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64bit laptop and USE

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Kaiiserni
Tux's lil' helper

Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 121
Location: Antwerp - Belgium

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 7:41 pm Post subject: 64bit laptop and USE

Hello, I have a 64bit laptop and I wanted to know if Gentoo works fine on such laptop. I also want to know how important the USE-flags are if I just want to use Gentoo because of their great Package-database and their great 64bit support. I don't really care about tweaking everything. I just want to use KDE. Can I leave the USE-flags empty? or are ther important ones? And what packages are necessary to emerge on my laptop after install? the laptop: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/be/nl/ho/WF06b/22795-316147-499341-499341-499341-12090300-26994955.html (dutch site, sorry ) I just want everything to work wel on my 64bit laptop, but I only get lost in al those USE-flags. other tips are welcome to... Thank you, (I am a Belgian student, I try my best in English) _________________ Dell XPS M1330; Intel Core 2 Duo 1800 ; NV M 8400GS, 2 gig Gentoo x (gentoo x, gnome x) LINUX user 395333

Kaiiserni
Tux's lil' helper

Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 121
Location: Antwerp - Belgium

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 8:16 pm Post subject:

any tips? _________________ Dell XPS M1330; Intel Core 2 Duo 1800 ; NV M 8400GS, 2 gig Gentoo x (gentoo x, gnome x) LINUX user 395333

BitJam
Advocate

Joined: 12 Aug 2003
Posts: 2508
Location: Silver City, NM

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 8:32 pm Post subject:

First of all, ignoring USE flags is probably the most common newbie error in using Gentoo that causes them to re-install. If you want to ignore the USE flags then you are much better off using a different distribution. You might want to try Kubuntu which is a KDE version of Ubuntu.

I run Gentoo on a laptop. Here are my USE flags:

Code:

USE="apache2 cups dvd emacs ethereal fbcon foomaticdb gd ggi gtk2 jikes lids lirc mmx mule oav \
pcmcia pda pic plotutils pnp ppds sse truetype usb wmf -3dnow -libg++ -mikmod -nls \
-guile -gnome -gtk mozilla -ldap xinerama"

You probably don't want apache on your laptop and it is up to you if you want Emacs. I've switched to Vim recently. Some of these flags such as mmx and sse pertain to the CPU I am using. Yours is probably different.

If you want to try Gentoo then you really need to spend the time to go through the USE flag docs and select the flags the represent what you want to do with your laptop. If there are flags that you don't understand, post a question in these forums.

You said you've got a 64 bit laptop but didn't mention a brand name and model or even a CPU type. Much will depend on these details. Installing Linux on a laptop can be challenging. You should definitely go to the Linux on Laptops site and look up your make and model and see what success other people have had.

I would like to give you more advice but that would depend on my guessing your make and model and CPU.

Kaiiserni
Tux's lil' helper

Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 121
Location: Antwerp - Belgium

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 8:51 pm Post subject:

BitJam wrote:

Code:

the laptop model is HP Pavilion zv5474EA, 64 bit 3400 512 ram, 100gig, wifi, bluetooth...
previously I used Mandrake 64bit, but Gentoo has more packages and I understand pretty much for a newbee so why not Gentoo

I'd like to use my VMWARE, KDE, k3b (for DVD burning), kaffeine, dvdrip to backup my dvds to watch those on the road, Wolfenstein ET, Quake 3, office (doesnt really mather if it is openoffice or not), firefox with mplayer plugin, wifi support, bittorent, apollon, a samba server, I like amarok for my music collection, AMSN, a firewall, and that are the most important packages I would use...

I think its better for me to start with a stage3 install...
I really don't know what USE flags I need or not...
I don't know what package I have to use to monitor my battery on this HP 64bit.
And I don't know if there are any important powersaving tools for this laptop.

thanks...

and I've seen ubuntu and kubuntu working but I'd like to try Gentoo more:wink:
UPDATE: I'd like to use my flashcard-reader to...
_________________
Dell XPS M1330; Intel Core 2 Duo 1800 ; NV M 8400GS, 2 gig
Gentoo x (gentoo x, gnome x)
LINUX user 395333

spielc
Guru
Guru

Joined: 20 Apr 2004
Posts: 452

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 9:12 pm Post subject:

Kaiiserni wrote:

and I've seen ubuntu and kubuntu working but I'd like to try Gentoo more:wink:
UPDATE: I'd like to use my flashcard-reader to...

hmm wifi COULD get difficult tho it can be easy too (i have a prism2 card in my 64-bit shuttle and well finally after about 3/4 years i was able to get iwconfig to recognise my card) i hope you don't have to do a wireless install if you have to, it might get even more difficult (i wasn't able to do it...) the rest of your software list seems to be no problem. i don't know about mplayer plugin for 64-bit firefox tho

Kaiiserni
Tux's lil' helper

Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 121
Location: Antwerp - Belgium

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 9:19 pm Post subject:

spielc wrote:

Kaiiserni wrote:

and I've seen ubuntu and kubuntu working but I'd like to try Gentoo more:wink:
UPDATE: I'd like to use my flashcard-reader to...

wifi would be nice, if i have to, I use my normal LAN

_________________
Dell XPS M1330; Intel Core 2 Duo 1800 ; NV M 8400GS, 2 gig
Gentoo x (gentoo x, gnome x)
LINUX user 395333

Kaiiserni
Tux's lil' helper

Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 121
Location: Antwerp - Belgium

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:04 am Post subject:

nobody? _________________ Dell XPS M1330; Intel Core 2 Duo 1800 ; NV M 8400GS, 2 gig Gentoo x (gentoo x, gnome x) LINUX user 395333

kimchi_sg
Advocate

Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 2969

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:17 am Post subject:

Do not spend time worrying about USE flags. There are a default set of flags that will be enabled for you if you do not specify any. These defaults are quite reasonable. Use emerge --info to view them.

Kaiiserni
Tux's lil' helper

Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 121
Location: Antwerp - Belgium

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:23 am Post subject:

kimchi_sg wrote:

Do not spend time worrying about USE flags. There are a default set of flags that will be enabled for you if you do not specify any.

These defaults are quite reasonable. Use emerge --info to view them.

So what BitJam said isn't true anymore?, can I just leave it empty than?

BitJam wrote:

First of all, ignoring USE flags is probably the most common newbie error in using Gentoo that causes them to re-install.

tx
_________________
Dell XPS M1330; Intel Core 2 Duo 1800 ; NV M 8400GS, 2 gig
Gentoo x (gentoo x, gnome x)
LINUX user 395333

kimchi_sg
Advocate

Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 2969

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:28 am Post subject:

I have already said, when you "leave it empty" it does not mean that no USE flags are in effect. It means that a set of flags that the developers have set as defaults are used. All the same, you should be using the --ask and --verbose options of emerge as much as possible to check what USE flags packages support before actually emerging them. But the short answer to your question will be: Yes. it is ok to install without any USE= line in make.conf.

hw-tph
l33t
l33t

Joined: 08 Jan 2004
Posts: 768
Location: Uppsala, Sweden

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 12:03 pm Post subject:

With the risk of sounding like I am only pushing my own site, we have a Wiki for the Compaq R3000/zv5000 series laptops. A lot of information is there already, but feel free to contribute. There is also a mailing list with searchable archives. Håkan

Kaiiserni
Tux's lil' helper

Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 121
Location: Antwerp - Belgium

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 12:08 pm Post subject:

hw-tph wrote:

With the risk of sounding like I am only pushing my own site, we have a Wiki for the Compaq R3000/zv5000 series laptops. A lot of information is there already, but feel free to contribute. There is also a mailing list with searchable archives.

Håkan

thx, but maybe it'l help if somebody who has a 64bit (laptop) to posts his USE-flags?
it would be a good example... :idea:

_________________
Dell XPS M1330; Intel Core 2 Duo 1800 ; NV M 8400GS, 2 gig
Gentoo x (gentoo x, gnome x)
LINUX user 395333

Deathwing00
Bodhisattva

Joined: 13 Jun 2003
Posts: 4087
Location: Dresden, Germany

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 12:23 pm Post subject:

Kaiiserni wrote:

nobody?

Please, let 24 hours pass before bumping a thread. This is the second time you do it. Don't do it again.

--

Moved from Installing Gentoo.

passive
Tux's lil' helper

Joined: 31 Dec 2004
Posts: 105

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 4:28 pm Post subject:

I've got a 64-bit R3000 series laptop.

Here's what's in my make.conf:

Code:

-gtk -gnome gcj quicktime jack real arts qt kde dvd alsa oss cups foomaticdb ppds usb X tcltk dvdr nvidia xvid xml wifi avi mpeg multilib theora

You can probably remove gcj, jack, and theora. Those are recent additions.
dvdr and nvidia are only useful if you have the right hardware.

Here's what I get from emerge --info:

Code:

amd64 X aalib acpi alsa arts avi berkdb bitmap-fonts cdr crypt cups curl dvd dvdr fam flac font-server foomaticdb fortran gcj gif gpm imagemagick ipv6 jack java jp2 jpeg kde lzw lzw-tiff mad motif mp3 mpeg nas ncurses nls nvidia ogg opengl oss pam perl png ppds python qt quicktime readline real samba sdl ssl tcltk tcpd theora tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts usb userlocales vorbis wifi xml xml2 xmms xpm xrandr xv xvid zlib

I could probably remove a few of these, but I'm not that proficient an optimizer.

Also, whenever you emerge ANYTHING, use the -av switches. This will let you get an idea how your USE flags will affect different programs.

BitJam
Advocate

Joined: 12 Aug 2003
Posts: 2508
Location: Silver City, NM

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 6:00 pm Post subject:

Here is a Perl program that you can use to print out the descriptions of USE flags.

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# doc-useflags adds documentation to a list of Gentoo USE flags.

use strict;
use Text::Wrap;

my $USE_DESC = "/usr/portage/profiles/use.desc"; #-- where descriptions
#-- are stored

@ARGV and $ARGV[0] =~ m/^--?h(elp)?/ and die <<USAGE;
usage: doc-useflags [--raw] file
reads file for a USE="..." line to find use flags then
prints these flags, one per line, including the description.

options:
--raw expect only flags and whitespace, no USE="..."

examples:
Flags used by emerge: emerge --info | doc-useflags
Flags set by user: doc-useflags /etc/make.conf
Default flags: doc-useflags /usr/portage/profiles/.../make.defaults
USAGE

my $READ_RAW;

@ARGV and $ARGV[0] eq "--raw" and do {
shift;
$READ_RAW = 1;
};

#-- read in descriptions
my $desc = read_description($USE_DESC);

#-- Read in USE flags from STDIN or filename parameter
my $use_flags = $READ_RAW ? join(" ", <>) : read_cooked();
my @flags = split /\s+/, $use_flags;

#-- print out flags with descriptions
print_descriptions($desc, @flags);

exit;

#==== Subroutines ==================

sub read_description {
my $desc = {};
my $file = shift;
open(USE_DESC, $file) or die "Could not open($file) $!";
while (<USE_DESC>) {
m/^#/ and next;
m/\S/ or next;
chomp;
m/^([-+\w]+)\s-\s+(.*)/ or print "ERROR: $_\n";
$$desc{$1} = $2;
}
close(USE_DESC);
return $desc;
}
sub read_cooked {
my $use_flags;
while (<>) {
m/^USE=/ or next;
$use_flags = $_;
while ($use_flags =~ s/\\\s*$//) {$use_flags .= " " . <>;}
last;
}
$use_flags =~ s/^USE="//;
$use_flags =~ s/"//g;
$use_flags =~ s/[\s\\]+/ /g;
return $use_flags;
}

sub print_descriptions {
my $desc = shift;
for my $flag (@_) {
my $key = $flag;
$key =~ s/^-//;
my $desc = $$desc{$key} or do {
warn "UNKNOWN FLAG: $flag\n";
next;
};
printf "%15s - %s\n", $flag, wrap("", " " x 18, $desc);
}
}

__END__

BitJam
Advocate

Joined: 12 Aug 2003
Posts: 2508
Location: Silver City, NM

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 6:32 pm Post subject:

I haven't done a global update of my USE flags for a couple of years. I saw that they've changed a lot so I have updated my USE flags to reflect what I know I use in my system and also to reflect the current set of default flags.

So here are the flags from my make.conf annotated by the program I posted above:

Code:

apache2 - Chooses Apache2 support when a package supports both Apache1 and Apache2
apm - Adds APM (Advanced Power Management) support
bash-completion - Enable bash-completion support
cdparanoia - Enables cdparanoia support
cdr - Adds support for CD writer hardware
dvd - Adds support for DVDs
ethereal - Adds support for ethereal wiretap log support in kismet
exif - Adds support for reading EXIF headers from JPEG and TIFF images
fbcon - Adds framebuffer support for the console, via the kernel
fftw - Use FFTW library for computing Fourier transforms
gd - Adds support for media-libs/gd (to generate graphics on the fly)
imagemagick - Enables support for Imagemagick (image converter)
java - Adds support for Java
jikes - Compile Java source code with jikes (faster)
kdeenablefinal - Makes kde ebuilds use the enable-final flag, yielding big compilation
speedups at the cost of very heavy mem usage
lirc - Adds support for lirc (Linux's Infra-Red Remote Control)
mozilla - Adds mozilla support
ogg - Adds support for the Ogg container format (commonly used by Vorbis, Theora
and flac)
pcmcia - Adds support for PCMCIA slots/devices found on laptop computers
pda - Adds support for portable devices.
pic - Build Position Independent Code. Needed for prelink or the hardened
toolchain
plotutils - Adds plotutils support to gnuplot (library for 2-D vector graphics)
pnp - Adds support for PNP in pcmcia-cs (Plug-N-Play)
quicktime - Adds support for OpenQuickTime
ruby - Adds support/bindings for the Ruby language
slang - Adds support for the slang text display library (it's like ncurses, but
different)
tidy - Adds support for HTML Tidy
unicode - Adds support for Unicode
usb - Adds USB support to applications that have optional USB support (e.g. cups)
vorbis - Adds support for the OggVorbis audio codec
win32codecs - use win32codecs package for dll avi decoding support (wmv and what not)
wifi - Enable wireless network functions
wxwindows - Adds support for wxWindows/wxGTK
xine - Add support for the XINE movie libraries
xinerama - Add support for the xinerama X11 extension, which allows you to stretch
your display across multiple monitors
xsl - Check/Support flag for XSL library (version 1)
x86 - indicates that architecture is x86
sse - fast floating point optimization for PentiumIII+ class chips
mmx - Adds support for optimizations for Pentium MMX and Athlon class processors
-gnome - Adds GNOME support
-gtk - Adds support for x11-libs/gtk+ (The GIMP Toolkit)
-libg++ - Adds C++ modules in dev-db/postgresql (libpq++)

I welcome any comments or suggestions regarding my choices above.

Notes:

The flags I've been using historically are in a previous post. I don't understand why using the default USE flags is a good idea. I guess it depends on the kind of system you are building and what you want to do with it.

Finally, here is a link: http://paul.hahn.name/Articles/InstallRepDir/ I got from Linux-Laptops that talks about Debian on a different HP amd64 laptop. YMMVG but it may contain some useful info for you. It seems your laptop is either very new and/or very rare so there is not much info about it on the web yet.

Kaiiserni
Tux's lil' helper

Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 121
Location: Antwerp - Belgium

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 6:45 pm Post subject:

thanx, now have a good view over my options... and yes, it's a very recent laptop... _________________ Dell XPS M1330; Intel Core 2 Duo 1800 ; NV M 8400GS, 2 gig Gentoo x (gentoo x, gnome x) LINUX user 395333

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