installing multiple desktop environments use flags how to.

[rupeshforu3]

Hi I am Rupesh from India and I brought a new desktop pc with ryzen 5500GT APU and Asus prime b450 motherboard and I installed gentoo linux successfully and even installed kde plasma desktop environment and gnome but I can't install any other software.

First I downloaded gentoo linux kde live iso and created usb installation media through dd in Arch Linux and booted into live environment and after that I downloaded gentoo stage 3 tar ball and after that I have created 40 gb xfs partition and extracted stage 3 into it.

I installed gentoo linux kernel-bin package and installed kde plasma desktop environment and gnome successfully and even booted into them.

I am the fan of Linux operating system and its desktop environments and so I tried to install other desktop environments like mate through the following command

sudo emerge mate

But I got many errors as use=”elogind systemd X..” required and so I created a new USE entry in /etc/portage/make.conf as

use=”elogind systemd X..”

After that I issued the command ”sudo emerge mate” but no use and I got the same error and so I searched web for elogind and found that it is an alternative to systemd and so I modified the use variable in make.conf as

use=”-elogind systemd X..”

This time I got error as use=”systemd X..” required so I searched web for gentoo mate and found use flags as

base, extra etc.,

So I have entered the following command

sudo echo "mate-base/mate +extra" >> /etc/portage/package.use/mate

Unfortunately I got error as permission denied.

So I created a new file /etc/portage/package.use/mate and entered the following

+extra

After that I have executed the following command

sudo emerge mate

This time I got error as atom +extra in /etc/portage/package.use/mate is unknown.

I removed + infront of extra but this time I got error as atom extra in etc/portage/package.use/mate is unknown.

Finally I issued the following command

USE=”+extra”

After that I issued the following command

sudo emerge mate

Unfortunately I got the same error as before ie.,

use=” systemd ...” required.


There's lot of confusion related to package management in gentoo linux.

I issued the following command to install kuroo

sudo emerge kuroo

I got error as kuroo is masked and so I issued command to unmask and after that I issued the same command as above but still I am getting the same error as kuroo is masked and even I ran the dispatch-conf but no use.

I providing the output of some commands which could be helpful.

[pjp]

[rupeshforu3]

Hi everything is working fine except I cant update my packages to latest version.

I am providing output of update command and emerge --info below

[rupeshforu3]

what are the required strings to use in USE variable so that I can update my system properly.
_________________
Regards,
Rupesh.

[rab0171610]

What happens when you add:

[rupeshforu3]

I added egl to USE in make.conf at present my USE in make.conf consists of

[rupeshforu3]

I cant add anything to /etc/portage/package.use because it is directory but not a file.
_________________
Regards,
Rupesh.

[rab0171610]

[rupeshforu3]

I modified USE variable in make.conf as USE="X systemd -elogind gtk -qt5"

At present update is running but I suspect packages requiring qt5 may not work properly.
_________________
Regards,
Rupesh.

[Hu]

Twice in this thread you have been told to make a per-package change using package.use, and you instead made that change globally in make.conf. Why are you applying these globally?

[pietinger]

Perhaps our new Gentoo user does not know that there are global settings for portage, as well as settings that only affect a specific package. The attempt by @rab0171610 to explain this may also have been confusing because he was talking about package.mask instead of package.use.

---

rupeshforu3,

by activating or deactivating use flags, you can control the scope/functionality of a package when it is created (compiled via emerge).

What you need to know:

1. The profile you have selected (“eselect profile list”) already activates some use-flags by default.

2. You can view all GLOBAL use-flag settings at any time with “emerge --info” (see the line USE=). So if you do not want to set any use flags globally with USE=... in your make.conf, you will still see some already set globally by the profile.

3. Some use flags are used by several packages. If you want to activate a use flag ONLY for a specific package, then you must activate it specifically for this package. You can do this by creating a file in the /etc/portage/package.use directory. The name of the file does not matter; however, it is recommended that you name the file so that you know later what is in it ... So: If you want to configure use flags for the package "clutter", then name the file "clutter" (/etc/portage/package.use/clutter). IN this file, write a line with the name of the package and then the use flags that you want to (additionally) activate or deactivate - example:

[logrusx]

[rupeshforu3]

I am using our gentoo Linux since two weeks only and I don't know anything about it before.

First I used USE variable at bash prompt like USE="egl" but there was no use after that I tried to write use flags to package.use but failed because it is a directory not a file.

I got annoyed and so finally I modified USE variable in make.conf.

At present all packages updated successfully and everything is working fine including kde.

From now onwards I will follow your suggestions strictly.

Thanks for your suggestions and patience.
_________________
Regards,
Rupesh.

[kimchi_sg]

[rab0171610]

rupeshforu3, I apologize for my typo. I indeed was trying to encourage you to manage your package.use file or directory, not package.mask. I corrected the incorrect previous post.