Handbook Talk:Parts/Installation/Base

Note
This is a talk page. Please add newer comments below older ones, and sign your comments using four tildes (~~~~). When adding a new section (at the bottom of the page), please mark it as "open for discussion" by using {{talk|open}} so it will show up in the list of open discussions.

Use validated snapshots

Talk status

This discussion is still ongoing as of May 23 2015.

The section Installing a portage snapshot should include snapshot validation.

There is Handbook:Parts/Installation/Media#Verifying_the_downloaded_files and mention of gpg in Handbook:Parts/Installation/Stage#Downloading_the_stage_tarball. But here in Installing a portage snapshot, validation gets lost. --Charles17 (talk) 07:12, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

Very soon we hope to have the gentoo-keys keyring and the gkeys app as part of the install media and a stage4 which will contain them both. At that time, it will become possible to easily verify any downloads during the installation process as well as the early chroot work. Dol-sen (talk) 13:22, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

For the time until that takes place the handbook should be restored according to bug #507774#c9 ("the old tar based way of unpacking the portage tree and explain how to verify it's keys").--Charles17 (talk) 07:49, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

keeping the system prompt consistent

Talk status

This discussion is done as of Sep 20 2015.

This page's Entering the new environment section includes running export PS1="(chroot) $PS1" to change the prompt to remind the user that s/he's in the chroot environment. However, at the end of this page, the user is instructed to source /etc/profile, which sets PS1 back to the system default, losing the change made earlier. There ought to be a reminder after the source /etc/profile step for the user to fix PS1 again. Median (talk) 06:57, 20 September 2015 (UTC)

I have revised that part of the handbook to re-display the indication the prompt is based in the chroot. Thanks for the tip! --Maffblaster (talk) 11:17, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

Mirrorselect for Gentoo rsync mirrors

Talk status

This discussion is done as of Jan 21 2016.

For the section Main Gentoo repository, after having copied/created the gentoo.conf file, why not also use mirrorselect the same way as described in the Mirrorselect article:

root #mirrorselect -i -r -o >> /etc/portage/repos.conf/gentoo.conf

But, how could mirrorselect be used at all before it got installed? Is it part of stage3? I can't seem to find it in stage3-amd64-20160114.tar.bz2. --Charles17 (talk) 10:51, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

I just looked into this. Thanks of the tip. I'll add a paragraph or so explaining that mirrorselect can be installed and used to update the URL. Will return here when I have finished. --Maffblaster (talk) 07:58, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

The point is, mirrorselect cannot be used - not even optionally - before it got installed. And it cannot be installed before the portage snapshot is in place. Hence the first thing to happen is solving bug #572848. Imho the whole "optional" mirrorselect section should be moved to Installing tools as it needs not be done before the first reboot of a new system. --Charles17 (talk) 09:22, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

That's not true. mirrorselect can be used if the live environment as it installed, which is true for this case. I just tested the official amd64 minimal install CD and mirrorselect is available. On another note, I'm not sure I want to add a paragraph about mirrorselect for gentoo.conf because it does not intelligently search and replace the sync-uri line in the file. Someone working through the process would still have to manually edit (with a text editor) the gentoo.conf file and then use mirrorselect on it. Leaving the default mirror rotation is probably the best option for the majority of readers. Anyone who want to adjust sync-uri should know enough to figure out any problems they may get themselves into. Also, that bug that you references doesn't relate to this conversation much. That's a separate conversation. --Maffblaster (talk) 11:08, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

You are right about the amd64 minimal install CD. But please bear in mind people could use alternative installation media like another installed linux distribution. Also I agree about "Leaving the default mirror rotation ...". So the whole Main Gentoo repository section - if it needs to stay in this chapter instead of being moved to Installing tools - could be reduced to the trailing TIP referring to the Sync article. --Charles17 (talk) 12:06, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

Typo

Talk status

This discussion is done as of November 18, 2016.

At this point, if a new system profile as been chosen

At this point, if a new system profile has been chosen

--FabianP (talk) 11:05, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Fixed. Thank you!. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:12, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Once again Mirrorselect

Talk status

This discussion is done.

In section Main Gentoo repository, it says

A second important step ...

and then

 ... Again, this is not recommended, ...

Please bear in mind, noobs are working through the installation chapter (In this part the reader learns how to install Gentoo on a system.) to get their systems running.
These special information for special cases IMHO could better be hosted in another place (maybe Handbook:Parts/Working/Portage) as it can easily be done - if ever needed - after first reboot. --Charles17 (talk) 11:27, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

I have removed the paragraph. It mattered only a little to me and it more of an 'advanced' concept anyway. We'll leave this open for other areas of the wiki to cover. Perhaps the Complete Handbook will catch it one day. --Maffblaster (talk) 15:58, 20 April 2017 (UTC)

GNOME

Talk status

This discussion is done as of 2017-05-15.

Consider the following sentence: "[...] will require many packages to be installed since the init system is changing from OpenRC to systemd, and the Gnome desktop environment framework will be installed."

Gnome should be replaced by GNOME (all uppercase).

Fturco (talk) 09:17, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Implemented as suggested. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:05, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

GTK+ and Qt

Talk status

This discussion is done as of 2017-05-15.

Let me quote: "For instance, some programs can be compiled with gtk-support, or with qt-support."

I would replace that with: "For instance, some programs can be compiled with support for GTK+ or with support for Qt."

Fturco (talk) 09:28, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Implemented as suggested. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:05, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Other minor problems

Talk status

This discussion is done as of 2017-05-15.

1. "For instance, ssl will compile ssl-support in the programs that support it." should become "For instance, ssl will compile support for SSL in the programs that support it."
2. In the sentence "gnome gtk -kde -qt4 -qt5 will compile programs with GNOME (and GTK) support, and not with KDE (and Qt) support" we should replace GTK with GTK+.
3. In "As an example we show a USE setting for a KDE-based system with DVD, ALSA and CD Recording support" there's no need to capitalize Recording; CD recording is better

Fturco (talk) 09:35, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Implemented as suggested. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:05, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

KDE-based system

Talk status

This discussion is done as of 2017-05-15.

Consider the following file box:

FILE /etc/portage/make.confEnabling USE for a KDE-based system with DVD, ALSA and CD recording support

USE="-gtk -gnome qt4 kde dvd alsa cdr"

I would add the qt5 USE flag on a KDE-based system.

Implemented as suggested. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:05, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

US/DE locales

Talk status

This discussion is done as of 2017-05-15.

Consider the following FileBox:

FILE /etc/locale.genEnabling US and DE locales with the appropriate character formats

en_US ISO-8859-1
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
de_DE ISO-8859-1
de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15

At minimum I would also add the de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8 locale, but in my opinion ISO-8859 locales don't make any sense any longer since UTF-8 can be easily enabled, so I would remove them too.

Fturco (talk) 09:54, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Removed de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15 and added de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8 to the FileBox as suggested for the locale generation example. Thanks, Fturco! --Maffblaster (talk) 18:09, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Warn against using USE="-*"

Talk status

This discussion is done as of July 26, 2017.

I think we should add a warning box under the "Ignoring default USE flags" filebox like:

Warning
Setting -* is discouraged as carefully chosen defaults may be used in some packages to prevent conflicts and other errors.

Comments and improvements are welcome. --Grknight (talk) 17:38, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

Brian Evans (Grknight) , Sounds like a good improvement to add a little warning here. I'll add it. Also, for the future, feel free to add little snippets like this. You're a developer so you have the capability. :) --Maffblaster (talk) 18:12, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

Timezone update / setting

Talk status

This discussion is still ongoing.

TIMEZONE: According to the text below, emerge --config sys-libs/timezone-data will update /etc/localtime. But in case /etc/localtime already exists as a symlink, it skips and does nothing. That's confusing. So after running the commands, one should make sure that /etc/localtime is either the right symlink or properly updated.

---

Next, reconfigure the sys-libs/timezone-data package, which will update the /etc/localtime file for us, based on the /etc/timezone entry. The /etc/localtime file is used by the system C library to know the timezone the system is in.

root #emerge --config sys-libs/timezone-data

Department of Redundancy Department

Talk status

This discussion is done as of July 26, 2017.

Matthew Marchese (Maffblaster) You just added the text: "If the Gentoo installation is interrupted at some point after this point, it should possible to 'resume' the installation at this point. …" That's a little redundant. How 'bout something like: "If the Gentoo installation is interrupted anywhere after this point, it should possible to 'resume' the installation at this step." - dcljr (talk) 02:31, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

That works. Changing it. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:04, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

Choosing profiles

Talk status

This discussion is done as of January 8, 2018.

The profile selection should be updated to 17.0, maybe with a warning about experimental state of profile 17.1 (see Handbook_Talk:AMD64/Installation/Base#Choosing_profiles).--Charles17 (talk) 20:13, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

Completed by Michał Górny (mgorny) in this change. I may add a little more, but this should cover marking this discussion as closed. --Maffblaster (talk) 00:46, 9 January 2018 (UTC)