Diff: GentooNotes - Waikato Linux Users Group

Differences between version 17 and predecessor to the previous major change of GentooNotes.

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Newer page:	version 17	Last edited on Tuesday, June 21, 2005 4:36:22 pm	by DanielLawson	Revert
Older page:	version 12	Last edited on Saturday, March 19, 2005 2:40:53 pm	by DanielLawson	Revert

@@ -2,8 +2,19 @@

* To be able to su(1), you must be in group <tt>wheel</tt>: <tt>usermod -G wheel user</tt>

* To be able to use the SoundCard, you must be in group <tt>audio</tt>: <tt>usermod -G audio user</tt>

* There is a thread in the Gentoo about [Non-standard Portage Utilities | http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=67849]

+

+!!!Package querying basics

+!Searching available package names

+ emerge search ''part of packagename''

+

+!Listing files in a package

+(old way)

+ qpkg -l ''packagename''

+(newer way)

+ equery f ''packagename''

+

!!! Changing <tt>USE</tt> flags

If you've added (or removed) some <tt>USE</tt> flags on your system, there will be some inconsistencies with how some packages are compiled.

@@ -69,21 +80,22 @@

</verbatim>

!!! Masked Packages

-Packages can be flagged as masked for a number of reasons. Mostly they are masked because they might break something, or they WILL break something. These tend to be masked in <tt>/usr/portage/profiles/packages.mask</tt>, and you can either forcibly install the package (see later), or unmask the package by commenting out the line. Note that this file is rebuilt everytime you emerge sync. There is ~~rumour of support for~~ a packages.unmask file, but this ~~doesn't seem~~ to ~~work (16 Jun 2003)~~

+Packages can be flagged as masked for a number of reasons. Mostly they are masked because they might break something, or they WILL break something. These tend to be masked in <tt>/usr/portage/profiles/packages.mask</tt>, and you can either forcibly install the package (see later), or unmask the package by commenting out the line. Note that this file is rebuilt everytime you emerge sync. There is a packages.unmask file, which allows you to unmask packages that have been explicitly masked , but use this with care: The package was probably masked for a good reason. You can look in /usr/portage/profiles/package.mask to see what packages are masked and why, and copy the declaration to /etc/portage/packages.unmask to unmask it.

The other reason packages can be masked is that they are in the 'unstable' branch of the gentoo tree. This is essentially the same as unstable in debian. Sometimes things will break, othertimes they'll be fine. You're on your own.

The only recommended way to install masked packages is to add to <tt>/etc/portage/package.keywords</tt> an entry for the package you want to build. Do __not__, whatever you do, emerge the <tt>.ebuild</tt> directly, or try to override <tt>ACCEPT_KEYWORDS</tt> on the CommandLine. Eg., if you want to emerge [XFce]4 from the unstable tree, do:

-echo wm-x11/xfce4 ~x86 >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

-echo =wm-x11/xfce4-4..0 ~x86 >> /etc/portage/package.keywords # specific version of the package

-echo ~wm-x11/xfce4-4..0 ~x86 >> /etc/portage/package.keywords # all revisions of a specific version

+echo ' wm-x11/xfce4 ~x86' >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

+echo ' =wm-x11/xfce4-4..0 ~x86' >> /etc/portage/package.keywords # specific version of the package

+echo ' ~wm-x11/xfce4-4..0 ~x86' >> /etc/portage/package.keywords # all revisions of a specific version

</verbatim>

!!! Useful utilities

* revdep-rebuild - checks for broken library dependancies and rebuilds

* equery - various queries you can do against the portage system, such as checking <tt>USE</tt> flag settings, dependancies and so on.

-* enotice - this little tool keeps track of important information and notices (einfo / ewarn) from ebuilds, and logs them away for you to inspect. Very useful for boxes that have a large number of updates, where important bits (like, "we're overwriting your PAM config, fix it up afterwards" might get lost). http://~~dev~~ .~~gentoo~~ .~~org~~ /~~~eldad~~ /

+* [ enotice|http://dev.gentoo.org/~eldad/] - this little tool keeps track of important information and notices (einfo / ewarn) from ebuilds, and logs them away for you to inspect. Very useful for boxes that have a large number of updates, where important bits (like, "we're overwriting your PAM config, fix it up afterwards" might get lost).

+* [distclean| http://www .stacken .kth.se /~foo /gentoo/]- removes old source files from /usr/portage/distfiles - ie, ones that aren't associated with currently installed packages.