[gentoo-user] Please confirm my understanding

["C.Beamer" <cbeamer@interlynx.net>]

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Hi All,

First, I'm going to comment on some of the things that have been
discussed in the "Gentoo Badges" thread.  My opinion - Linux is not
rocket science, there's just a bit of a learning curve to it.  I know
what I'm talking about because my computer background before starting
to learn Linux was a few courses in Windows applications.  I did take
a DOS course in the early '90's and I guess that's where I learned to
love the command line and that's one of the things I love about Linux.

Linux sometimes frustrated me royally when I did my first install of
Redhat back in the days of 6.0.  However, I didn't start using Linux
seriously until Redhat 9.  Even then, dependencies were an effort.
But I wanted to learn and luckily, I had a friend who was very patient
at helping me over my initial hurdles (can't go to him for help with
Gentoo though - he hasn't "seen the light"! :-) )

Having said that, if I didn't have a few years of Linux under my belt
and also a basic Unix course, Gentoo would probably be too much for
me.  However, from where I sit now, I'm determined to learn Gentoo and
am finding that I have learned a few things already.  And I think a
key is how much you want to learn something.

So, now to the main point of this.  After my 2nd Gentoo install, which
progressed farther than the first because I corrected something I
missed, I couldn't startx because my video card didn't seem to be
recognized.  I'm not sure that I undertstand why because I watched
very closely when booting the Gentoo Live CD and it gave me the exact
name of my video card.

Anyway, a few people on this list suggested that I recompile the
kernel.  The only time I have every compiled a kernel is when I did it
on installing Gentoo and by following the Handbook.  Ergo, I wasn't
sure exactly what I needed to do when recompiling it sort of
"midstream".  Hence, I decided to go back to square on and follow the
installation steps from the beginning and see if I could correct what
was wrong.

You're probably thinking that I'm nuts, but this is a learning
experience for me and besides I think it's fun.

Now for the question.  I need confirmation of my understanding.  In
the make.conf file when setting up the USE flags, I include anything
that I want to have compiled into the programs that I install,
correct?  If I don't want an option to be compiled in all programs, I
prefix that with a - sign.  If I want an option for a specific
package, I use the package.use file.

So, if I don't want to compile gnome, then I use -gnome as one of the
keywords.  I don't use gnome, never have, never will, but there are
gnome applications that I like - gnumeric to name one, plus there are
a few gnome games.  So, is it my best bet to include -gnome as a
keyword in my make.conf USE statement and the add it in the
package.use file for those applications that need it?

I'm using gnome here as an example, but if my understanding is
correct, I assume this would apply to anything. And yes, I know that
you can declare temporary use flags when compiling a package.

Regards,

Colleen


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