trying to install again.    You may want to use the -d option to
MacPorts to get a debug trace of what is going on.  This
may shed more light on your problem.

sudo port -d install gnome

or just install a part of the gnome big picture using one of the smaller
meta ports that are included in the overall gnome port

sudo port -d install gnome-platform-suite

So I hope this is a start for you.  If you can report back more details
about what is or is not happening (the debug trace) then
perhaps we can be of more help.

Cheers, Dave