USE flags question

cyborat · n00b Joined: 25 Jun 2004 Posts: 11

Forgive me for beeing such a newbie dork...

I got to the point of the install where you pick your USE flags, and I figured I'd pick more extensively later. So, I just used the ones they listed, but I included both Gnome and KDE, unlike the example in the install manual. Then, I went ahead to the next step and did emerge gentoo-sources. This brings 2 questions up:

1) Is it ok that I didn't pick all flags now, or should I start over? I think I'm fuzzy as to when I should go through and pick everything I'm going to be using, so I have an inclusive USE variable set up. I realize I can update these flags later, but I'm not sure what to set them to during my initiall install.

2) Is it bad that I want to have the option to use both Gnome and KDE? Maybe I've been spoiled on other flavors of linux, but I like to keep an eye on what each environment is up to as they keep getting updated - BUT - please let me know if it's just too much for a newbie to figure out how to get the system to give me both options.

Thanks in advance - I'm feeling like I'm going from looking for the easiest Graphical install to a very complex setup. I want to learn it, mind you... but I'm just afraid I'll FOOBAR the whole thing ROFL! Hey, at least I've gotten this far! Now, if I can only get the new Transgaming system running nicely...

_________________
"Ni!"

Um - note to self - don't do:

LeTene · Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 2:52 pm Post subject:

Very quickly:

1) yes, it's OK to just leave out the USE flags for the moment (set them to USE=""). When you have installed the gentoo base system i.e. you can boot your box to a nice text console login, and are ready to emerge a graphical window system & all the apps you want - then start worrying about the USE flags.

2) Nope, it's not bad! The choice is yours - install as much/little in the way of desktop environments as you want. If you install Gnome & KDE you can use one of their login managers, the GDM variant is easiest to install in my opinion (there is separate gentoo documentation on installing Gnome/KDE and it's mentioned at the end of the install handbook).
_________________
Docs, Tips & Tricks at the Gentoo Wiki page.

chevron · n00b Joined: 20 Jun 2004 Posts: 5

Ok, I will try and answer these questions to the best of my ability.

1) Its your choice. But when you get to the part where you emerge packages, the packages mentioned require HUGE dependencies. So the USE variable can be used to disallow certain packages from being emerged. Like "emu10k1", emerging this package would also emerge GTK, which will emerge X and so on. All together it is about 17 packages. So, if you have the time (make a sandwich, watch TV) you can emerge the entire package.

To check which packages will be emerged, type

cyborat · n00b Joined: 25 Jun 2004 Posts: 11

That is great!

One more question (for now) would be - How well does Gentoo handle new hardware? When I install new hardware, does it auto-detect stuff similarly to Kudzu? And I assume the drivers for my hardware (vid-card etc) all get updated with a sync?

Man, can't wait to get off work today, so I can go get more Gentoo installed (left it waiting for me)! If I can get this system running like I want, and the new Transgaming engine truly plays at least most of my games, I forsee my Windoze partition getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller, until >POP< just like Pacman!

=)
_________________
"Ni!"

Um - note to self - don't do:

jkt · Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 3:21 pm Post subject: Re: Thanks!!!!

jkt · Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 3:24 pm Post subject:

one more thing - if you're tweaking USE flags, do it once. USE flags affect features supported by your software. don't add kde flag without others that you're going to use, that will result in nedd to recompiling.