I just installed Gentoo - now I have a lot of questions

[drummer4lifex]

Hello! This is my first post. I've used Ubuntu for awhile now, after playing with almost every distro imaginable (including Gentoo) on a much slower laptop about 8 months ago. I didn't really know much, until I finally stuck it through with Ubuntu. I learned a bit and I felt limited. Then I decided to move on to Gentoo (after being coaxed by a friend). I started the installation last night and I couldn't even use the Graphical installation - it just wouldn't work. After trying to go through with the advanced installation, I quickly felt out of my element, because I didn't know what all the USE Flags were, and after I fudged my way through that, I came the the local USE flags, and by that time I just felt overwhelmed. I rebooted and I couldn't get internet anymore (don't know how) so I had to go through with the stage3 standard networkless installation.

This laptop is a Compaq nx9600 with a Pentium 4 3Ghz CPU, and ATI M300 Integrated graphics.

Everything went smoothly for the most part but I have several questions, and I don't know where to start:
1. I don't think the ATI graphics driver installed correctly - I can only get a 1024 x 768 resolution. How can I fix this?
2. Using lsmod, I can see that my Broadcom 43xx module is loaded, but I can't work with it in network tools. Ubuntu had a different network manager that made it easier to connect, configure, etc.
3. My sound doesn't work. I have no idea where to start with this.
4. Do I have to edit my make.conf file to add flags before I start installing software?
5. How do I use the emerge tool? Is it similar to apt-get?
6. If I want to recompile the kernel specifically for my computer, should I do so now, before I start messing with everything?

These are only a few of the questions I have off the top of my head. I would really like to learn how to use Gentoo to the fullest, but I don't exactly kno where to start. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

[shakti]

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/index.xml will answer a lot of questions. Also there are other docs specially for sound, X, and Network. Also try the Wiki.
_________________
Using Gentoo since 2002.

[defenderBG]

with the exception of ati-drivers you can get everything here:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/Main_Page

for your sound read the alsa section.

check here for a similar laptop to yours: http://tuxmobil.org/compaq.html

if you have any questions, that are not standart, than feel free to ask