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    10 Fundamental Tips for Your Gentoo Linux

    First part of this series.

    10 Fundamental Tips for Your Gentoo Linux

    People ask me for different content about Gentoo and Portage, but these worlds are very biiiiiiigggg!!! 😀️.

    So I’m going to post a series of tips from both here on a list of topics like this, although there is no such information in the title of this post, this is the FIRST PART of this series. I believe that to start these initial tips are essential, let’s go to the list!

    1. Enable IKCONFIG in Kernel

    Support for .config in the Kernel, also known as IKCONFIG, allows users to build a copy of the configuration with which the kernel was built inside the kernel itself.

    This allows them to inspect the kernel configuration while it is running, without having to worry about whether they changed or cleared the source directory after compilation.

    Enabling in the kernel:

    su
cd /usr/src/linux
make menuconfig
    General Setup --->
    <*/M> Kernel .config support
        [*] Enable access to .config through /proc/config.gz

    And recompile:

    su
make && make modules_install && make install

    If you have GRUB, also run: grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

    2. Define a ACCEPT_KEYWORDS in your /etc/portage/make.conf

    If your system is amd64, for example, some software requires you to explain this, because the package has code for other architectures, and you will not be able to install it if this variable is not defined, learn more here. Example: ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64", or just run:

    echo 'ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64"' | sudo tee -a /etc/portage/make.conf

    3. Know when to use an Overlay

    If you need to compile software that is not in the Portage tree, and want more ease of installation, use an Overlay, see here how to install Layman.

    4. Enable commonly used parameters by default

    If you use any emerge parameters frequently, it is interesting to add them to the EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS variable in your /etc/portage/make.conf. For example, I use -a a lot and my processor only has 2 cores, so I always compile with --jobs 2 so as not to overload my notebook.

    The --verbose option is also very interesting!

    5. Gain more performance in the builds

    Make frequent use of the --quiet option or just -q, the compiler outputs not only make the prompt look ugly, they make the compilation take longer, really! I did the test with small and large software and the times approached the gain of 15% on average.

    I just don’t recommend using this parameter in the previous tip variable, as the outputs of --search will be suppressed and with less details, learn more.

    6. Know how to use FLAGS correctly

    Use the /etc/portage/package.use/zz-autounmask file. Do not set flags directly using the variable USE in the terminal, eg sudo USE="network mpd" emerge polybar , this creates a problem when you update the software, it will recompile without network and mpd support, without saying that in most cases it is not interesting to add flags universally to the USE variable in /etc/portage/make.conf, only when they are global cases, that is, when any software depends on it, for example: USE="gnome -kde"(if your system has GNOME installed and does not has KDE), but this example was very reasonable, because your ** profile ** (see eselect profile list) that you defined when installing your Gentoo and chose (set) for GNOME, therefore all flags for this are already defined for Portage, see with emerge info | grep ^ USE.

    So the most correct way is to insert the flag only for the software you want in the /etc/portage/package.use/zz-autounmask file, remember to add with the software version, example: echo '>=x11-misc/polybar-3.4.2-r1 network mpd' | sudo tee -a /etc/portage/package.use/zz-autounmask the >= option at the beginning of the line says that Portage should include this ** flag ** for any version equal to or greater than the one informed and separated by spaces inform the flags.

    7. Explore Gentoolkit

    Before compiling/installing any package, use the command equery uses [category/package-name] (always inform with the category to avoid ambiguous package names), you must have Gentoolkit installed (emerge gentoolkit) eg: equery uses x11-misc/polybar, and see which flags are already enabled for installation and/or also updating and which ones you would like to include in your package.use/zz-autounmask.

    There are several options for the equery command (which packages depend on a flag; which packages use a certain flag; …), run equery --help for more details and test each one to better understand each option.

    8. Pay attention to licenses!

    Also use the variable ACCEPT_LICENSE=”*“ in your make.conf, in which case it accepts all types of licenses and avoids problems during application installation.

    9. Language packs

    Also set the language of your system directly in your make.conf using the L10N variable, example: L10N=”pt-BR” in this case if you install software with the language in Brazilian portuguese.

    To find out which code/name to use for your country see here, if your system is English United States this information is not necessary and do not forget to update with the --changed-use option, eg emerge --update --changed-use @world. Do not use the LINGUAS variable it has been discontinued, see as well.

    10. Get faster!

    Make package downloads faster by defining a mirror for it using the GENTOO_MIRRORS variable in your make.conf, example for the UFPR Brazil mirror: GENTOO_MIRRORS="https://gentoo.c3sl.ufpr.br/ http://gentoo.c3sl.ufpr.br/ rsync://gentoo.c3sl.ufpr.br/gentoo/", see the list of mirros here.

    If you want more ease to insert, install/use the command mirrorselect.

    I hope this first part of this series is useful, if you are interested in knowing how my make.conf is doing, here it is:

    # These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically
# built this stage.
# Please consult /usr/share/portage/config/make.conf.example for a more
# detailed example.
COMMON_FLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
CFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
CXXFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
FCFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"
FFLAGS="${COMMON_FLAGS}"

# NOTE: This stage was built with the bindist Use flag enabled
PORTDIR="/var/db/repos/gentoo"
DISTDIR="/var/cache/distfiles"
PKGDIR="/var/cache/binpkgs"

# This sets the language of build output to English.
# Please keep this setting intact when reporting bugs.
LC_MESSAGES=C
USE="-systemd"
VIDEO_CARDS="intel i965 virtualbox"
GRUB_PLATFORMS="efi-64"
L10N="pt-BR"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64"
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--ask --jobs 2"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="https://gentoo.c3sl.ufpr.br/ http://gentoo.c3sl.ufpr.br/ rsync://gentoo.c3sl.ufpr.br/gentoo/"
source /var/lib/layman/make.conf

    See too:

    gentoo portage shellscript cpp

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