I'm a bit confused.

[flamebot]

I am a little confused about all the extra stuff you need to do or check whenever you run emerge. Things like etc-update, modules-update, masking, make modules, etc.

How do I know if I have to run make modules modules_install to install something?

Where is good comprehensive documentation about building and/or installing programs and the different ways that this can be done?

Is there a log file that is created when running emerge that logs all the instructions that flash by on the screen? Maybe I need to redirect the output to a logfile mabye? What is the best way to do this?

Thanks

[BiggJ]

Not sure about the rest, but make modules modules_install are kernel commands and shouldn't have anything to do with emerge.

However, I am a n00b, so feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Only docs I have found and used so far are:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-install.xml

and this forum.

I used etc-update and modules-update while going through the doc above, but haven't seen another use for it.

man emerge has some good info on using emerge, including emerge search package which I have used quite a bit.

-BiggJ

[manywele]

The only thing you should have to do for most packages is check the config files you might need to update. Follow the directions in emerge --help config, stay away from etc-update and any auto-updating of your config files, and learn how to use the diff command (really easy), i.e.

[flamebot]

Great! Thanks a bunch guys.

I have read the portage user and manual, but they just don't explain things that could go wrong or how to prepare yourself to keep from breaking things.

See I just updated my system (emerge -u system) and then I did etc-config and it gave me an option for 1 2 or 3 and it replaced my rc.conf and fstab with default ones and hosed me all up. It took me forever to figure it out.

What are a couple of linux books that would help on understanding program locations, configurations, kernel compiling and options and that kind of stuff?

[manywele]

[flamebot]

Well carp! It jacked my rc.conf... ok I fixed it, and kde comes up, but Quake3 starts with a black screen and it takes about a minute for it to come up... and the hard drive light is not flashing... so now what?

[flamebot]

Hmmm when I start Quake3 my other windows computer flashes a IP address conflict with another system on the network thing on the system tray.

That must be why it's thinking. What configuration files do I need to look at for that? Maybe it is hard coding the IP and dhcp ain't working eh?

EDIT: Oh dhcpcd eth0 is a nice command! Does it write the fact that you want to do dhcp in a file someplace when you use that command? Or am I just using the last IP that was assigned each time I boot?

[manywele]

Don't quote me on networking stuff but AFAIK - dhcp tries to assign the last IP address you had, if it can't renew the lease it gets you a new one. If you keep your computer on for long periods of time it can dump your current IP address and you have to restart dhcp to get a new one.

If you're not automatically online when you reboot try putting iface_eth0="dhcp" in /etc/conf.d/net. Or put dhcpcd eth0 into local.start. The first should work and be nicer though.

[flamebot]

oh yeah... i remeber now... the /etc/conf.d/net file is the ticket.

i was looking at some of those other files in conf.d and don't even know if I should be concerned with any of them or not?

[flamebot]

Well updating the system did something good I guess, because before when I booted up, I had this block of lines that were real bright white that rolled up the screen during the boot process. I didn't remember seeing anything of an obvious error listed in the block, but it's gone and I boot faster now.

Some kind of crazy Voodoo going on!

[manywele]

Not unless something's not working the way it should. They're small files though. Look around and familiarise yourself with things. Then when something breaks you can say "Oh, yeah. I saw that somewhere. Now where the hell was it?" and then go searching all through /etc again.

[flamebot]

So are all the config files in /etc or /etc/* or can there be any other ones hiding someplace else?

There is a /etc/conf.d/usb file with a line that is commented out and it says I probably want to enable it. It's X11_USBMICE_HACK=true

I have a usbmouse and it *seems* to be working ok...

Thanks

[manywele]

Most of the global config files are in /etc. Some few weird programs keep them in their own directories. Your home directory has lots of hidden config files which are local for that user. I feel like I'm forgetting something else obvious but I don't know what.

Don't know anything about USB. Still stuck in the PS/2 age. Uncomment it and see what happens. If it breaks anything at least you know where to look first.

[flamebot]

I uncommented it and it still works the same.

I apparetly broke either file permissions or changed my user login because I get popups as a user in KDE that says error initializing sound and alsa. But it works ok if I am logged in as root.

Thanks I am all lined out now.

[manywele]

Hehe. I don't use KDE. I'm an fvwm fanatic myself. But I've seen that error across distros so many times. Search anywhere for it and you'll find an answer. Maybe check permissions on /dev/dsp, /dev/dsp0 and/or /dev/sound/dsp. /dev/dsp should be a simlink to something. And make sure you're in the audio group of course.

[xentric]