General questions about Gentoo

Vortigern · Guru Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 341 Location: Italy

Hi,
I whould like to know some things about Gentoo.
I should like to know:
- Which command let me close gnome desktop manager?
- Merging openoffice while gnome is running may cause problems? And which type? May I listen to music or surf the web while compiling openoffice?
- Stopping # emerge openoffice, then restart the PC and re-start the emerge can cause issues?
- Using a command icon with /sbin/poweroff as command to execute is the same as using Desktop>Close session>shut down. Are them at least safer in the same way?
- How is it called that game that improve your typewriting?
- May you suggest me some burning software, maybe with GUI, to use in my Gentoo system. (I use only Gnome or GLI)
- How may I delete object without using the trash and the command line? (I don't want them to go in the trash and then clean the trash)
- May I compile programs while an emerge or other compilation is running?
- Is it possible to use an x86 liveCD and install a 32bit Gentoo on a 64bit processor? Does all of them support the 32bit architecture?
Thanks in advance for the help!
There is no needing to answare all of these question in a single time!

PsychoticRetina

Vortigern · Guru Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 341 Location: Italy

Thanks vesselin for your answers.
For

KiberGus · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:59 am Post subject:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 11:02 am Post subject:

Vortigern,

vesselin has already done a good job of answering your questions. I'll just add a few things.

I'm not sure why you would buy a 64 bit sysyem then only use half of it by doing a 32 bit install but you can if you want to.

You should not run two emerges at the same time because it wastes time.
1) If they have dependancies in common, the dependancies will be compiled twice. This is because the list of things to compile is calculated once at the start of the emerge process.
2) You may cause 'cache thrashing' where the effectiveness of your CPU cache is much reduced because its contents are changed to support one emegre, then the other.
3) There have been reports of users world files being truncated possibly by two instances of emerge trying to update then at the same time. Its not proven yet.

You may be able to improve your compile times by changing MAKEOPTS="-j2" in your make.conf to "-j4" or so.
This sets the number of compiler instances that make is permitted to run at the same time. You may find that compiles speed up as the number increases, then falls off sharply due to swapping or I/O limitaions.
Be warned that some ebuilds (e.g. OpenOffice) force "-j1" or the build fails.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Vortigern · Guru Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 341 Location: Italy

Hi NeddySeagoon,
so I should not run two emerge at the same time, but it is possible to use emerge and at the same time compile another program (not by using emerge), right?
I use MAKEOPTS="-j3" thats should be good enough for one CPU, isn't it? May j4 be faster for my Athlon?
Another question:
- How may change the language of Openoffice?

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 4:55 pm Post subject:

Vortigern,

Be aware that "Optimise" means different things to different people.
You need to test various MAKEOPTS settings for yourself.

Its safe to run an emerge and a manual compile but running the two together is likely to take more time then running them sequentially.

I don't know how you change the language of Open Office. I don't think it has an English version, I have to put up with American.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Vortigern · Guru Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 341 Location: Italy

Sometimes I have to run emerge and compile other things togheter because for example I have to go to school, I just leave the pc to compile more things at the same time and when I came back home I'll find all done. I was only wondering about the risk. For Openoffice I would like to change the language in Italian, but I don't know the way!

jeanfrancis · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 6:49 pm Post subject:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 7:01 pm Post subject:

eanfrancis,

Doing it that way will make the LINGUAS apply that one time only. A subsequent

jeanfrancis · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 7:05 pm Post subject:

Well, you are right for the LINGUAS thing

But, I just double-verified and I have a French openoffice-bin

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 8:29 pm Post subject:

jeanfrancis,

Thank you for that correction
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Vortigern · Guru Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 341 Location: Italy

So, I need just to add LINGUAS="it" in my make.conf, emerge openoffice and pray that italian is supported, right? Does LINGUAS works with other programs?
Another little question:
- I've done # emerge tuxracer, but I don't know how to run it! May you help me?

jeanfrancis · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 11:07 pm Post subject:

As NeddySeagoon said, some languages are supported for some applications (not clear

).

Putting LINGUAS="it" in make.conf will install "by default" all applications that support italian in italian. I cannot tell if openoffice supports it.

If you use KDE, LINGUAS="it" emerge kde-i18n will install the packages needed to have your KDE in italian.

Good luck

Vortigern · Guru Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 341 Location: Italy

Thanks, I know that write LINGUAS="it" in my make.conf, will make italian the default language, if aviable for all the downloaded programs, and that's what I need

About the tuxracers? Any help?
Another little question:
- Any link to how to controll a user accessibility?

PsychoticRetina · Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 10:22 am Post subject:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 10:24 am Post subject:

Vortigern,

Add yourself to the games group, log out and back in to pick up your new group membership. The

Vortigern · Guru Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 341 Location: Italy

I try to explain better. I cannot log in as user because the acces to /home/usr is denided, I cannot also lunch su, if I'm in a user console
(I can lunch # su ale, if I'm root and that works, but not the contrary). So I would like a guide or something else to set the accessibility for groups, direcroty, commands, etc. without boring you for any type of access I need.
I cannot run tuxracer also if I'm logged as root, and I've added root to the game group (I don't know if the root need so) as written in the output of the emerge.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 12:15 pm Post subject:

Vortigern,

To stop users logging in set the users shell to

PsychoticRetina · Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 12:37 pm Post subject:

are you saying that after booting you cant log on as user, so you have to log in as root and then do su user?
can you do:

Vortigern · Guru Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 341 Location: Italy

Good news,
using LINGUAS="it" worked for openoffice, now it is in Italian. For tuxracer and other question I cannot say now 'cause I've been busy, and I'm now re-emerging tux, I'll check this night.
Thanks again for help and hung for my progress

Vortigern · Guru Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 341 Location: Italy

I've just tried to run tuxracer, bad news

I've typed:

PsychoticRetina · Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 6:21 pm Post subject:

yes, type it as is. it will display all directories in your socalled searchpath, ie, the places bash searches through when trying to execute a command you type. /usr/bin/games should be one of these directories. it sounds more like youre having xorg/driver issues, though. are you using nv or nvidia driver?

EDIT: right, just checked - tuxracer uses 3d acceleration. what graphics card are you using?
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 6:26 pm Post subject:

Vortigern,

When you run a program its searched for in a list of directories known as your PATH.
PATH is an environment varable and can be different for different uses. The command

Vortigern · Guru Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 341 Location: Italy

You are right, I have a nvidia, more exactly an Asus N6600GT, so it uses nv43 chip and has HSI chip bridge. Do I have to do something to let tuxracer start?
About echo $PATH it shows: