I'm currently going down the rabbit hole with source based distros, specifically because I want to give new life to otherwise unsupported hardware. While I was learning about Gentoo, I saw that there are a few pre-compiled versions for very common packages, but aside from that everything must be compiled.

While I do very much get the appeal of a source based distro and customization, I don't fully understand why everyone would need to compile everything all the time themselves. Let me explain what I mean: In a distro with binary packages there is one size fits all, maybe there are some flavors like x86 v3,v4,etc. but no further customization. On the other hand, if I am on a machine with CPU model X and GPU model Y and main board Z, probably there is one "best" or "best optimized for general purposes" set of use flags, at least for the base system? no? If that assumption holds, wouldn't it be enough that one or a handful of people on that hardware compile the packages and then everyone else on the same hardware & config just re-uses them?

For me, it feels a bit like a big waste of cpu cycles doing this n times for all n machines with that config, but maybe I'm missing something?

hm. I am new to "advance and superior" linux and I have been using openrc but I just wanted to know all the options and weather there are superior options available? btw I am using gentoo in vm.

I pretty much remember that when updating GCC, it's almost good to rebuild everything with the new compiler. Is it worth it or can I continue with a mixed-compiled system, packages built with either gcc-13 or gcc-14?

It says to post the output of ... for help so ill just do that here:

ISSUE FIXED! : I was just such a huge brainlet that i confused MAKEOPTS="-j4 -l5" with MAKEOPTS="-j -15" (for anyone wondering i mistook an L for a 1 cause it kinda looked like that just glancing over the wiki on a small screen in a font i dont used) but thanks everyone for being so supportive and helpful ill carry on with my installation now!

  GNU nano 8.2                                                                                                                                                                                                                   error                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Modified
Portage 3.0.66.1 (python 3.12.7-final-0, default/linux/amd64/17.1, gcc-14, glibc-2.40-r5, 6.6.62-gentoo-dist x86_64)
=================================================================
                         System Settings
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-6.6.62-gentoo-dist-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i5-5300U_CPU_@_2.30GHz-with-glibc2.40
KiB Mem:     8000024 total,   1116740 free
KiB Swap:          0 total,         0 free
Timestamp of repository gentoo: Tue, 03 Dec 2024 16:00:00 +0000
Head commit of repository gentoo: d5a25132fd1b6e3b9d952bdac22c32cf5acff7ff
sh bash 5.2_p37
ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.43 p3) 2.43.1
app-misc/pax-utils:        1.3.8::gentoo
app-shells/bash:           5.2_p37::gentoo
dev-build/autoconf:        2.72-r1::gentoo
dev-build/automake:        1.16.5-r2::gentoo
dev-build/cmake:           3.30.5::gentoo
dev-build/libtool:         2.4.7-r4::gentoo
dev-build/make:            4.4.1-r100::gentoo
dev-build/meson:           1.5.2::gentoo
dev-lang/perl:             5.40.0::gentoo
dev-lang/python:           3.12.7_p1::gentoo, 3.13.0::gentoo
dev-lang/rust-bin:         1.81.0-r100::gentoo
sys-apps/baselayout:       2.17::gentoo
sys-apps/openrc:           0.54.2::gentoo
sys-apps/sandbox:          2.39::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils:        2.43-r2::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils-config: 5.5.2::gentoo
sys-devel/clang:           18.1.8::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc:             14.2.1_p20241116::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc-config:      2.11::gentoo
sys-devel/llvm:            18.1.8-r1::gentoo
sys-kernel/linux-headers:  6.6-r1::gentoo (virtual/os-headers)
sys-libs/glibc:            2.40-r5::gentoo
Repositories:

gentoo
    location: /var/db/repos/gentoo
    sync-type: rsync
    sync-uri: rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage
    priority: -1000
    volatile: False
    sync-rsync-verify-jobs: 1
    sync-rsync-verify-max-age: 3
    sync-rsync-extra-opts:
    sync-rsync-verify-metamanifest: yes

Binary Repositories:

gentoobinhost
    priority: 1
    sync-uri: https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/amd64/binpackages/23.0/x86-64

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="@FREE"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/config /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/dconf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/sandbox.d"
CXXFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/var/cache/distfiles"
ENV_UNSET="CARGO_HOME DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE GOBIN GOPATH PERL5LIB PERL5OPT PERLPREFIX PERL_CORE PERL_MB_OPT PERL_MM_OPT XAUTHORITY XDG_CACHE_HOME XDG_CONFIG_HOME XDG_DATA_HOME XDG_RUNTIME_DIR XDG_STATE_HOME"
FCFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-docompress binpkg-dostrip binpkg-logs binpkg-multi-instance buildpkg-live config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles ipc-sandbox merge-sync merge-wait multilib-strict network-sandbox news parallel-fetch pid-sandbox pkgdir-index-trusted preserve-libs protect-owned qa-unresolved-soname-deps sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersy>
FFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org"
LANG="C.UTF8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed"
LEX="flex"
MAKEOPTS="-j4 -4"
PKGDIR="/var/cache/binpkgs"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --exclude=/.git"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
SHELL="/bin/bash"
USE="acl amd64 bzip2 cli crypt dri fortran gdbm iconv ipv6 libtirpc multilib ncurses nls openmp pam pcre readline seccomp split-usr ssl test-rust unicode xattr zlib" ABI_X86="64" ADA_TARGET="gcc_12" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_anon authn_dbm authn_file authz_dbm authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir env expires ext_fil>
Unset:  ADDR2LINE, AR, ARFLAGS, AS, ASFLAGS, CC, CCLD, CONFIG_SHELL, CPP, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, CXXFILT, ELFEDIT, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, EXTRA_ECONF, F77FLAGS, FC, GCOV, GPROF, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LD, LFLAGS, LIBTOOL, LINGUAS, MAKE, MAKEFLAGS, NM, OBJCOPY, OBJDUMP, PORTAGE_BINHOST, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PYTHONPATH, RANLIB, READELF, RUSTFLAGS, SIZE, STRINGS, STRIP, YACC, YFLAGS

https://preview.redd.it/sl1e2wqh6k4e1.png?width=932&format=png&auto=webp&s=92d557be0e1f323cc5d8cee9eb26b0e0301335dd

https://preview.redd.it/ewt73uxynh4e1.png?width=2880&format=png&auto=webp&s=3acf69b15ccc01f853b087bb8c444908109ac8b3

edit title - s/16/13/

Everything went smoothly except the RootFS Encryption wiki page doesn't mention that GRUB can't decrypt the root partition if you encrypt it using commands listed in the page. By default the key will be argon2 encoded, which grub doesn't support. After much googling I figured out how to add a new key using a protocol grub does support, and now everything works great.

All hardware I've used so far (bluetooth, wifi, sound, video) work great out of box using the dist kernel. Haven't tried the webcam or microphone yet.

I'm using Borgmatic for whole system backups and I was wondering how I could restore from a Borg backup with a rescue/live CD/USB stick.

Does anybody know if Borg/Borgmatic is included or do I really have to unpack stage3, chroot, install Borgmatic in case I have to restore a whole system?

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to set up the touchscreen for my x200 Tablet following this post on r/archlinux. I've followed the first reply successfully: when I run isdv4-serial-inputattach /dev/ttyS4 the touchscreen works perfectly for as long as I keep the command running.

However, I don't know how to proceed when trying to add this as a service. Of course, on systemd it'd just be systemctl enable wacom-inputattach@ttyS4, but I don't know what the OpenRC equivalent would be. From what I've seen there is no obviously equivalent service along the lines of "wacom" on my machine. I'd appreciate some help!

hey. im a total newbie when it comes to gentoo. wasted my whole day trying to fix the issue that after booting, id only see "loading initial ramdisk", and then.. nothing. with as much info as ive gathered, the problem might be that a) the kernel doesnt know how to put text on my screen b) i messed up the configurations for tty somehow c) something to do with nvidia drivers.

now, the possible fixes that ive tried are as follows: enabled support for my CPU, enabled support for NVME SSD, enabled EFI-based and simple frame buffer device drivers, tried turning the EFI stub on and off, tried appending "GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text and ...=keep" to grub.cfg and to /etc/default/grub. tried toggling nouveau drivers as a module. didnt work. im at a loss but dont want to install precompiled kernel. i use Nvidia GPU (GTX1080) and Intel CPU.

edit: https://pastebin.com/qjzJHM6K

I'm trying to compile UKI kernel without initramfs to boot directly without any bootloader (I'm not using secure boot or encryption). My question is - can I do this with plain "emerge gentoo-kernel" and USE flags or do I need to compile the kernel manually? If so, how?

Clean install from scratch, boot stuck at "a start job is running for /dev/disk/by-uuid/rootpartuuid (no limit) Any help appreaciated, will provide info on request Running uki with efistub

[Disclaimer] I am not really used to (= have no experience) stressing my machines much, so please bear with me even if this sounds dumb.

I chose to start with the amd64/desktop/systemd stage3 file, enabled a binhost, switched off the USE flags for non intel video cards and wayland, andaccepted '~amd64'. Now, the handbook says I ought to emerge @world if I changed the USE flags, so I did.

It's been 2 hours now(109 out of 125 complete), with clang emerging for the last 50 minutes. Top says the load average is around 5, and my fan'st he loudest it has ever been. (10 physical cores on a gen 12 i5, 8GiB ram, SSD: using --jobs 5 --load-average 10).

Is this safe? Also, why does genlop say ETA: Unknown?

UPDATE: Thanks to all of you who took the time to comment. Emerge @world finished woth clang and llvm taking ~50 mins each.

https://preview.redd.it/oh7knvxrz64e1.png?width=669&format=png&auto=webp&s=b75e08339362c4e521e67dc0011915a4806ccca1

Now with proprer temps!

As the title states, PyQt5, PyQt5-sip, and PyQt-builder have had their names changed in the gentoo repo to pyqt5, pyqt5-sip, pyqt-builder.

https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/dev-python/pyqt5/changelog

https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/dev-python/pyqt5-sip/changelog

https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/dev-python/pyqt-builder/changelog

Why? I have no idea. Perhaps the old, working names violated the naming convention? Or, perhaps the regular guy was out of town on holiday? No idea. It's a mystery that may never be solved. But it is what it is right now.

I discovered this quite recently when portage broke because a required dependency for Carla (PyQt5 pyqt5) caused portage to spit out errors that could only be satisfied by deselecting said package. When I tried to reinstall Carla PyQt5 and it's dependency PyQt5-sip began causing problems....

Whats in a name? Apparently a lot, because my solution was to change "PyQt5" to "pyqt5" in the carla ebuild located in my local repository. And when you google pyqt5 the result ( https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/dev-python/PyQt5) now returns a 404 error, but if you change the address to https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/dev-python/pyqt5/ it works fine.

Anyway, this was a bit of a rant... that was suppose to be a heads up for anyone else who encounters problems with the PyQt pyqt family of dependencies. Good luck out there!

That long string is my machine ID. The first time I installed Gentoo, the kernel was installed at /efi/gentoo, but every kernel update after that gets installed under that directory with my machine ID as its name. Is installkernel doing this? Is this normal?

Also, all newly installed kernels have root=LABEL=gentoo-root systemd.machine_id=bebab21d68e244e2839949758369414a as its cmdline, but my /etc/kernel/cmdline is only root=LABEL=gentoo-root. I thought I read somewhere that it should have used the cmdline I am using curently by default...

What's the difference???

I'm thinking of coming back to gentoo but would like to know what version of gnome is supported now.

Plz somebody HELP! I spent nearly 10+hours on this and now this is not working! Plzzz.

https://preview.redd.it/9ie2lwtldt3e1.png?width=662&format=png&auto=webp&s=b1b7f80b2c2eaa885af963591e113b6388b3cef8

I've recently done a new installation of Gentoo, and most everything is working as it should, but I frustratingly just can't get my microphone to show up.

I am running the systemd plasma profile, pipewire as my sound server, fully up to date with the dist-kernel to rule out kernel configuration issues. My microphone is built into my USB headset - a Razer Kraken 7.1.

Audio output works great, but the microphone just will not show up in plasma's settings or wpctl. The hardware microphone mute button does work, however. My capture card does show up as a valid input device, so it's just this one.

This headset has worked for me on Gentoo in a previous installation, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was a dummy misconfiguration mistake. Thoughts?

EDIT: This has been solved by clearing the pipewire configuration files and restarting the service to generate new ones. Not sure why you guys were downvoting the people who were trying to help me - they were being helpful and criticizing them for it is counterproductive.

so isn't there any tool or app for Gentoo to solve conflicting packages problem, I've had Gentoo for 29 days till now, and I got about 5 times of conflicting packages, two of them were major problem that caused me the inability to run gui apps, or even to go past tty.

so I'm thinking about it there's an app/tool to maybe let you choose which version you choose of the package, and it unmerge the other conflicting versions ,or maybe tell you which version is what system need not just one package or something,

I have no problems with going through it the hard way, but the thing is the two major issue happened to me in time I'm already darn busy, so I'm here asking this.

Hi, thanks.

Hello,

Maybe a weird question… I recently had some issue with my kernel. I had no active one set and made an emerge -e @world. Some stuff stopped working. Some packages gave me the message:

* Could not find a Makefile in the kernel source directory.
* Please ensure that /usr/src/linux points to a complete set of Linux sources
* Unable to calculate Linux Kernel version for build, attempting to use running version

Now i got a kernel set an made another emerge -e @world and everything seems to work fine now.

Sorry for all the text Now my question: Is there a way to find all packages depending on a kernel makefile and only compile them again? Or is it always best to do emerge -e?

Best Regards

Fedora user, long time admirer. Linux user since the 90's.

I just want to say I recently got myself a ThinkPad P14s with a Ryzen 7840U and 32GB that's going back for reasons, but before I made that decision, I was working on my first install of Gentoo. Years of slower hardware had kept me away.

Root on ZFS. The (dist-) kernel compiled in under and hour. Basic Plasma 6 in maybe just around the same, maybe slightly more. The stock USE flags, pretty much, I hadn't done any tweaking other than "-systemd" to make sure building Plasma didn't try anything funny.

Everything worked. A few false starts using ZFS but that was my fault (didn't know I couldn't have /usr on a volume without running through hoops).

Back on my 12th gen Intel , but when I get my new Ryzen, I'll be back, Gentoo. I'll be back.

Edit: Alright, I guess I've been set straight. It's been some time since I've done some real building from source, and I was impressed, when in fact it seems I shouldn't have been. :)

Hello, I have a question about Lenovo T480 hardware support. According to the Gentoo Wiki, bluetooth, webcam and fingerprint reader are not tested or working. Is this still the case or do any of you already have them working?

I can't get a custom gentoo-sources kernel to boot. configuration with make defconfig does boot into an emergency shell. Make localmofconfig (and make localyesconfig) spills out a ton of errors like: module xxxxxx did not have CONFIG_XXXXXX. I don't want to try make allyesconfig again, the build process failed after 4 hours. What am I missing? Do I have to install some firmware? PS: gentoo-kernel with -initramfs use flag panics on boot. Maybe I will need an initramfs?

Appparently here's how it currently works.

• dev-lang/rust-bin requires gcc:*, because it's compiled against such
• dev-lang/rust requires dev-lang/rust-bin to bootstrap itself, otherwise a circular dependency occurs
• gcc is unmerged with clang rootfs

Is there something I missed? Why isn't there any rust prebuilt for clang? Why is gcc not installed if something as common as rust requires it? Is there a way to fix this that doesn't involve compiling gcc?